World Cup Misconduct Complicit in Thousands of Deaths?
The backlash of corruption
2nd December 2010. Qatar won the bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup (WC) 14 votes to 8 votes. “Football is going to new lands” says Blatter (President of FIFA at the time) in triumph - football, the global sensation, brings its most important trophy to its first Arab nation. Football is no longer Eurocentric!
To me this isn’t FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) trying to bring football to other nations, it’s just a way of them improving their global supply chain. If this was designed in good faith, then the outcome would have been less disastrous. While yes, the erection of nine state-of-the-art stadia, US$20bn worth of new roads, a high-speed rail network, a new airport and hotels with 55,000 rooms to accommodate fans, players and officials, will improve infrastructure in Qatar; I don’t see how the benefits could come close to the hardships the families of construction workers must feel when learning the fate of their husbands, fathers and brothers. All are just trying to support their family at home but die so we can watch professional football. Disgusting.
Many reports have suggested that FIFA were ‘bought off’, that the circumstances around how Qatar acquired the WC is surrounded by allegations of corruption. Yes, this does happen in sport too! Bribery, collusion, conflict of interest. Embezzlement, extortion, cronyism/nepotism, fraud, gifts and hospitality, lobbying and money lending are all problems found in sport not just the greater world of business - if you’d like to read a brief explanation of each and see how they can apply to a sporting context see table 1.1 (https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=YWGYAAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=corruption+in+sport&ots=xT5ZEvS-Rt&sig=T81L_Rj9hVT-ZjhMJFV7BCrRxhU#v=onepage&q&f=false). However, the buck doesn’t stop with FIFA. My main concern coming out of the upcoming WC is the migrant worker abuse, which some have gone so far to call modern slavery. For more shocking information on this, click this link: https://domide.colmex.mx/Archivos/Doc_6031.pdf.
Building the stadiums to host this world event has not come without a price. In 2014 alone, 157 migrant workers died…. It unfortunately doesn’t stop there; since PlayFair Qatar estimates that 62 workers will die for each game played. These reports coming out of 2015 frighten me particularly as the research into deaths in recent years seems to be non-existent. Often, when the workers arrived in Qatar they were already in debt to both loan sharks and recruiters (who charge ridiculous amounts for travel and recruitment itself). They often have their passports held by the employers and live in labour camps. In 2014, the ITUC estimated that over 4,000 migrant workers would lose their life before the first touch of the ball (for more, click this link: https://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/the_case_against_qatar_en_web170314.pdf) . This is why this blog is so important. We need to rekindle this conversation with the tournament looming.
Corruption in the Qatar Establishment
The atrocities don’t stop with the migrant worker abuse itself! There are reports that the police and other authorities have been covering up migrant worker deaths to hide the real causes of death. The reports of workers being crushed under poorly constructed walls, falling from scaffolding due to not having correct safely equipment, cardiac failure, heat exhaustion and dehydration - to name a few - are astonishing. Before these deaths can be correctly reported, the police and other authorities have been chalking them down as accidents. Diplomatic sources even say that the Qatar government is harassing embassy officials to stop the flow of information regarding this matter, all to ensure that a steady stream of migrant workers continue to flow from Nepal and India (ITUC). This kind of corruption spanning multiple organisations is sickening.
But what can we really do? – The small things
I am aware that this may be seen as “old news” but what concerns me is that we, as consumers of this great game, are still willing to endorse this event. When things of this scale take place, especially in commercial sporting events, we the consumer have powers to ensure it doesn’t happen again. We can do four things:
Educate yourself. Don’t just take my word for it; there are plenty of articles online shedding more light on this topic.
Contribute to raising awareness. TALK ABOUT IT!
Watch less of it. Or NONE of it (if you’re feeling brave).
Boycott the sponsors that line FIFA’s pockets (they may decide to leave the sponsorship)
This isn’t easily done but, put simply, we should boycott all games. Never again should workers be subjected to horrific working conditions just for our benefit. Why then do we, the consumer, allow corporations to continue this abuse in power if there are no consequences for them?
If the football community rallies behind this then fantastic, but as an avid football fan myself I am aware asking people to not watch their nation (hopefully) excel in the WC is futile. I myself will most likely cave and watch us in the later portions of the tournament so what can we do instead? How can you make an impact without potentially missing out on national history?
Apply pressure. Corporate sponsors have attached their names and therefore reputations to the WC. For example, Budweiser and McDonald’s. So, by directly challenging those relationships via social media we as a community can pressure the host nation and the event itself. Corporations will hopefully not want to align themselves with this kind of behaviour as it will tarnish their own brand image.
Law and litigation. FIFA and other sporting governing bodies should only work alongside nations that are abiding by international working and living standards. Countries should only be allowed to bid for tournaments once they have provided proof that they can meet those international standards. This could encourage other nations to loosen restrictions on a plethora of unfair laws such as LGBTQ+ rights.
Should we have opted out? A national stance
How incredible would it be to see nations like England opt out of the up and coming tournament? It’s crazy and unrealistic I know, but activism like this is sure to spark a massive conversation and would make FIFA quake. If nations chose to opt out of the tournament so they can truly say “we have no blood on our boots”, this would be a strong message for the world to hear. We as a nation had this debate in 2015 and decided to play (see the 2015 petition for yourself: https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions/165455). This focused primarily on fans rights regarding LGBTQ+ rights, female rights and alcohol consumption. Perhaps with the addition of knowledge of worker deaths it would have made an even more compelling argument thus changing the outcome.
Why is this so important? It’s already happened and isn’t this just a one off?
It would be naïve of us to think this is only happening in construction projects of the WC. As in the case with lots of sporting examples, the problems that have emerged out of the WC are a microcosm of the true perils migrant workers go through every day across Qatar and I’m sure many other nations. By shining a light on this world event, we as a community can encourage reforms for workers across the globe. Organisations like FIFA and organisations that are working in conjunction with them must be held accountable via corporate social responsibility requirements and international law. Hopefully this might ensure no other humans die in our pursuit for quality sport. After all, we are not in living Ancient Rome.
