Ensuring a Civil and Human Rights Framework for the World Cup 2026 Games
WHEREAS, The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football (soccer) competition among the senior men's national teams of the members of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament has been held every four years since the inaugural tournament in 1930, with the exception of 1942 and 1946 due to the Second World War; and
WHEREAS, The World Cup is the most prestigious association football (soccer) tournament in the world, as well as the most widely viewed and followed single sporting event in the world. The viewership of the 2018 World Cup was estimated to be 3.57 billion, close to half of the global population, while the engagement with the 2022 World Cup was estimated to be 5 billion, with about 1.5 billion people watching the final match; and
WHEREAS, FIFA's leadership has a history of siding with host countries who devalue human and civil rights. In 2013, then-FIFA secretary general Jérôme Valcke gave a press conference in which he clarified FIFA's strategy for choosing World Cup hosts: "I will say something which is crazy, but less democracy is sometimes better for organizing a World Cup. …When you have a very strong head of state who can decide, as maybe Putin can do in 2018...that is easier for us organizers." Mr. Valcke was later convicted in Switzerland of corruption, but the global soccer governing body's apparent preference for working with autocrats remains and is on full display, when the backing of FIFA president Gianni Infantino effectively delivered the 2034 Men's World Cup to Saudi Arabia; and
WHEREAS, The United States, Canada and Mexico will host the first 48-team edition of the FIFA World Cup in 2026 — 104 matches will be held in tournament and is the biggest knockout tournament in soccer history. The competition will be staged across 16 stadiums, with the U.S. cities New York, Dallas, Miami, Kansas City, Houston, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco and Boston being joined by Mexican venues Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara, alongside Canadian cities Vancouver and Toronto; and
WHEREAS, The abuses related to previous world Cup host countries such as the 2022 World Cup held in the country of Qatar should serve to remind sporting bodies that human rights must always be at the heart of decisions when awarding events and must urge soccer's governing body FIFA to learn from its past mistakes; and
WHEREAS, In 2016, FIFA embraced the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and hired human rights staff. In 2017, FIFA published a new Human Rights Policy promising protection across its global operations. FIFA set up important new human rights bid requirements for the 2026 World Cup in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, claiming "human rights commitments are binding on all FIFA bodies and officials; and
WHEREAS, Recently FIFA and its leadership have been on a trajectory to roll back the human and civil rights requirements set for the North America games in 2026 as contracts and agreements get set in places across the 16 host cities. This race to bottom of standards will be detrimental to race relations, an inclusive economy, workers' rights, public safety, and other community considerations essential to ensuring the games align with an inclusive democracy.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) will advocate to local, state and federal agencies for the full and complete implementation of the FIFA World Cup 2026 Host City Human Rights Framework ("the Framework"). The framework is a central planning document developed by FIFA to guide FWC 2026 Host City Committees, the local committees appointed by each Host City to organize and deliver FWC2026 locally in their human rights preparations and programming.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the NAACP will engage and advocate with federal, state and local agencies and officials to promote a comprehensive set of racial equity standards that are connected to the following three tracks:
- Inclusion and Safeguarding
- Worker's Rights
- Access to Remedy
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that the NAACP will work with partners and allies to continue to build, refine, and promote a scalable and portable human and civil rights framework that can be applied to future major sporting events.