Culture

Wim Fissette and Iga Swiatek’s partnership: What to expect and how he coaches players

Published

4 weeks ago

November 4, 2024

Wim Fissette and Iga Swiatek’s partnership: What to expect and how he coaches players

What happens when you pair the best player on the WTA Tour with one of its most decorated coaches?

That was the question in October, when then world No. 1 Iga Swiatek brought on Wim Fissette as her head coach. Fissette, a cerebral 44-year-old from Belgium, is widely considered one of the top coaches on the women’s tour after achieving so much success with such a range of players.

Fissette, who never cracked the top 1,000 as a player in the 1990s and early 2000s, has excelled as a coach ever since his first job with compatriot Kim Clijsters. At 29, he coached Clijsters when she won the 2009 U.S. Open having only just returned from maternity leave, and was in her corner for three major titles in total.

He has since coached an all-star list of players, taking in Sabine Lisicki, Simona Halep, Victoria Azarenka (twice), Petra Kvitova, Sara Errani, Johanna Konta, Angelique Kerber, Zheng Qinwen and most recently Naomi Osaka. Fissette and Osaka split in September when she replaced him with the other most celebrated coach on the WTA Tour, Patrick Mouratoglou.

Under Fissette’s guidance, Osaka won the 2020 U.S. Open and 2021 Australian Open, taking his Grand Slam total as a coach to six after Kerber’s Wimbledon win of 2018. He also took both Lisicki (2013 Wimbledon) and Halep (2014 French Open) to their first Grand Slam finals. In 2017, he helped Konta win the WTA 1000 Miami Open and reach the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time, achieving a career-high ranking of No. 4.

His first tournament with Swiatek sees him tasked with defending a title and helping to orchestrate a possible return to the top of the world rankings after she relinquished the No. 1 slot to Aryna Sabalenka having dropped points for missing mandatory tournaments. She opens her WTA Tour Finals campaign in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia against Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova, in a round-robin group also containing Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula, the latter of whom Swiatek thrashed to win last year’s event in Cancun, Mexico.

Despite his reputation and glittering CV, Fissette has remained largely anonymous, in one of few sports where it is possible for an elite coach to keep a low media profile. It’s players who conduct post-match interviews and press conferences, unlike football in which, while players will speak, it’s the manager’s opinion and feelings that are sought after every win, draw, or defeat.

Wim Fissette and Iga Swiatek’s first event together is the WTA Tour Finals. (Robert Prange / Getty Images)

Speaking to those who have worked with Fissette and seen him operate up close, as well as sources close to Swiatek, some of whom have spoken anonymously to protect relationships, The Athletic has taken a deeper look at how the Belgian operates to understand one of the most exciting coaching partnerships in recent memory as it moves from the practice courts to a stadium for the first time.

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There is an alchemy in the coach-player relationship that makes it not always so easy to predict, even with someone as experienced and adaptable as Fissette. Players frequently talk about their partnership with a coach in romantic terms, making the point that sometimes you click with someone, sometimes you don’t.

And every player needs a different kind of coach. At the Laver Cup in September, the American world No. 15 Frances Tiafoe explained his partnership with new coach David Witt, who formerly worked with U.S. Open finalist Jessica Pegula and before that Maria Sakkari.

“I’m definitely a unique personality, especially in this sport, and someone needs to push me and hold me accountable but also make it fun for me,” Tiafoe said in a news conference.

“I’m a guy where, if you come at me with a drill-sergeant-type mentality, I’m going to go the other way.”

“So much is about the chemistry,” Daniela Hantuchova, the former world No 5 said in a recent phone interview.

“I always felt that you could never tell how it would feel with a coach until you’d worked with them for a few months and you understood their personality, and how they work.

“He (Fissette) is a very impressive coach but just because it works for someone else doesn’t mean it will work for you. It’s very personal.”

When Swiatek split with coach Tomasz Wiktorowski in early October, well-placed sources within women’s tennis tipped Fissette to replace him, given his availability and Swiatek’s apparent willingness to rip up the formula that won her four out of her five Grand Slams. Since winning a third consecutive French Open in June, Swiatek’s performances and results have been patchy, and she’s spoken a few times of mental and physical exhaustion.

After discussions and analysis with her team, Swiatek approached Fissette for talks which drew her to his keenness to learn and develop.

“Iga was keen on working with someone who is open-minded, a good leader but a team player at the same time,” a member of her team told The Athletic.

“They both are very eager to constantly work on themselves, so they have a similar mindset. That’s why Iga believes they can get along well. His great experience with Grand Slam champions and other players who were ranked No 1 in the world was an additional advantage.”

‘Emotional intelligence’ is a phrase that sticks to Fissette, who combines it with an appreciation for data and statistics that goes all the way back to his first job as a coach: helping Clijsters win the 2009 U.S. Open in only her third tournament back after giving birth to her daughter, Jada.

Wim Fissette (left) with Kim Clijsters after she won the Miami Open title in 2010. (Clive Brunskill / Getty Images)

John Dolan was Clijsters’ manager at the time.

“Wim is an amazing coach. Very emotionally intelligent, and he can adapt his personality to the player he’s working with,” Dolan, a long-time WTA media liaison who is now the head of media for the British Lawn Tennis Association, said in an interview last month.

“He was a very good listener, and doesn’t talk a lot like some people. When he does say something it carries real importance and over the last 15 years his coaching credentials speak for themselves.

“If you’re a player how can you not listen to him?”

Knowing when to push and when to pull back is a key skill of any coach. Fissette is no hype man, so when he does really try to motivate his players, the effect is greater. With Clijsters, at her first tournament back in Cincinnati, she came to her coach with doubts about whether she was really good enough to compete. In an interview with Essentially Sports in 2018, Fissette said he told Clijsters that “there’s really nobody that is able to beat you when you’re going to be at your best.”

Ahead of her U.S. Open semifinal against Serena Williams, a player Clijsters had only beaten once in eight meetings prior, Fissette focused on not worrying and exploiting Williams’ weaknesses. Clijsters won 6-4, 7-5 in a match overshadowed by Williams being given a point penalty when down match point. Fissette had earlier that season bet Clijsters that if she won the tournament, he would shave his head. Both did their part in the deal.

“It sounds obvious but he knows how to work with tennis players,” Dolan said. “Some other coaches haven’t quite learned that reading the player is such a big part of it and a lot of coaches don’t have that. They focus too much on themselves.”

When Naomi Osaka began discussing who would coach her on her return to the tour after giving birth, reuniting with Fissette was the obvious choice. He did not say yes straight away.

He pushed Osaka on how her comeback would work and why it would be different to previous comebacks in 2021 and 2022 which ended prematurely. In the end, the second edition of Osaka-Fissette lasted just under a year.

An official at the WTA, who requested anonymity to protect relationships, outlined Fissette’s directness.

“He’s absolutely not a cheerleader,” they said.

“He’s very honest, and that is something some players aren’t used to all the time. He’ll say, ‘I have some ideas. If you’re open to that this is going to work — if you’re not going to be open to criticism, then it’s not.’”

“When you put in the effort, I make sure to praise it, while still being critical of errors,” Fissette writes on his website.

“I’m always looking for ways to make you better than the day before. Be positive, be better.”

Fissette undoubtedly has a ruthless streak. He joined up with Osaka in September 2023 having just taken Zheng to her first Grand Slam quarterfinal at the U.S. Open. Zheng said she was blindsided and heartbroken; Fissette told The Athletic in January that he was going to stop coaching Zheng regardless of Osaka. He had nothing but praise for Zheng — “a super nice girl” who always worked hard — but said that they did not click.

Wim Fissette (crouching) with Naomi Osaka in Los Angeles earlier this year. (Matt Futterman / The Athletic).

Similarly, in 2018, Fissette split with Kerber towards the end of what had been a very successful year and reunited with Azarenka shortly after. A terse statement from Kerber at the time read: “Wim Fissette is — with immediate effect — exempted from his duties as coach of Angelique Kerber. In spite of the successful cooperation since the beginning of the season, this step is necessary due to differences of opinion regarding the future of the alignment.”

A year earlier, Fissette and Konta split, with the former saying in an interview with the Times of London: “It was a good match but not a perfect match. We are kind of different and we see things a little different.”

The split was amicable with the now de rigueur posts on social media praising each other; Konta was unavailable for interview for this piece when asked by The Athletic.

Fissette’s willingness to curtail a partnership that doesn’t work — which players will share — stands in apparent contrast to the depth to which he will tailor his approach to a player’s needs. He is “very tour-friendly,” the WTA official said.

“He sees coaching as an art form. He understands how it works and really cares about what he does,” they added.

Fissette would get so nervous during Konta’s matches that he would have to go for a run afterwards to unwind.

In an interview with ESPN.com in 2018, Fissette detailed the spectrum on which his players would understand their own matches, with Azarenka’s desire for large amounts of data contrasting to Kerber wanting “two, three important things.”

This was partly a determination of style: Kerber’s at-times scarcely believable ability to turn defense into attack was reliant on knowledge of an opponent’s preferred attacking shots and patterns, allowing her to be strategically proactive rather than merely reacting to the ball in front of her.

When he was coaching Konta, Fissette was more prescriptive than usual. She liked clear messaging and so Fissette would have her recite the gameplan and a few key thoughts to him and herself before she went on court. But Konta was more lighthearted before matches than some of the players he’d worked with, so Fissette lent into that too. “We all tell jokes. Everybody is different,” Fissette told the Press Association during Konta’s run to the Wimbledon semifinals in 2017.

This is true of Fissette himself, who modelled his game on counter-punching as a player but has since made aggression one of the key tenets of his coaching. On the way to Kerber’s win at Wimbledon in 2018, he told her to up her aggression more than usual in moments where she would feel compelled to be safe; he used a similar strategy with Osaka when she came within a point of knocking Swiatek out of this year’s French Open.

“The way you think about tennis and play tennis trickles down into how you coach and how you play tennis,” Filip Dewulf said in a phone interview earlier this month.

Dewulf, 52, is a former French Open semifinalist and world No. 39; he was playing when Fissette was trying to make it on the ATP Tour. They got to know each other then and live near each other in Belgium, sometimes meeting for a drink and a catch-up.

Wim Fissette and Angelique Kerber celebrating victory at Wimbledon in 2018. (Clive Mason / Getty Images)

“He’s very data-driven. Both about his own player but also the opponent. He is preparing himself really well every match, and every practice, looking at the numbers every day,” Dewulf said.

Fissette would use an iPad between sets when coaching Kerber, and his use of data combined with the emotional intelligence that Dewulf, like most people interviewed for this article, cites as key to his success results in a drive to improve and develop, but with a real end result. Developing but losing is not Fissette’s goal.

“We had three nice years, we won two slams, and it was really good. But I was, in some ways, disappointed,” he told The Athletic in January of his first stint with Osaka.

How these coaching philosophies will translate into Swiatek’s game, mentality, and team will unfold over time, but those who have worked with him offer perspectives on where he fits into her way of approaching tennis. Dewulf has labelled Fissette as a “good organizer” with the ability to analyze an existing partnership from a removed perspective, appreciating its strengths while looking into its weaknesses.

Konta and Azarenka worked with a mental coach and psychologist respectively while Fissette coached them; at the very start of their first partnership in 2020, Osaka was in a dark place. She had lost to Coco Gauff in the Australian Open third round as the defending champion, and then lost her good friend Kobe Bryant, who died shortly after. The COVID-19 pandemic led to tennis being stopped a couple of months later, but Osaka found the equilibrium to win that year’s U.S. Open in September 2020 and then the Australian Open the following year.

“If they have been the same way for a long time, he works out what the weakness are and he gets other people in to get a better team around them,” Dewulf said.

This will be an interesting sub-plot with Swiatek, who has a number of longstanding team members including psychologist Daria Abramowicz. Fissette has been known to experiment: he and Osaka’s team brought in ballet dancer Simone Elliott to help her improve her movement.

Swiatek has said that tactical and technical adaptations to her game will come in the off-season, with too little time between hiring Fissette and the Tour Finals to implement meaningful changes, but she has already discussed what is coming.

“I for sure want to improve my serve, as I’ve been doing for past years,” she said in a news conference in Riyadh. “I think tactically there are many ways I could go and have more variety on court. Wim has some nice ideas.”

Swiatek has added more speed to her serve and abbreviated her motion in 2024, but recent defeats have been marked by an inability to change the momentum of matches, too often trying to hit through opponents in the way that usually wins her matches, instead of changing tempo or adding margin with topspin — one of her great strengths — to earn an easier ball back. This simplification of her game, introduced by Wiktorowski, brought her great success and continues to do so; it still needs an alternative for when it isn’t quite working.

Fissette worked with Kerber and Azarenka extensively on their serves, and spent time with Osaka trying to develop an aggressive open-stance backhand — a shot that a handful of players, including Swiatek, can perform reliably.

As Swiatek heads into defending her WTA Tour Finals title, Fissette’s generally quick starts may prove a boon. Clijsters is the most obvious example but Konta won Miami, the biggest title of her career, within a few months of working with him. Lisicki was a shock Wimbledon finalist after an even shorter time working with Fissette, while Halep reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal in her first major with Fissette, before reaching the French Open final in her second.

This instant impact is something a few observers have pointed to as a Fissette trademark.

Ultimately, it’s Fissette’s record of success that sets him apart, says his coaching rival Mouratoglou, who won 10 Grand Slams with Serena Williams between 2012 and 2017. “I judge the quality of a coach on the results,” Mouratoglou said from France via a Zoom interview this week.

“There are some guys who make results and some guys who don’t, and some who do it sometimes. It’s the same if you look at the football, there are a few coaches every time they take a team — success. Of course, they’re great teams, but with other coaches, they wouldn’t make that success.”

“I have a good relationship with him, he’s one of the guys that I’m always happy to see even though we are in competition,” Mouratoglou said.

“I think we have very different personalities but it’s good that there are different options for the players.”

One undoubted advantage is how intimately Fissette knows a number of Swatek’s rivals from working with them. Coaching Osaka at the 2020 U.S. Open final, Fissette felt as though he could predict every shot that Azarenka was going to hit. He will now be able to tell Swiatek precisely what her opponents will be anticipating from her because he was in the role of anticipator for Osaka only a few months ago.

Fissette’s expertise on the WTA Tour leads to the inevitable question about why he has never coached a male player, but the answer is that the opportunity hasn’t come up. He is open to doing so but his early success with Clijsters led to job offers on the women’s side and that’s how it’s been ever since. It’s hard to imagine he wouldn’t be a success there, given what he’s achieved in 15 years on the WTA side.

It feels difficult to envisage a situation where the partnering of two such elite practitioners won’t equate to success either in the medium term or more immediately, like some of Fissette’s previous partnerships. What makes tennis so exciting is not quite knowing how things will go — even if this feels like the closest thing to a sure bet.

(Top photo: Robert Prange / Getty Images)

Culture

Arizona State will play for Big 12 championship, and its overlooked star deserves Heisman consideration

Published

3 hours ago

December 1, 2024

Press Room

Arizona State will play for Big 12 championship, and its overlooked star deserves Heisman consideration

TUCSON, Ariz. — The Arizona State Sun Devils gathered at midfield, an enormous mass of maroon and gold celebrating Saturday’s 49-7 win against rival Arizona at Arizona Stadium. Suddenly, Cam Skattebo broke from the pack, lifting the Territorial Cup in his right hand and charging for the stands where Arizona State fans awaited.

Skattebo had just rushed for 177 yards and three touchdowns, lifting No. 16 Arizona State to its 10th win and a place in the Big 12 Championship Game, an improbable tale for both the bruising running back and the program he represents.

Heisman Trophy ballots are sent out on Monday. Like his team, Skattebo began the season as an incredible long shot. Also, like his team, Skattebo has shown he belongs.

“He has to be one of the best backs in yards from scrimmage in all of Power 4 football,’’ Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham said outside the locker room. “How are there many players more impactful than him and what he’s done for this program, picked dead last to playing potentially in the conference championship?”

Colorado two-way star Travis Hunter is the favorite for this season’s Heisman, given to college football’s top player. Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty, Miami quarterback Cam Ward and Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel are strong contenders. The top four finalists travel to New York for the Dec. 14 Heisman ceremony.

Skattebo has never been to the Big Apple. Has it entered his mind?

“I never thought I would be (in this position),” he said.

Does he think he deserves to go?

“Potentially,’’ Skattebo said. “We got more work to do. But, yeah.”

Man of the hour. pic.twitter.com/rSfIoUAH8v
— Doug Haller (@DougHaller) December 1, 2024
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As Skattebo held up the Territorial Cup, the oldest rivalry trophy in the sport, his teammates gathered around him in the corner of Arizona Stadium. Dillingham told officials to get the players already in the locker room to return to the field. Once they did, Dillingham and the Sun Devils sang the school fight song. After the last word, they took the celebration inside.

Skattebo stayed on the field.

He looked down the length of the field and noticed Arizona State fans lined the entire way, from one end zone to the other. Skattebo started making his way down, signing autographs, posing for photos and living in the moment. In the locker room, his coaches and teammates celebrated. Skattebo wasn’t concerned.

“I see those guys every day,’’ he said. “We’ll have our fun later.”

Elite players in college football enter the sport in high regard. Hunter was a five-star high school prospect, the top player in his class. Jeanty was a four-star running back. Coming out of Rio Linda High School in California, Skattebo barely registered, a running back who played like a linebacker.

Skattebo signed with Sacramento State, the only school that offered him a full scholarship. After two seasons, he transferred to Arizona State. In his first season with the Sun Devils, he rushed for 783 yards and nine touchdowns behind a banged-up line. This season, slimmed down and determined, he’s been among the country’s most improved players, the only back who entered Saturday with 1,000-plus rushing yards and 350-plus receiving yards.

“It’s funny because those of us who have watched him grow up — and I talked to his brother last week about it, too — it looks exactly the same,” Skattebo’s high school coach, Jack Garceau, said by phone during Saturday’s game. “It was this way in high school. This way at Sac State. And now it looks this way at ASU. Nothing’s changed. He’s just gotten better and better and better.”

Near the stands, Skattebo grabbed a maroon hat and scribbled “Skatt” in black ink. He shuffled to his left, slapping fives, stopping at a blonde-haired boy who asked him to sign his maroon jersey. Skattebo shifted the boy to the side so he could use his shoulder for support. A security guard informed co-workers that Skattebo was still on the field. A photographer informed the running back that his family waited not far down the line.

Arizona State achieved bowl eligibility after a Nov. 2 win at Oklahoma State. After that game, Dillingham said the Sun Devils (10-2, 7-2 Big 12) were playing with house money. Quarterback Sam Leavitt said that’s when the expanded College Football Playoff first popped into his mind.

“Why not us?” he thought.

Arizona State hasn’t lost since, winners of five in a row, each win bigger than the last, the most memorable march this program has experienced since the Sun Devils went 11-1 during the 1996 season. Leavitt has developed quicker than expected. The offensive line has stayed healthy. The defense has made plays.

“They still surprise me,” Dillingham said. “They’re just a unique, goofy group of misfits that somehow came together and are accomplishing things that are special.”

Skattebo has been the engine. Earlier on ESPN’s “College GameDay,” Nick Saban called him his favorite player in college football.

“This guy, he’s rugged,” the former Alabama coach said. “Tough. I just love a great competitor. He’s all that.”

Skattebo grabbed a cell phone. He held it out as far as his right arm could extend, making sure the fans behind him were in the frame and smiled. He posed in the middle of nine Arizona State cheerleaders. Twenty minutes after the game, Skattebo hugged his family. After a brief conversation, he turned and jogged to the locker room. Fans serenaded him along the way.

“Skatt for Heis-man!”

(Photo of Cam Skattebo (left) and Kenny Dillingham: Christopher Hook / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Culture

FIFA ‘has a responsibility’ to compensate Qatar World Cup workers, report finds

Published

14 hours ago

December 1, 2024

Press Room

FIFA ‘has a responsibility’ to compensate Qatar World Cup workers, report finds

A report commissioned by FIFA has concluded football’s governing body “has a responsibility” to compensate workers who suffered during the hosting of the 2022 Qatar World Cup.

The long-awaited report from FIFA’s sub-committee on human rights and social responsibility — finally published on Friday at midnight Central European Time — says the governing body “took a number of steps to seek to meet its responsibility to respect human rights” as part of the delivery of the tournament two years ago.

However, FIFA failed to meet one of the report’s primary recommendations of using the Qatar Legacy Fund to remedy workers impacted by human rights abuses, instead announcing they would donate the money to several other programmes which will not directly compensate workers in Qatar.

FIFA insisted the study was not “a legal assessment of the obligation to remedy”.

The independent study, commissioned by the sub-committee and developed by the business and human rights advisory firm ‘Human Level’, notes that “a number of severe human rights impacts did ultimately occur in Qatar from 2010 through 2022” for a number of workers connected to the tournament.

This included “deaths, injuries and illnesses; wages not being paid for months on end; and significant debt faced by workers and their families reimbursing the fees they paid to obtain jobs in Qatar.”

While acknowledging that “the main responsibility to rectify such shortcomings lies with the direct employers of these workers as well as with the Qatari government” the sub-committee “endorses the view expressed in the Human Level Study that FIFA too has a responsibility to take additional measures to contribute to the provision of remedy to these workers.”

World Cup organizers have put the number of deaths directly linked to the delivery of the tournament at 40. Human rights groups have long estimated that thousands of workers died.

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A FIFA spokesperson said: “All reports and recommendations were considered during a comprehensive review by the FIFA administration and relevant bodies. While all recommendations could not be met, practical and impactful elements were retained.

“It should be noted that the study did not specifically constitute a legal assessment of the obligation to remedy.”

The report recommends that FIFA should use its Qatar Legacy Fund to remedy workers impacted or, for those who died, their family members.

The sub-committee advises them to “act upon the intention, as indicated by FIFA in a press release of 19 November 2022, to dedicate the FIFA World Cup 2022 Legacy Fund in full or in part to further strengthen the competition’s legacy for migrant workers.”

However, two days before the report’s publication FIFA announced the $50million fund would instead be used on a series of social programmes globally in collaboration with Qatar and three organisations, the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, instead.

A FIFA spokesperson said: “The creation of the FIFA World Cup 2022 Legacy Fund was unanimously endorsed by the FIFA Council following a proposal made by the FIFA governance, audit and compliance committee.

“A Workers’ Support and Insurance Fund was established in Qatar in 2018 and FIFA believes the new Legacy Fund, endorsed by recognised international agencies, is a pragmatic and transparent initiative that will encompass social programmes to help people most in need across the world.”

Following the award of the World Cup to Qatar, FIFA has added human rights as a consideration as part of its bidding process for tournaments.

On Friday FIFA’s evaluation report for Saudi Arabia’s 2034 World Cup bid declared the risk assessment for human rights to be “medium”.

A vote on the hosts for the tournament — where the Saudi bid has no rival — will take place at the FIFA Congress on December 11.

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(Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP via Getty Images)

Culture

FIFA report: Saudi 2034 World Cup bid has ‘medium’ human rights risk

Published

24 hours ago

November 30, 2024

Press Room

FIFA report: Saudi 2034 World Cup bid has ‘medium’ human rights risk

FIFA, the world governing body for football, released on Friday night its evaluation report for Saudi Arabia’s bid to host the men’s World Cup in 2034, awarding the nation a higher score for bidding requirements than it granted the successful Canadian, American and Mexican joint bid for the 2026 edition, while declaring the risk assessment for human rights to be “medium”.

FIFA also claim in their report that there is “good potential” for the competition to act as a “catalyst” for reforms within Saudi Arabia, saying it will “contribute to positive human rights outcomes”. Amnesty International described FIFA’s observations as “an astonishing whitewash” of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record.

The bid report also declared the bid by oil-rich Saudi to have demonstrated a “good commitment to sustainability” while FIFA acknowledges that the Saudi bid presents an “elevated risk” in terms of timing due to the climate of the country.

FIFA, which ordinarily holds men’s World Cups in June and July, says the bidder did not stipulate a proposed window for the tournament but pledged to collaborate to “ensure the tournament’s success”, implying we may see a repeat of the 2022 edition in Qatar which was shifted to the winter months to allow for the safety of participants and supporters.

FIFA ranks its World Cup bids out of five and awarded the Saudi bid a score of 4.2, higher than the so-called United bid for 2026, which was rated 4.0. For the Women’s World Cup in 2027, Brazil’s successful bid was ranked 4.0, while the defeated joint bid of Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany was given a score of 3.7.

FIFA released its report in an email to media at 12.33am Central European Time on Saturday morning. Almost immediately, reports emerged in Middle Eastern English-speaking outlets such as the Saudi Gazette, declaring that the Saudi bid had received the highest ever score from FIFA when bidding for a World Cup.

The Saudi bid for the 2034 World Cup had already been considered a nigh-on inevitability because it was the only bidder for the tournament. This outcome developed after FIFA announced a mega-edition bid for the 2030 World Cup, which would be hosted across three continents (Africa, Europe and South America) and six countries (Morocco, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay).

This ruled those three continents out of bidding for the following World Cup in 2034, while the joint U.S., Canada and Mexico event for 2026 ruled out a return to North America due to FIFA’s principle of confederation rotation.

This left the Saudis with a clear run in the absence of a rival from elsewhere in Asia or Oceania, subject to a vote of member nations at the FIFA Congress on December 11, which was widely seen as a formality.

FIFA’s report say their evaluation “consulted various sources, including the bidder’s human rights strategy, the mandated context assessment, as well as direct commitments from the host country and host cities, together with all contractual hosting documents, all of which notably contain provisions relating to respecting human rights in connection with the competition”.

Tennis stars Ons Jabeur (far left) and Aryna Sabalenka tour the Saudi 2034 bid exhibition in October (Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images for WTA)

However, The Athletic revealed last month how 11 organisations — including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, a Saudi Arabian diaspora organisation and human rights groups specialising in the Gulf region — raised major concerns about the credibility of a report for FIFA entitled “Independent Context Assessment Prepared for the Saudi Arabian Football Federation in relation to the FIFA World Cup 2034”.

The independent context assessment, produced by the Saudi arm of global law firm Clifford Chance, excluded a large number of internationally recognised human rights from its assessment, saying this was because “either Saudi Arabia has not ratified the relevant treaties or because the Saudi Football Federation did not recognise them as ‘applying’ to the assessment”.

This meant it avoided delving into matters many would consider pertinent to Saudi, notably relating to freedom of expression, association and assembly, as well as LGBTQI+ discrimination, the prohibition of trade unions, the right to freedom of religion and forced evictions.

The report said that the scope of its assessment was “determined by the Saudi Arabian Football Federation in agreement with FIFA”, suggesting that FIFA itself approved the omissions. Both the Saudi Football Association and FIFA did not respond when approached by The Athletic at the time.

In a press release by the rights groups, they claimed that “Saudi Arabia’s already dire human rights record has deteriorated under the de facto rule of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman” and cited a “soaring number of mass executions, torture, enforced disappearance, severe restrictions on free expression, repression of women’s rights under the male guardianship system, LGBTI+ discrimination, and the killing of hundreds of migrants at the Saudi Arabia-Yemen border”.

“As expected, FIFA’s evaluation of Saudi Arabia’s World Cup bid is an astonishing whitewash of the country’s atrocious human rights record,” added Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s head of labour rights and sport. “There are no meaningful commitments that will prevent workers from being exploited, residents from being evicted or activists from being arrested.

“By ignoring the clear evidence of severe human rights risks, FIFA is likely to bear much responsibility for the violations and abuses that will take place over the coming decade. Fundamental human rights reforms are urgently required in Saudi Arabia, or the 2034 World Cup will be inevitably tarnished by exploitation, discrimination and repression.”

The FIFA bid evaluation, published on Saturday morning, leans heavily on the Clifford Chance report. It does not make any references to the terms “LGBTQI+”, “sexuality” or “sexual orientation”, while the only mention of women’s rights within Saudi Arabia can be found with references to the growth of the women’s game and women’s participation in football within Saudi.

The bid evaluation says that Saudi “has made significant strides in developing interest and grassroots participation for women and girls, and at the elite level”.

A model of Jeddah Central Development at the Saudi 2034 World Cup exhibition in Riyadh (Fayez Nureldine/AFP via Getty Images)

The bid, which ranks by low, medium or high, also gives a medium level of risk to stadiums, transport and accommodation, as well as the previously explained “event timing”. Stadiums are awarded a 4.1 rating out of five, despite eight of the proposed 15 stadiums for the tournament being new-builds. FIFA said this presented a “slightly elevated” risk profile.

The bid evaluation says the Saudi bid submitted commitments from the government to “respect, protect and fulfil internationally recognised human rights in connection with the competition, including in the areas of safety and security, labour rights (in particular fundamental labour rights and those of migrant workers), rights of children, gender equality and non-discrimination, as well as freedom of expression (including press freedom)”.

FIFA says the Saudis have committed to “equitable wages”, as well as “decent working and living conditions for all individuals involved in the preparation and delivery of the FIFA World Cup, including through the establishment of a workers’ welfare system to monitor compliance with labour rights standards for tournament-related workers”.

They also say the Saudis will “engage with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in relation to its commitment to upholding international labour standards in all activities associated with the competition.” The treatment and rights of migrant workers were among the biggest talking points before and during the 2022 World Cup, staged in neighbouring Qatar.

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FIFA simultaneously released its report for the sole bid for the 2030 World Cup, which will be held in Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay. The 2030 bid, which does not have a rival, will also be voted on by the member nations on December 11. It also received a rating of 4.2 out of 5, with the only medium risk factors judged to be stadiums, accommodation, transport, and the legal framework of the tournament.

The “sustainable event management” and “environmental protection” of a competition held across three continents was judged to be a “low” risk.

The report says that the “environmental impact assessment and initial carbon footprint assessment by the bidder, together with the commitments, objectives and mitigation actions outlined, provide a good foundation for the development of effective strategies towards managing the negative impacts of the tournament on the planet and protecting the environment”.

(Top photo: Christopher Pike/Bloomberg via Getty Images)