Australia's professional soccer players union has condemned the awarding of the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia, saying significant human rights risks are attached to the tournament while questioning FIFA's ability to prevent harm from occurring.

Two weeks ago, late on a Friday evening, FIFA released its evaluations for both the 2030 and 2034 World Cup bids. It awarded Saudi Arabia ’s bid a score of 4.2 (out of five) — the highest in the organisation’s history, citing “a unique, innovative and ambitious vision for the ‘next century’ of FIFA World Cups”.

FIFA named the hosts for the 2030 and 2034 World Cups on Wednesday with Spain, Portugal and Morocco getting the former edition and Saudi Arabia controversially landing the latter. There is minimal surprise at the outcome given that the two decisions have been considered a foregone conclusion since there was only one single candidate for each event.