FIFA’s human rights commitments and complicity with the United States government: transnational responsibility in global sports governance

This article examines whether the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) should re-examine the allocation of a World Cup to a host state that fails to comply with the association’s human rights policy—a question made urgent by the 2026 Men’s World Cup and the conduct of the current United States administration. Drawing on the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and the concept of institutional complicity, the article argues that FIFA bears both endogenous obligations (derived from its own Human Rights Policy and hosting agreements) and exogenous obligations (arising from international human rights law), which together require it to broaden its host-selection criteria beyond formal democratic conditions and to adopt continuous ex ante and ex post human rights monitoring—including, where necessary, reconsidering the designation itself.