Last Friday, the world tuned in as FIFA announced the dates and locations for next year’s World Cup matches. While most people were focused on the match schedules, our team was focused on protections for migrant workers during the games. Immediately following the draw, Ricardo Ortiz, CDM’s Campaign Strategist, met President Sheinbaum and urged her to ensure that migrant workers, including guestworkers, are protected during the World Cup and beyond.
With the tournament fast approaching, the efforts by FIFA and the Host Cities to ensure a safe and fair World Cup for the workers who make it possible remain deeply underwhelming.
For more than two years, CDM—along with many other worker and human rights organizations—has urged FIFA and the Host Cities to place human rights at the center of this World Cup. We have called on them to set a standard that can be replicated in future host countries, including Spain, Morocco, and Portugal in 2030, and Saudi Arabia in 2034.
Together with our partners across multiple coalitions—particularly Dignity 2026, Migration that Works, and MéxicoUnido—we have:
- Trained migrant worker leaders on their rights and supported their organizing to defend those rights.
- Developed, in collaboration with Migration that Works, a model human rights ordinance that Host Cities can adapt and implement.
- Worked with Host Cities to share best practices for using the model ordinance and putting each city’s human rights plan into action.
- Advocated at the highest level for the protection of migrant workers. On Friday, CDM staff member, Ricardo Ortiz, asked President Sheinbaum for her support of migrant workers in the context of the FIFA World Cup.
With only a few months left until the inaugural game, FIFA and Host Cities must step up once and for all and demonstrate with concrete actions —-and not just empty promises— their commitment to protecting human and worker rights.
There are two possible paths ahead: One leads to a World Cup that sets an important precedent for how major sporting events can positively impact host countries and worker rights. The other to a repeat of the worker abuse and exploitation that we saw in Qatar 2022. FIFA and Host Cities have a choice to make. CDM will ensure they are held accountable for the actions they take.
We remain committed to keep up the pressure on FIFA to ensure that migrant workers’ rights are protected throughout the 2026 World Cup and long after the final whistle.
