...[Law firm Clifford Chance's] long-running links to the Saudi regime are facing scrutiny after it was commissioned to produce an “independent” assessment of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record as part of the country’s bid to host the 2034 Fifa World Cup – a report that has been roundly condemned as a “whitewash”...

... The appointment is understood to have been signed off by Fifa, world football’s governing body.

.... documents seen by the Observer show that AS&H Clifford Chance agreed to severely limit the scope of its report after a request from the Saudi Arabian Football Federation (Saff), which again was approved by Fifa.

[....]

Last week, a coalition of 11 human rights organisations attacked the report as “fatally flawed” ... [and] gave an “artificially limited, misleading and overly positive perspective” ...

[...]

The controversy over the report, which was first published by Fifa in July but received little attention, has caused turmoil at Clifford Chance’s Canary Wharf HQ.

... according to people familiar with the assessment, key staff with relevant expertise were not consulted ....

[...]

[Fifa] declined to comment on the Clifford Chance report but said it planned to publish an evaluation of Saudi Arabia’s bid, including the human rights assessment, before the congress meeting.

Clifford Chance did not comment on the human rights assessment, its connections to the Saudi government or its alleged involvement in the transfer of assets in the Ritz-Carlton purge. In an email to advocacy groups last week, its global managing partner, Charles Adams, said it would be “inappropriate to comment … beyond the content contained in the published report”.

The Saudi government was contacted for comment. It has previously dismissed claims of torture during its “anti-corruption” purge at the Ritz-Carlton, saying they were “absolutely untrue”.