FIFA blasted by human rights charity Amnesty International over ‘astonishing whitewash’ which sees Saudi Arabia close in on being awarded 2034 World Cup

FIFA have been accused of a ‘whitewash’ after awarding top marks to Saudi Arabia’s controversial bid to stage the World Cup in 2034.

World football’s governing body gave the oil-rich kingdom a record score in an evaluation of the Saudis’ fitness to host the finals, saying the tournament carried a ‘medium’ human rights risk.

FIFA’s endorsement paves the way for the Saudi bid, the only one for the 2034 tournament, to be rubber-stamped on December 11.

But it has provoked outrage, with Amnesty International branding it an ‘astonishing whitewash’.

An Amnesty spokesperson said: ‘At every stage of the process, FIFA has ensured that nothing would stand in the way of Saudi Arabia hosting the 2034 World Cup and it has effectively discarded its human rights policies to achieve this end.

‘Unless huge human rights reforms are introduced, people will be exploited, evicted from their homes and even die as a result.’

Saudi Arabia’s staging of the 2034 World Cup has a ‘medium’ human rights risk, FIFA claim

Earlier this year, FIFA agreed a £300m sponsorship deal with state-owned Saudi oil company Aramco, accused of being the world’s biggest corporate emitter of greenhouse gases.

Saudi got its ‘medium risk’ on human rights rating from FIFA, despite condemnation for women’s rights abuses, the criminalisation of homosexuality and its role in the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

FIFA’s report said: ‘There is a good potential that the tournament could serve as a catalyst for some of the ongoing and future reforms and contribute to positive human rights outcomes.’