Just ahead of the 1999 Women’s World Cup hosted by the USA, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, and FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, formed a partnership to foster human rights through global football. The legendary Brazilian player, Pelé looked on approvingly. This agreement supposedly opened a new chapter in FIFA’s commitment to human rights. It reflected a long history of activism through football, including the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and the opposition to the military dictatorships in Latin America. By 2016, FIFA formalized their approach to human rights and adopted a policy, which has evolved since. Bidding nations for tournaments, for instance, are required to present human rights plans and FIFA has created a team to oversee compliance. However, human rights activists and organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have found these plans and gestures have not successfully protected labor, environmental, housing or other human rights.

The FIFA Men’s World Cup of 2022 in Qatar sparked global controversies focused on the abuses of women’s and labor rights. Media narratives around Qatar were frequently laced with a Western sense of superiority and Islamophobia. The broader concept of universal human rights has been critiqued as a neo-liberal and colonialist political project. Furthermore, some see the promotion of human rights within sport as the epitome of sports-washing. The lead up to the 2026 World Cup has seen the inaugural and controversial FIFA Peace Prize awarded to the US President Donald Trump just as the US visitor visa regime has tightened, likely preventing travel to the US by fans of many of the participating nations. A few months later, Donald Trump commenced military attacks against Iran, whose men’s side is one of the 48 finalists for the 2026 World Cup and whose women’s side was competing in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup for a place in the 2027 Women’s World Cup in Brazil.

Many continue to believe that football, the world’s most beloved and global cultural practice, offers a unique space to promote the dignity of all people. Access to sport is part of that compact, intrinsically linked to education, health care, and freedom of expression. Indeed, recent editions of the Women’s World Cup have been very inclusive and welcoming spaces, especially for LGBTQIA+ players, officials, fans and journalists.

This section of World Cup: The Syllabus includes an overview of human rights and FIFA, official documents, and a few case studies. Readers will gain an overview of the institutional, policy, legal and discursive frameworks and the various ways the staging of World Cup tournaments can impact human rights.