World Cup Qatar World Cup shame, scandal and protest 2022.

Hardly a day goes by without a reference to political issues surrounding the Qatar World Cup, and whilst Im aware many City fans like those of other clubs feel a bit overwhelmed by political issues intruding on the game we love Yet I feel it deserves both our attention and maybe some action. Its not as if its a single issue up for debate here , there are at least five with any one of them cause enough to justify our wrath.

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1. Workers Safety and Deaths

A minimum of 6.000 deaths of migrant workers involved in building the stadiums , many of them were only earning £1.00 and hour and denied secure contracts which might have provided their families with compensation. Qatar’s labour system, abuses remain rife across the country. While conditions have improved for some workers, thousands are still facing issues such as delayed or unpaid wages, denial of rest days, unsafe working conditions, barriers to changing jobs, and limited access to justice,
Workers are forced to pay extortionate recruitment fees to secure jobs with sums ranging between US$1,000 and US$3,000. It takes many workers months or even years to repay the debt, which ultimately traps them in cycles of exploitation.

2) Discrimination
Qatar has laws banning same-sex relationships, and those found guilty can face the death sentence or lengthy spells in jail. It also has a history of suppressing free speech using arrests, imprisonment and torture .
Women continued to face discrimination in law and practice. Under the guardianship system, women remained tied to their male guardian, usually their father, brother, grandfather or uncle, or for married women, to their husband. Women continued to need their guardian’s permission for key life decisions to marry, study abroad

3) Corruption
Eleven of the 22 FIFA executives who took part in the awarding of the World Cup to Qatar in December 2010, were eventually subject to punitive actions including life bans from football for illegal and/or corrupt practices .

4)The Environmental Damage
The need to supply and maintain world cup stadiums and training pitches requires huge demands on water supplies in an area of limited rainfall and high temperatures. Qatar and other Gulf states are responsible for 47% of Desalination plants around the world . Needed to supply water rich lifestyles such as fountains , golf clubs , and lavish lawns and gardens.

Removing salt from the sea does immense harm to the Gulf’s marine ecosystem, and further damage is caused by the dumping of waste fluids made up of toxic chemicals and solutions into the ocean

.5High cost of tickets
Tickets for the final on the 18th December are reported to cost 5,850 Qatari riyals or £1,355 which is a 46% increase from the 2018 final in Russia.

The cheapest seats on general sale internationally to watch the opening game of the tournament are up 37% to £254 .

Head of Football Supporters Europe Ronan Evain said: “The quantities of Category 3 and 4 cheapest seats are so small that they might as well not exist. This is absolutely unprecedented.”


Its predicted beers will cost £12-15 each with some happy hour reductions to £7 or hotel meal deals. There is only one off licence in Qatar open to residents only. No beer sold in the stadiums
I think we should lay much of the blame for all this on the notorious corruption within FIFA . I think David Beckham should hang his head in shame for accepting £14 million from them to promote the Qatar world cup, and I say this as someone who had a some degree of respect for Beckham as a former England captain. Some people have chosen to boycott and avoid any games. With an allegiance to England that goes back over fifty years Im loathe to turn my back on the Englands team’s participation or to an event that at its best manages to bring people together in a spirit of hope and celebration. As football fans we have an opportunity as individuals and/or as a collective to mark our protest FIFA’s corruption of the game we love and the greed and oppression displayed by the authorities in Qatar.




https://www.bwint.org/cms/action-alert-leave-a-legacy-in-qatar-build-the-migrant-workers-centre-2601



Take action and show solidarity!



https://www.bwint.org/cms/action-alert-leave-a-legacy-in-qatar-build-the-migrant-workers-centre-2601

• Share the campaign with football fans and human rights supporters
• Ask FIFA to Leave a legacy in Qatar. Build the #MigrantWorkersCentre
• Take a selfie or a group photo with our poster/s to show solidarity to migrant workers. Post them on your social media platforms.
• Use the social media frames for your profile pictures to show solidarity with migrant workers.
• Use the campaign hashtags #MigrantWorkersCentre and #WorldCupLegacy
• Print our posters and postcards and share them at workplaces and other areas frequented by trade unionists, workers, football fans, human rights supporters.
• Hang our campaign banners calling for “Equal Rights for Everybody Everywhere. Leave a legacy in Qatar. Build the #MigrantWorkersCentre."

Back Qatari charities and NGOs. This website lists some of the on-the-ground charities and non-governmental organisations helping to promote human rights in Qatar.


Sign a petition to end LGBTQ+ discrimination. This petition is calling on FIFA president Gianni Infantino and Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani (a member of the Qatari royal family and head of the country’s organising committee) to ensure safe passage for queer travellers in the country. It is also calling on the government to permanently repeal Article 296 and other discriminatory legislation so that all LGBT+ Qataris have the chance to live openly, freely and safely.


Write an open letter. Charity Human Rights Watch has an easy-to-fill-out open letter you can send to the FIFA president calling on the organisation to compensate migrant workers. They are also using the hashtag #PayUpFIFA to raise awareness of the campaign on social media.


Sign a petition to end forced labour. The modern slavery charity Freedom United has a petition to end forced labour in Qatar, urging the country’s Ministry of Labour to make substantial reforms to the migration system, ensuring the protection of foreign workers. They are committed to applying this pressure beyond the World Cup.


Support Amnesty International’s campaign to compensate migrant workers. In May 2022, Amnesty and a coalition of organisations launched a campaign calling on Qatar and FIFA to offer compensation to the the hundreds of thousands of construction workers who faced abuses such as illegal recruitment fees, unpaid wages, injury and – in the worst cases – death in the run-up to the tournament.

Amnesty International is calling for on FIFA and Qatar to publicly commit to establishing a remediation programme to provide remedy for all abuses related to the preparation and delivery of the World Cup and for the funding of programmes to prevent further abuses. Thereafter, FIFA and Qatar should work together with others; including workers, civil society, trade unions and the International Labour Organization to define the details and delivery of the programme. A poll of football fans world wide saw 85% of them in support of Amnesty'

Keep the Faith.

 

Fuzzy
Id agree with you that the root of this situation lies with the level of corruption within FIFA who treat the sport and fans as a means to line their own pockets , but also complicit in this have been the French Government , Platini and Qatar who conspired to vote against the USA winning the world cup bid in favour of Qatar with a Platni persuaded by President Sarkozy to back Qatar's bid , which saw Qatar buy a sigificant share of Paris St Germain. The Qataris also won the vote of some African nations by investing money into the African Games , and some certainty that little of it went to the grass roots game. Detailed in the Bleach Report link below.
It could be argued that Egypt or Morroco have a better claim in the middle east queue to host the world cup based on the popularity of the game there and the infastructure in place , but not without human rights abuses themselves. But they lack the Quatri's wealth.
Its also been reported that some of the world cup stadiums .. that cost so many lives .. are to be converted into shopping malls or sold off .
R

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1518079-qatargate-2022-outlining-the-evidence-that-suggests-qatar-cheated-to-win-bid

https://www.cfr.org/video/dangers-middle-easts-kafala-system

 

This is the Netflix expose of FIFA' and Qatar's corruption .
From power struggles to global politics, an exploration of FIFA reveals the organization's checkered history — and what it takes to host a World Cup.