FIFA tasks Harvard professor with creating human rights requirements

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FIFA tasks Harvard professor with creating human rights requirements

Rob Harris The Associated Press
Published Monday, December 14, 2015 9:40AM EST

In this Sept. 25, 2015 file photo, the FIFA logo is fixed on a wall of the FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)

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LONDON -- FIFA has tasked a Harvard professor with formulating human rights requirements for World Cup hosts and commercial partners at the scandal-tarnished governing body.

John Ruggie will provide a report in March showing how business and human rights principles he conceived for the United Nations can speedily become part of FIFA's working practices.

It appears to be a response by FIFA to concerns about worker rights in Qatar in the five years since the Gulf nation won the right to stage the 2022 World Cup.

For the 2026 bidding process, nations are set to be required to prove adequate labour laws are in place and communities will not be displaced by stadium building -- a source of anger in Brazil ahead of the 2014 World Cup.