Club World Cup 2023: "FIFA has again disregarded Saudi Arabia's atrocious rights record" (Amnesty)

"FIFA has yet again disregarded Saudi Arabia's atrocious human rights record," said Steve Cockburn, head of economic and social justice at Amnesty International, on 14/02/2023.

"Hard on the heels of awarding the Visit Saudi tourism site as a sponsor of the Women's World Cup 2023 (in Australia and New Zealand), it has announced the Kingdom as host of the Club World Cup without any consideration of freedom of expression, discrimination or workers' rights. FIFA is once again discarding its own human rights policy and is complicit in blatant sports washing," said Cockburn, following the announcement of the awarding of the hosting of the Club World Cup 2023 (from 12 to 22/12/2023) to the Saudi Football Federation (SAFF) by the world body, on 14/02/2023.

"In recent months, Saudi Arabian authorities have escalated their brutal crackdown on freedom of expression, sentencing individuals to prison terms of between 10 to 45 years simply for their peaceful expression online. The authorities also continue to execute people for a wide range of crimes. On a single day last year, 81 people were…