The draw for this year’s FIFA World Cup will take place in Qatar on Friday 1 April.
It is the most controversial World Cup ever, with questions regarding how Qatar won the right to host it, how it deals with the workers who build stadiums, and whether it has the right location for the event.
Treatment of foreign workers
Qatar is building 7 stadiums for the finals, a new airport, a new metro, and new roads.
The final match will be played at a stadium that will also host 9 other matches and is the centerpiece of a new city.
But the state has been criticized for its treatment of the 30,000 migrant workers working on these projects.
Amnesty International for human rights accused Qatar in 2016 of using forced labor. She said many workers live in miserable accommodation, pay huge recruitment fees, suffer withholding of wages and have their passports confiscated.
Since 2017, the government has taken measures to protect migrant workers from working in high temperatures, limit their working hours and improve conditions in labor camps.
picture released, AFP via Getty Images
The Qatari government promised to improve conditions in labor camps
However, Human Rights Watch said in a 2021 report that foreign workers continue to suffer “punitive and illegal wage cuts,” as well as “months of unpaid wages for long hours of hard work.”
Amnesty International also says that despite the abolition of the “sponsorship” system, which prevents migrant workers from leaving their jobs without their employer’s consent, pressure is still being put on staff.
A government spokesman told the BBC: “Significant progress has been made to ensure that the reforms are effectively implemented.” The number of companies violating the rules is said to “continue to decline as action takes effect”.
How many workers died?
The British newspaper The Guardian reported in February of 2021 that 6,500 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka had died in Qatar since it won the World Cup.
The deaths, reported by authorities in the five Asian countries, were not disaggregated by occupation, place or work. But labor rights group Fairsquare said it was likely that many of those who died were working on World Cup infrastructure projects.
The Qatari government says the numbers are exaggerated because they include the thousands of foreigners who died following living and working there for many years. She says many were working in jobs unrelated to the construction industry.
picture released, AFP via Getty Images
Qatar spent billions on hosting the World Cup
Qatar says that between 2014 and 2020, there were 37 deaths among World Cup stadium construction workers, noting that 34 of these were “unrelated to work.”
For its part, the International Labor Organization says that Qatar has not accounted for sudden and unexpected deaths among workers. This includes fatal heart attacks and respiratory failure from heat stroke, which are recorded as “natural causes” rather than “work related,” she says.
The ILO has collected its death figures from government hospitals and ambulance services in Qatar, which cover casualties from all World Cup-related projects.
The International Labor Organization says 50 workers were killed and more than 500 seriously injured in Qatar in 2021 alone, and another 37,600 were lightly to moderately injured.
The main causes of death and injury were falls from heights, road accidents and falling objects.
How did Qatar host the World Cup?
Qatar’s hosting of the 2022 World Cup has been controversial since the moment FIFA announced it in 2010.
As a very small (albeit very wealthy) country with little football history and no record of qualifying for the World Cup at all, it was a shock to many when Qatar beat the United States, Australia, South Korea and Japan in its bid to host this World Cup.
That decision sparked allegations that FIFA officials had taken a bribe to award the World Cup to Qatar, although an independent investigation commissioned by FIFA found no compelling evidence of this.
picture released, Getty Images
A picture dating back to 2010 when FIFA President Sepp Blatter announced Qatar’s winning bid to host the 2022 World Cup
Qatar denies allegations that it bought delegates’ votes, but corruption investigations by the French authorities are still ongoing, and in 2020 the United States accused 3 FIFA officials of receiving payments.
Why is the World Cup in Qatar in the winter?
The World Cup is usually held in the months of June and July, but in Qatar the average temperatures at that time of year are around 41 degrees Celsius, and can reach 50 degrees Celsius, which is too hot to go outside safely, let alone About playing football for at least 90 minutes.
During the bidding process for the 2022 World Cup, Qatar pledged to provide advanced air conditioning technology that will cool stadiums, training sites and fan areas to 23 degrees Celsius. However, in 2015 FIFA made a decision to hold the tournament in the winter.
The FIFA World Cup kicks off on November 21, and the final will take place on December 18. This means that the tournament will fall in the middle of the club football season and disrupt it in many countries.
The English Premier League, for example, will not see any matches between November 13 and December 26.
To make up for this lost time, the 2022/2023 season will start a week earlier than usual and end a week later than usual.
