First appeared in The Guardian

The World Cup in Brazil could be the global sporting event of this century, combining Fifa, the wealthiest of sporting associations, with Brazil, the world's top footballing nation, and a host of giant global sponsors including Coca-Cola, Adidas, Sony, McDonald's and Budweiser.

It is a moment when these international business leaders could set a new standard and send a signal to the world that global sporting events should leave an indelible imprint of positive improvement for the communities in which they are played out - and for the workers who deliver the infrastructure. There is a wide-open goal for companies to demonstrate their commitment to human rights, and yet, they have kicked the ball wide.

A force for bad, not good?

More than a million Brazilians protested on the streets last year because they felt that the ethics of this immense coalition of power and wealth, combined with corruption across government, had brought more dispossession and poverty, instead of than prosperity and security, to the common people.

According to a survey published this month (pdf) by Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project, 61% of Brazilians think the World Cup is a bad thing for Brazil because it takes money away from public services.

Brazilian construction companies have made a great deal of money from the construction of stadiums, and related infrastructure. But their human rights record has been unnecessarily poor: eight workers have died on the construction sites working for companies such as Andrade Gutierrez.

This compares unfavourably with the London Olympics, where not a single worker died, but is far better than the Qatar World Cup which is on course for at least 4,000 migrant workers deaths by the time the tournament starts, according to The International Trade Union Confederation (pdf).

In its pre-World Cup expansion of São Paulo airport, building giant OAS was accused by the Brazil's Labour Ministry of forcing 111 workers to live in "slave-like" conditions and making each worker pay $250 to secure a job.

Equally, these companies have been blamed for government evictions of poor people to make way for the stadiums. In 2011, Raquel Rolnik, UN special rapporteur for housing, revealed a "pattern of lack of transparency, consultation, dialogue, fair negotiation … concerning evictions … for the World Cup and Olympics".

She and many Brazilian organisations, such as the World Cup People's Committees and Conectas, have spoken of the resulting homelessness and lack of adequate compensation, especially given the increased value of real estate in these locations.

Human rights fall under the radar

Today in São Paulo, the Movement of Homeless Workers (MTST), is camping out next to the $350m stadium, where the World Cup kicked off Thursday. It is protesting for the 4,800 homeless people living near the stadium, and the estimated 250,000 people who faced eviction in the 12 host cities.

As the tournament kicks off, human rights organizations are concerned about the livelihoods of local street traders, the security of protesters and the prevention of child prostitution.

Street vendors are complaining that Fifa, with the multinationals, have created a 2km exclusion zone within which only 'concessionaires' have access to the rich market of hungry, thirsty fans in and around the stadiums.

The exclusion zone will be policed by private security companies. Human rights organisation Conectas and Justicia Global have warned against the militarisation of public space. They've cited the potential for human rights violations of protesters by these private security companies, which report to Fifa instead of the Brazilian state.

Equally, human rights organizations in April raised concerns that Academi-trained Brazilian security forces could end up focusing on controlling the 'enemy within' – the protesting social movements – rather than any terrorist threat. (Academi, formerly called Blackwater, is a private security company notorious for its military role in Iraq.)

Child prostitution is a constant threat around international sporting events. With an estimated 500,000 child prostitutes in Brazil, and 600,000 tourists about to arrive, Childhood Brasil has warned of the need to be more alert in protecting children during the World Cup. It commissioned a study in partnership with Brunel University and Oak Foundation on the risk major sporting events bring to children's rights.

The good news is that the government, with some tour operators and hotel companies, have put considerable effort into training staff, creating a code of conduct for hotel receptionists and taxi drivers and placing very public messages for fans as they arrive. It will be far from enough, but it will help.

Mounting pressure

Fifa and some of the companies involved with the World Cup would like us to believe that these problems are really the responsibility of the government. They are just acting within the law.

But Fifa and corporate sponsors are missing a powerful opportunity to negotiate with the government to make sure that communities are compensated fully, workers are well-treated and fairly paid, and vulnerable people are protected. They could play a bigger role in giving the World Cup an enduring legacy of human rights and prosperity.

After all, Fifa forced the government to change a law banning beer in stadiums because Budweiser is a sponsor. Fifa pays no taxes at all to the Brazilian state for all this huge public investment.

Fifa appears to score a host of own goals - in terms of its reputation - at every World Cup it organises. But pressure is mounting with each international sporting event for a better approach. This was best highlighted last year when the Swedish bid for the 2022 Olympics set a new standard for workers' protection through an agreement between the Swedish Olympic Committee and national trade union centre, LO-Sweden, to stop the violations of workers' rights and worker-exploitation before and during the Games.

With the scandal of migrant workers' deaths associated with the Qatar 2022 World Cup already global news, Fifa should insist on a new standard for all future World Cups.

Besides ensuring the utmost respect for workers' rights, if Fifa and businesses want to leave a substantial legacy of enhanced rights and prosperity for the poor in host-countries, they should also consider donating a percentage of the vast earnings to a national anti-poverty and human rights fund. But any fund would need to have a governing board entirely independent of Fifa. With its record on financial and social probity, Fifa officials are long overdue a red card on that score.