As the FIFA Club World Cup will kick off in the United States in two months and the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup is impending, the Washington Center for Human Rights (WCHR) today expressed grave concern regarding FIFA’s failure to roll out a well-defined and inclusive child safeguarding mechanism. With known risks in place, FIFA has not developed sufficient safeguards for children at these huge sporting events, which will host millions of visitors throughout North America.
Young people are most vulnerable during mega-sport events, exposed to risks of trafficking, sexual abuse, forced labor, and displacements of family. FIFA had pledged, in awarding the 2026 World Cup to the US, Canada, and Mexico, to developing and establishing child safeguarding procedures within its Human Rights Strategy. Seven years later, however, there remains no single safeguarding policy, leaving young people at great risk across 16 cities in three countries.
As per a new report, “Keeping the Game Safe,” released by the University of Miami School of Law Human Rights Clinic and the Centre for Sport and Human Rights, event organisers need to implement binding child protection standards, compulsory safeguarding training, appoint safeguarding officers in every venue, and have a centralised, accessible reporting system in place to guarantee child safety.
WCHR calls on FIFA to adopt and implement a robust child safeguarding policy immediately before the 2026 World Cup. The policy must be implemented across all host cities in the US, Mexico, and Canada with consideration of socioeconomic, legal, and community-based factors. WCHR also emphasizes that FIFA should involve survivor communities, child protection specialists, and local stakeholders in the creation of these protections.
Such venues must also be conceptualized with children’s safety in mind and have adequate safeguards against child labour. In a situation where such measures are absent, FIFA risks abetting grave violations of human rights at the largest sporting event in history.
FIFA has a duty not only to host a successful tournament but to ensure it guards the most vulnerable among us – the children. The 2026 World Cup must set new standards for the rights of children, not betray them.