FIFA’s request for labour law exemptions for Toronto’s World Cup bid sparked concern

The documents don’t include details of the guarantees, but show that Toronto was trying to secure them from the provincial and federal governments as it prepared to submit its bid in March 2018. The emails show the guarantees fell into seven categories: visas and immigration; work permits and labour law; tax exemptions and foreign exchange; safety and security; commercial rights; telecommunications; and legal issues.

The federal government wouldn’t confirm to the Star whether it granted the requested guarantees, although previous news reports indicate Ottawa agreed to major concessions like exempting FIFA from taxes during the tournament, which is being co-hosted by Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. 

A provincial spokesperson said this week that Queen’s Park, which is primarily responsible for labour law, has not provided FIFA any guarantees. A city spokesperson referred questions about the issue to the other levels of government. 

Shortly after Toronto submitted its bid documents in March 2018, reports about the concessions appeared in the National Post. On March 17, 2018, Tory’s director of communications wrote to the senior city staffer leading Toronto’s bid effort, and said the mayor was “concerned” about those reports, particularly FIFA’s apparent request for exemptions to some labour laws. 

Mike Williams, then general manager of economic development and culture, wrote back and assured the mayor’s office that “no one in Canada, certainly not us, is waiving any laws, employment or otherwise” as part of the bid.

Williams also told the mayor’s office that while “(n)obody is happy with the wording of the FIFA agreements,” Toronto’s previous experience of hosting smaller FIFA tournaments was that “things are reasonable when it comes to actually holding the events.”

He didn’t specify which aspects of the agreements he considered troubling.

A City of Toronto lawyer replied to Williams, but not the mayor’s office, clarifying that one of FIFA’s requested guarantees would indeed exempt some people working on the World Cup from labour laws that “would restrict those individuals from performing their competition related duties.” She said the exemptions related to vacation entitlements, limits on working hours, and other rules. Those affected would be people employed or engaged by FIFA and “directly involved in competition activities.”

FIFA faced criticism from human rights groups over the use of migrant labourers to build stadiums for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Labour rights are anticipated to be far less of a concern for the 2026 World Cup, which will be staged using existing and upgraded stadiums. 

In December 2021, the Post reported that the federal government had signed off on FIFA’s guarantees, including agreeing to give the organization a tax holiday during the World Cup, pay for security and ease travel rules for tournament participants. The paper quoted a federal spokesperson saying the tournament, which is expected to deliver significant economic benefits to the hosts, was in the public interest and the assurances were standard for major sporting events. 

The federal government wouldn’t provide the Star with details of its commitments to FIFA this week, but a spokesperson said in an email that it is “not uncommon for large international sporting events to request exemptions from certain taxes.”

“Importantly, the hosting government is not obliged to meet the request made by the sporting organization. The Government of Canada will have more to say on this in due course,” they said.

FIFA said in a statement that an event as big as the World Cup “cannot be organized without the broad support of the relevant government authorities in the host countries,” and the “issuance of specific guarantees by the government is essential to establish a legal framework … to successfully host.”  

The Swiss-based organization said that details of each guarantee are included in tournament hosting agreements, which “are kept confidential for legal, safety and security reasons.”

The agreements related to Toronto’s hosting duties have not been fully made public, but redacted versions that the Star obtained through freedom of information include a clause committing the city to not imposing municipal taxes on FIFA or its subsidiaries. The contracts also compel Toronto to respect human rights, particularly in relation to stadium work.

A spokesperson for the city couldn’t immediately say how much revenue Toronto would forgo as a result of the municipal tax exemption.

Vancouver and Toronto were officially named two of the 16 World Cup host cities in 2022. Toronto is scheduled to stage six games at BMO Field, starting with a Canada men’s national team match on June 12, 2026.