Qatar 2022

Controversy continues to dog this much hyped tournament,with most of the talk surrounding when the thing will/should actually take place.

By the time the first ball is kicked,it is forecast that over 4,000 workers will have lost their lives during the construction of the various venues.

That's right - OVER 4,000.?

Is it a price worth paying?

I think not.

 

FIFA should hang their heads in shame, they should NEVER have been awarded the competition.

 

By 2022 the whole region could be impossible for any outsiders to visit and if 13 teenagers can be murdered by Daesh (ISIS) for watching a football match on TV I can't see this tournament going ahead.

 

171 goals were scored in the last World Cup.

Assuming that the same number of goals will be scored in 2022,that would equate to more than 23 deaths per goal.

Statistics. Don't you just love them?

Life really IS cheap in the Third World,which is where the majority of the workers come from.

 

Is the suggestion that 4000 workers will lose their lives through accidents on site? Even by Middle East health & safety standards that's a phenomenal number. Or are there other factors in play in that statistic?

 

FIFA have no shame.All countries should boycott the tournament,let's see what FIFA do then.

 

It's a projected figure based on the number of deaths that have already taken place on construction sites.

The imported labour also have to contend with appalling living standards;wages not being correctly paid by unscrupulous employer's,etc.,etc.

None of this is "news",however,since it has been going on since the beginning of the construction works.

Appalling,on too many fronts.

 

European countries are complaining about the tournament bring played during November/ December of that year.
Well,in fear of repeating myself I say again,Stand Together,show two fingers to the FIFA mafia and boycott the tournament.
European countries are the backbone of the tournament.FIFA are nothing without them.

 

I wiped this tournament from my calendar quite a while ago. Even if Wales qualify for it, I still don't want anything to do with it.

I read an article that, so far, around 1 Nepalese worker is dying every two days. That's only one nationality of workers. It's thought that once everyone is counted, it's more likely to be a minimum of 1 death per day (and this is after the Guardian's report a few months ago highlighting the awful living and working conditions, they still haven't improved things even though the world is watching).

I said as soon as it was given to Qatar that it would be a shambles. They have no respect over there for foreign labour workers. They withhold pay from workers on purpose, and then when the workers complain they tell them that if they don't work harder they won't get any of it - it means that workers, who are only their for money as their families are so poor back home, don't even have money to quit and leave. They're working unbelievable hours in 40-50°C temperatures. It's genuine modern day slave labour and I can't support it in any way, shape or form.

 

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Moving The World Cup To Winter Won’t Fix FIFA’s Qatar Problem
BY TRAVIS WALDRON

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POSTED ON FEBRUARY 23, 2015 AT 3:23 PM

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A computer image of one of Qatar’s proposed World Cup stadiums.

CREDIT: (AP PHOTO/QATAR’S SUPREME COMMITTEE FOR DELIVERY & LEGACY)

When top soccer officials meet Tuesday in Doha, they are expected to finally make formal what has long been expected: that the 2022 World Cup will be played not in the traditional summer months but instead in November and December. That, of course, is the result of handing the 2022 tournament to Qatar, where simmering hot temperatures that reach well into the triple digits makes watching soccer, much less playing it, too dangerous in the summer.

The decision to move to winter is not without controversy. The English Premier League is expected to ask for concessions in exchange for the disruptions a winter World Cup will pose to its schedule, and television partners, other soccer federations, and even top FIFA officials have expressed opposition to the move. Nevertheless, the move is almost certainly going to happen.

This will address the temperature problem for players and fans, though it could still cause smaller issues. Doha’s November and December high temperatures range from 75 to 90 degrees, roughly similar to June and July high temperatures in Rio de Janeiro and other parts of Brazil, where players suffered through heat problems during the 2014 World Cup and FIFA had to institute mid-match water breaks in some of the hottest matches. It might not be 120 degrees in Qatar (or as humid as it was in Brazil), but it still could get hot.


But while this has been treated as the major problem (corruption aside) with this tournament, moving it to winter won’t address an even bigger issue with Qatar’s World Cup: that the $200 billion in construction projects the nation has planned around this World Cup bid is still largely reliant on migrant workers who work in squalor and, according to international human rights and labor organizations, slave-like conditions.

Qatar’s kafala labor system puts severe limits on workers’ rights, especially in a country where migrants make up 90 percent of the population and workforce. Moving the World Cup to winter won’t give those workers a break from the heat. Completing Qatar’s ambitious construction plans will require them to work in the summer months FIFA wants to avoid, and labor groups have said that Qatar’s heat exacerbates the poor working conditions that already exist. In a report released last year, the International Trade Union Confederation estimated that 4,000 migrant workers would die on World Cup-related projects absent significant labor reforms, with the heat a major contributor to those deaths (Qatar has disputed that figure, saying that its rate of worker deaths is normal).

“They are dying because of these work conditions, because of the heat, because there is no safety measures applied, some of them hydration. It is anything but normal,” human rights activist Husain Adbulla told HBO’s Real Sports last year.

Qatar says it is making incremental changes to the labor system to improve working conditions and rights. It announced reformslast winter and said it would end its kafala system, which gives workers few rights to dispute pay, change jobs, or even leave the country. Qatar says these are substantial changes, and FIFA has heralded the progress toward reform. But ITUC, one of the biggest groups pushing for reform in Qatar, called the changes “cosmetic,” saying that “modern slavery will still exist in Qatar” unless the reforms went even farther.

Amnesty International has since issued a report accusing Qatar of slow-walking the reforms, and early returns don’t look good: despite the promise of change, Nepalese migrants working on World Cup projects died at a rate of one every two days in 2014,The Guardian reported in December, and there are estimates that if other groups of migrant workers were included, “the toll would almost certainly be more than one a day.” The Guardian also reported in November that Qatar has used North Korean workers in a practice akin to state-sponsored slavery. The larger labor problems facing Qatari workers remain, and the heat will only continue to make them worse.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has said his organization will continue to monitor Qatar’s progress on the labor front, and Qatar’s labor ministry continues to insistthat it intends “to effect meaningful and lasting change for the benefit of all those who live and work in Qatar.” It remains unclear what if anything FIFA has done to encourage reforms or what it will do going forward, especially if the promised changes never occur or have little effect. FIFA has announced that it will consider a nation’s human rights record in the bidding process for the 2026 World Cup and beyond. But that, obviously, is too late to help workers in Qatar who won’t benefit merely from playing the World Cup in a different month.

 

Its corrupt and has brought misery and loss of life on a large scale. EUFA should stand together and tell FIFA to stick it where the sun don't shine!

 

Unfortunately the European countries they talk about have no backbone themselves. They should stand together and form their own tournament and walk away from fifa, who will have had their pockets lined to take it there and they will ensure this tournament goes ahead. It should without the best teams in the world though who should not be there.

Lets not forget guys there is another one taking place in 3 years time in Russia and their record at the moment isn't to good, Surely as part of sanctions all sport should be taken away from them for what they are doing in the Ukraine.

 

The official film of the 2022 World Cup will be called Qatarmess and The Pit.

 

If European countries attend this WC then they too should hang their heads in shame. Its only a game and not worth losing a single life for. The country has one of the worst human rights record in the world and if your a woman who enjoys football then how can they be expected to support the WC in a country that gives them less rights than animals...

 

I agree with the points here....

Not to mention the fact that Saudi Arabia and Qatar whilst supposedly helping against ISIS are actually funding them. FIFA were bought off. We all know it and it's a disgrace. I actually think a boycott might happen.

 

Qatar 2022: Unapologetic Jerome Valcke rules out any compensation for winter World Cup

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Premier League is among those unhappy about the change

TOM PECK

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Wednesday 25 February 2015

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Jérôme Valcke, Fifa’s general secretary, has said there will be “no apology” and “no compensation” from the world governing body over its decision to move Qatar’s 2022 World Cup to winter, prompting threats of legal action from Europe’s powerful football leagues.

“Why should we apologise to the clubs?” he said at a news conference in Doha, Qatar. “We are bringing all our people to enjoy the sporting and the financial result of the World Cup. So why to apologise?

“I definitely don’t feel I have to apologise for the decision made yesterday to confirm that the World Cup will not be played in the summer but in winter.”

Even the Uefa president, Michel Platini, has said he prefers the current working position of the World Cup final taking place on 23 December, a date that will decimate England’s traditional Boxing Day and new year fixtures.

Platini’s spokesperson Pedro Pinto confirmed that, once the January option had been ruled out because of a clash with the winter Olympics, it was Uefa that “suggested an option could be for the final to be played on 23 December.” Such a date will have minimal impact on Uefa’s Champions’ League competition.

The cancellation of the Premier League’s Christmas fixtures that season threatens to reduce the value of its rights to broadcasters, which were recently sold domestically for £5.1bn for three seasons.

Moving the tournament to winter also threatened a major backlash from the American broadcaster Fox Sports, which had paid vast sums on the basis of a summer tournament. Fox has since been awarded the rights to the 2026 tournament, which may very well be a home tournament for the United States, without a competitive tender taking place.

When questioned on the matter, Valcke said: “We have done what we had to do in order to protect Fifa and to protect the organisation of the World Cup and without any breach of any international rules on the business side of this negotiation.”

Valcke, a Frenchman, a loyalist to Fifa’s president Sepp Blatter and the general secretary for eight years, also later wrote on Twitter that he had been to visit some of accommodation camps for migrant workers building the stadiums for the tournament.

“Good to see the Al Wakrah stadium workers living facilities. Pleased 2022 organisers are upholding workers welfare, as promised,” he said.

“Qatar 2022 shows the power of the #WorldCup to act as a catalyst. We look forward to sustainable change for all workers.”

Qatar’s thousands of immigrant labourers work under the kafala system, whereby they are essentially owned by their company and require exit permits to leave the country.

Hundreds of deaths have already been reported on building sites since the World Cup was awarded in 2010. Reports from other news organisations and human rights groups show appalling conditions, with men sleeping on bunk beds barely an arm’s width apart, and filthy cooking and toilet facilities.

 

I think that you will agree ladies and gentlemen that the above is a grunt from a pig who does not give a toss as long as his bank balance continues to bulge.

BOYCOTT THE TOURNAMENT.

 

You really cant be expected to be compensated anyway so they are right there. the tournament is not for another 7 years and if the European clubs take part then its their choice and not the fault of qatar. They should have a meeting of all European countries that could take part and decide what they want to do and leave it at that....

 

Fifa's real crime with Qatar 2022 is ignoring the workers' plight

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Workers are effectively prisoners in the country, with no access to their passports

SAM WALLACE

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Tuesday 03 March 2015

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The BBC Newsnight team investigating the 1.5 million migrants employed in Qatar on building World Cup 2022 infrastructure were hustled out of the squalid workers’ accommodation outside Doha by angry security men in the time-honoured fashion in December. But not before they had made some disturbing connections between the dreadful conditions workers had to live in and one big British construction company in particular.

In the uproar that followed the decision last week by the Fifa taskforce, which decided Qatar 2022 would have to be played in November and December, the fate of the migrant workers building the show was a long way down the pecking order. The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) estimates that 4,000 will perish by the time the project is ready, which makes the Egyptian pharaohs’ pyramids project look like a triumph of health and safety.

In the aftermath, Richard Scudamore, the Premier League chief executive, fulminated about the disruption to the Christmas fixtures programme. Others wondered aloud if a mid-season World Cup finals might give the England team a chance, qualification permitting. Greg Dyke, the Football Association chairman, said that it was “the best of the bad options”.

If the Nepali, Sir Lankan, Indian and Bangladeshi workers in the Qatari labour dormitories had access to television, radio or the internet, they might have been forgiven for thinking that English football was sorely lacking a Martin Luther King for 21st century workers’ rights.



The pros and cons of a winter World Cup for fans


Yet, the truth is that the stories of these young men, sent to the Gulf to provide for their families back home, will not go away. Their deaths, at the rate of two a day last year among the Nepali workers alone, is an inconvenient but persistent reality for Fifa. They are dying in the 50C heat, unable to leave because the Qatari kafala system prevents them from going home without their employer’s permission.

If change cannot be effected through Fifa, or a Qatari government that seems unwilling to allow anything to stand in the path of its plans to host the World Cup finals on its own terms, then the only option for those who want to do something is to strike closer to home.

The curious aspect of Newsnight’s investigation by the journalist Sue Lloyd-Roberts was that the men she interviewed in a camp outside Doha were wearing hard hats carrying the logo of the British construction company Carillion.

Newsnight discovered that workers on the project in the centre of Doha had faced serious issues, including delayed payment of wages and unsafe working conditions, while one had spent much of his salary on treatment for asthma he had developed in Qatar. They woke at 4am, began work at 6am, finished at 5pm and lived in conditions described by one worker as not “fit for humans”.

READ MORE: FIFA AWARDED CUP TO A STATE WHERE SLAVERY IS ACTIVELY FACILITATED
The official Carillion response at the time was that the workers in question were provided by a subcontractor. The British company says on its website that subcontractors are required to abide by the health and safety standards applicable in the United Kingdom. Wages, living conditions and employment rights must comply with Qatari labour laws.

Carillion launched an investigation into the claims by Newsnight and when I called the company yesterday, it said that investigation was still “ongoing”. It said it was “deeply concerned and surprised” at the allegations. The company also said the “Downtown Doha” project is not directly related to the 2022 World Cup finals.

The ITUC believes that it is simply not enough for international construction companies to abide by the laws in Qatar. It says that if Fifa and the Qataris will not push for change to the kafala system and the appalling conditions of workers there ahead of 2022, then it is up to the construction companies themselves to take the lead.

“Every multinational company that is operating in Qatar must recognise that even where a government runs the economy on the basis of modern slavery it can still step up to the plate and recognise workers’ rights,” said Tim Noonan, a director at the ITUC. “Any company that does not do that will come under enormous pressure. They are not going to be able to dodge the spotlight.”

One year ago, the United Nations International Labour Organisation called upon Qatar to give migrant workers, around 75-80 per cent of the Gulf state’s population, some basic rights that you and I might take for granted. They were the right to form trade unions, engage in collective bargaining on wages and have some form of legal protection, as well as a reform of the hated kafala system.

It comes as little surprise that the ITUC says no meaningful progress has been made and the workforce – that could be as many as 1.75m people – continues to work with little or no rights whatsoever. Yet that has not stopped the international trade union organisations putting some pressure on the companies that have taken some of the £200bn worth of building contracts in Qatar.

The online campaign community Avaaz.org has a petition signed by more than 790,000 people calling upon Qatar and the chief executive of the US construction company CH2M Hill, Jacqueline Hinman, a major contractor for the 2022 World Cup infrastructure, to give workers basic rights. Calls to both CH2M Hill’s London and Colorado offices did not yield a response yesterday.

The general secretary of the construction trade union UCATT, Steve Murphy, recalled how he managed to help 22 Nepali workers he found living in the same room during a visit to Qatar in March last year. Murphy said that the men had not been paid for months and, under the kafala system, had no access to their passports or even their Qatari ID papers.

They were effectively prisoners in the country and yet still working. In order to eat, they relied on a Nepali charity which managed to supply them with a meal every three days. “When I was talking to them one of the managers gatecrashed our meeting,” Murphy recalled yesterday. “I said to him, ‘This is worse than slavery’. He looked at me confused. I said, ‘At least the slaveowners of the past used to feed their slaves.’”

On that occasion, Murphy’s intervention meant that the men were given back their passports and were able to return to Nepal. The sad thing is that the stories of workers being forced to pay back enormous fees to recruitment agents; of deaths and injuries and appalling living conditions are so commonplace now they are losing their capacity to shock. But they are not going away.

Unfortunately, as an issue for Fifa, the rights of the workers comes some distance behind driving the winter staging of the tournament through the resistance from the powerful European leagues. Once that is done you have to wonder whether there will be any change to the lives of the hundreds of thousands of workers.

“A blood-stained World Cup” is what Steve Murphy called it, and he has seen for himself the lives of those who are building Qatar 2022.


BOYCOTT THE TOURNAMENT

 

Winter breaks are common in most leagues in the north of Europe, Russia and Turkey; Norway and Sweden play in the summer months.
FA are looking at a December tournament as offering a better chance for England to progress as it won't be at the end of the season when players are knackered.
In the end Money talks and if Qatar is still a safe and independent country it will go ahead.