Before the final whistle blows on the 2026 World Cup, human rights advocates raised concerns about Morocco, co-host of the 2030 World Cup with Spain and Portugal, and Saudi Arabia, host of the 2034 tournament.
Morocco criminalizes same-sex sexual activity, and in Saudi Arabia homosexuality is understood to be illegal under Islamic law.
Both countries submitted plans to address potential human rights risks as part of their bids, but advocates said the nations must guarantee that queer fans are not prosecuted and that FIFA should play a role in securing those protections.
"It doesn't mean that FIFA is the world police and somehow has the power to tell countries what to do with their laws," said Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s head of labor rights and sports. "But it can certainly engage and use its leverage to put in place measures that would be protective of that."
Morocco’s human rights strategy document says its independent human rights committee and the Moroccan Football Federation would "encourage both the parliament and the government to ratify key international conventions," but the document did not explicitly mention discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
Saudi Arabia’s proposal similarly makes no explicit mention of addressing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, though it asserts that the federation would "continuously verify that our legislations and practices align with our commitments to various international agreements pertaining to anti-discrimination and implement any required enhancements." The nation’s tourism ministry says on its website that it welcomes all people but asks visitors to "respect our culture and traditions and follow our laws as they would when visiting any other country in the world."
The FIFA Congress approved both uncontested bids. FIFA and the Saudi and Moroccan embassies in Washington, D.C., did not respond to requests for comment.
Cockburn, whose organization authored a 2022 report criticizing both the Moroccan and Saudi human rights strategies, said FIFA must do more to guarantee that queer fans are protected while attending the games; his report also raised concerns about Saudi workers' rights and a lack of a minimum wage.
Countries regularly guarantee pieces of policy to FIFA during negotiations to host World Cups, including special tax arrangements and altered visa protocols, and "it can contribute to 'a fair degree of, sort of, cynicism or general, sort of, distrust' among some LGBT-rights advocacy groups that FIFA sometimes doesn’t take this issue on in a systematic way that we would all like to see," said Piara Powar, executive director of FIFA’s anti-discrimination partner Fare network.
"They just seem very kind of cautious around it and sadly it’s just not really taking us anywhere," Jon Holmes, spokesperson for the group Football v Homophobia, said of FIFA. Critics also noted that FIFA drew criticism ahead of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar for saying it would deliver a yellow card to team captains who donned the multi-colored "OneLove armband," and that Russian laws prohibiting so-called gay propaganda drew attention ahead of the 2018 contest.
Ryan Trustcott, an associate professor at Gonzaga University who studies the politics of international sports, said, "We all kind of get lost in the event, and the narratives, and the storylines, and the athletes, and the beautiful game, and the cultures all coming together," and added that concern over human rights can fade during a tournament. He cited the U.S. tournament, where concerns over potential ICE raids and overwhelmed logistical systems — which caused some to boycott the games — "largely faded away amid a wildly successful tournament."