ATLANTA: Human rights scandals have marred World Cup tournaments for years, but FIFA is testing a new protocol requiring all host committees to develop action plans to protect human rights for the 2026 games in North America.
With the games less than a year away, though, FIFA’s commitment to upholding human rights is still under scrutiny. Human rights advocates who wanted more enforceable standards and clearer directions for local officials say FIFA watered down a more robust model for the plans.
“Even though where we landed is very different than what we had consulted them on, the existence of the framework is in many ways unprecedented. Sports bodies have not had human rights frameworks that reflected the breadth of issues covered across so many jurisdictions. But the plan is just a plan. It’s not self-executing,” said Jennifer Li, director of the O’Neill Institute’s Center for Community Health Innovation at Georgetown Law and national coordinator of the Dignity 2026 Coalition, which is working with FIFA on human rights.
Adding to advocates’ unease, several US host committees said they couldn’t meet a March deadline for an early draft of their plans. A FIFA spokesperson said the governing body has been working closely with host cities and counties, which they say are on track to develop final action plans by the Aug. 29 deadline. Sixteen North American sites will host games, including 11 in the US
Human rights concerns in North America look different from those in other countries where FIFA has come under fire, which had few protections for workers and massive stadium and transportation construction projects. Migrant workers labored in Qatar’s scorching heat for more than a decade before the 2022 World Cup there, and human rights advocates worry migrant workers’ lives are again at risk in Saudi Arabia, which will host the games in 2034.
FIFA’s suggestions for the 2026 plans include guidelines on nondiscrimination, security, preventing trafficking, protecting unhoused people and workers’ rights, including for migrant workers.
“The host communities are quite invested in their legacy, so they’ve stepped up,” said labor rights expert Deborah Greenfield, who is in an expert advisory group supporting FIFA’s human rights work for 2026.
Local tensions rise
US President Donald Trump has ramped up immigration enforcement across the country, stirring fears that federal law enforcement officers will arrest workers and even travelers during the games. Trump imposed a travel ban on 12 countries in June, and seven face restrictions.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has close ties to Trump. A FIFA spokesperson said it is working with a White House task force to “bring millions of people from different nations and communities” together in the US
Protesters in Miami-Dade County gathered outside FIFA’s offices in June to demand that the governing body protect travelers and workers and speak out against Trump’s immigration moves. That came after a Club World Cup event hosted in the area by Spanish-language TV network Telemundo was canceled after an unexpected Coast Guard inspection involving at least one Border Patrol agent, local outlets reported.
“There’s no guarantee that you might not have ICE posted up at the World Cup,” South Florida AFL-CIO President Jeff Mitchell said.
Local organizers don’t seem to have their human rights plan ready and haven’t agreed to meet with the union, Mitchell said. He noted that the region has a history of wage theft in a state with weak heat protection laws for workers.
“Organizations like FIFA like to say that they have these human rights efforts, but they aren’t pushing it,” Mitchell said. “They’re leaving it up to the locals to do it. What tends to happen is everybody gets their bag and then they turn a blind eye to making sure people are getting paid properly or not being harassed.”
Miami-Dade officials referred The Associated Press to the local host committee, which did not respond to requests for comment.
More than 9,000 unhoused people were arrested when Atlanta prepared to host the Olympics in 1996, and a plan to eliminate homelessness downtown before the World Cup worries advocates that unhoused people will be jailed again.
Atlanta officials and partners say the Downtown Rising plan is a part of the mayor’s larger investments in reducing homelessness and building affordable housing. The goal is to house people, not put them in jail, officials say.
In California, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom called on cities to ban encampments in May and offered money for mental health and substance use treatment. Cities with impending sporting events have ramped up enforcement, including San Jose, where unhoused people who reject three offers of shelter will now be eligible for arrest on trespassing charges. The mayor said the policy would encourage people to move inside.
“This panic rush to disappear visible signs of poverty is very concerning,” said Dr. Mark Spencer, an Atlanta hospital physician involved in local advocacy. “Politicians and the business community know that visible signs of poverty are unpopular, and that’s the driving force behind what is happening. It’s not about human rights in any meaningful way.”
Working to address standards
FIFA’s human rights policy published in 2017 mandates bidders for the men’s 2026 World Cup to respect “international human rights and labor standards according to the United Nations’ guiding principles.”
A group of international lawyers filed a formal complaint to FIFA in May claiming the soccer body is failing to uphold its human rights policy with 2034 World Cup host Saudi Arabia.
In North America, Greenfield said FIFA is taking the goal of having a tournament “that respects and promotes human rights” seriously and she wouldn’t be participating in the effort if she didn’t think that was possible.
Candace Stanciel, Atlanta’s chief equity officer, said the city was committed to human rights work before FIFA came in and launched efforts to combat human trafficking in airports, hotels and public transport. Officials are working on potential language tools, accessibility measures for people with disabilities and an app to report issues including human rights abuses.
One of Seattle’s largest labor organizations and the city’s organizing committee signed a labor standards agreement last year. The International Labour Organization called FIFA’s human rights framework “an important step forward in harnessing the power of sport to advance decent work globally,” adding that it aligns with international labor standards.
FIFA moves ahead with new human rights strategy for World Cup games, but advocates are skeptical
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FIFA moves ahead with new human rights strategy for World Cup games, but advocates are skeptical
- FIFA is testing a new protocol for the 2026 World Cup in North America, requiring host committees to develop human rights action plans
- This is the first time FIFA has implemented such a measure. However, human rights advocates are concerned that the standards are not enforceable and got watered down
Cricket’s increasingly concentrated power and influence
- There seems to be a belief amongst those who wield power that India’s domestic market will never slow down and continue to sustain the sport globally
There appears to have been some mischief-making in the corridors of power which determine cricket broadcasting rights. At least this is the case as far as the all-important Indian market is concerned.
Rumors have been expressed in respected media channels that the current four-year deal between JioStar and the International Cricket Council is in jeopardy.
JioStar is the result of a merger in 2024 between Viacom18 and Disney Star, which had negotiated the original deal, signed in 2022. This was valued at $2.9 billion. The precise rumor was that JioStar does not wish to honor the last two years of the deal.
Such was the impact of the rumor that the ICC and JioStar released a joint statement on Dec. 11 which said that the media reports “do not reflect the position of either organization.
“The existing agreement between the ICC and JioStar remains fully in force, and JioStar continues as the ICC’s official media rights partner in India. Any suggestion that JioStar has withdrawn from the agreement is incorrect. JioStar is fully committed to honor its contractual obligations in letter and spirit.”
It can be argued that evidence of that commitment was demonstrated by the recent unveiling of a teaser advertisement for the men’s Twenty20 World Cup in early 2026, jointly hosted by India and Sri Lanka. The event ought to be a bonanza for advertisers, sponsors and marketers.
So, why, at this point, would rumors circulate about honoring the current media rights model? One possibility is that there is lingering suspicion that the $2.9-billion deal with Disney Star was over the odds.
It is understood that, at the bidding stage, Sony Pictures Networks had been the second-highest bidder at around half of the final sum and that Jio had bid significantly less than that figure.
It is difficult to keep track of the changing ownership patterns of companies which have held ICC media rights. Star Sports, the precursor of Disney Star, started its long-standing commercial relationship with the ICC in 2007, whilst its partnership with the Board of Control for Cricket in India began in 2011.
Indian Premier League broadcasting rights were secured in 2018. It seems that Star had become the preferred supplier and, perhaps, this led to an overreach in 2023 in order to ensure that this position was retained.
What seemed like an ever-growing market received a shock to its system in August. The Indian parliament passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill. As discussed in my column of Sept. 11, the motivations for the bill are honorable.
It seeks to address the risks of addiction and financial ruin, along with the accompanying harm to mental health and possible suicide risk caused by compulsive playing, as well as opportunities for money laundering and threats to national security by illegal messaging.
The impact on real-money gaming platforms has been severe. They had become a vital cog in the engine driving televised cricket in India and beyond. Dream11, India’s largest fantasy sports platform, had featured on Team India’s shirt front, for both men and women, since 2023.
This prominent sponsorship disappeared with immediate effect and its business model had to pivot from paid contests to free-to-play. One piece of regulatory legislation exposed the inherent risk which cricket faces in basing a part of its financial underpinning on any sector which may be subject to significant governmental intervention.
Of course, none of this is new. Tobacco companies were once prominent sponsors of the game. When this was banned, cricket’s national boards moved onto other sectors, such as financial services. Sponsorship is not the main source of income for cricket — television is, largely from India.
It is well known that the ICC receives 80 percent of its income from India and that other countries rely on tours by the Indian team to generate domestic income. This level of dependency is not only risky but makes most of the rest of cricket vulnerable to what happens in India.
JioStar is owned by Reliance Industries, an industrial conglomerate which controls significant parts of India’s energy, telecommunications, retail and financial sectors. It also owns the Mumbai Indians in the IPL, MI Cape Town in South Africa, MI Emirates in ILT20, MI New York and MI London in The Hundred.
In the latter case, this represents a re-brand of The Oval Invincibles. Despite having a 49 percent stake in the franchise, its influence has been sufficient to effect the re-branding.
Reliance and its owners, the Ambani family, are heavily invested in cricket. A former senior executive of Disney Star and JioStar, Sanjog Gupta, is now chief executive of the ICC and will be very familiar with the terms of the current rights deal.
Jay Shah, former secretary of the BCCI and the current ICC chair is the son of India’s interior minister. The ICC and the BCCI are linked, more than ever before, by common interests and deeply personal connections at the governance levels of both cricket, politics and financial capital.
Whether the rumors about JioStar’s stance on the current rights deal is correct or not, it is known that the ICC has been preparing member boards for the prospect that funding distribution to them in the next cycle from 2028 could be 30 percent lower than in the current cycle.
JioStar has established such a powerful market position, akin to a monopoly, that the rumored default on the current deal may represent the opening salvos on negotiations for the next cycle.
In an ideal world, cricket’s governing body should not be beholden to a single broadcaster. Diversification of revenue streams across multiple broadcasters and streaming platforms in multiple countries would reduce the risk and dependency.
It seems unlikely to happen, as it requires the ICC leadership to decouple itself from the BCCI and India. A basic textbook on corporate strategy would not recommend that a global sport’s financial viability should be dependent on one country and a single powerful broadcaster.
However, that is the position in which cricket finds itself. There seems to be a belief amongst those who wield power in cricket that India’s domestic market will never slow down and continue to sustain the sport globally.
Add to that the continued growth and maturity of franchise leagues, with a high proportion of teams owned by Indian companies and individuals, the notion of anyone else having their hands on the levers of power is risible.
Little evidence exists to suggest that India’s dominance of cricket is not going to remain in place for some time to come. There is no obvious prospect of that position being used to institute structural and governance reform that addresses possible conflicts of interest and restricts power and influence.
In 1887, Lord Acton famously said: “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Applied to cricket, this does not imply that financial corruption exists.
However, it should serve as a reminder that absolute power can corrupt the best of natures. On this issue, global cricket governance stands at a crossroads.
