WORLD CUP BUILT ON BLOOD OF MIGRANT WORKERS
Given what we know, we can’t allow this game to go ahead
As SOMEONE who attended the 1990 World Cup in Italy, I am acutely aware of what a fantastic occasion it is. Footballing highs and, as scotland fans will testify, footballing lows combine with music, colour and culture to provide an unforgettable experience that brings together fans (who are lucky enough to get a ticket) from across the globe.
But the Qatar World Cup is a World Cup that will be difficult for fans to stomach. The simple truth is that while millions will sit down to watch a celebration of football, many fans will be unaware that this is a World Cup built on the blood and lives of thousands of poor migrants who have been killed while constructing the stadiums to host matches.
FIFA has had its fair share of negative coverage in recent days and weeks but all the bad publicity coming from switzerland, over sepp Blatter’s pals caught in a posh hotel in Zurich, pales into insignificance to that concerning the inaction of FIFA over the spiralling death toll of building workers in Qatar: workers who, unlike me in 1990, aren’t experiencing excitement and joy but are instead subjected to danger, misery and endless hardship.
To date, nearly 1,400 workers have been killed, with many more injured. It is estimated that 4,000 workers, or 62 workers for each game played in 2022, will die building the stadia. These workers are dying for scandalous rates of pay, sometimes as low as 45p an hour, or just below £6 a day. Often they don’t get paid at all.
Even if workers want to escape these hellish conditions, they often can’t as employers confiscate their passport and refuse them permission to leave. These are modern day slave-like conditions that we cannot turn a blind eye to.
scotland play Qatar on Friday and, given what we now know, I believe that we cannot allow this game to go ahead.
In scotland, we should send the strongest possible message to the Qatari authorities and FIFA that the current pli ght of World Cup construction workers is something that has to change, that no World Cup is worth the human suffering on this scale.
Failing to do so sends the wrong message, whilst postponing the games shows that we in scotland will not tolerate such abuses.
I lodged a Parliamentary Motion yesterday that I hope and believe will attract cross-party support.
I also hope that others in scotland will get behind the sentiment expressed in my motion and contact the sFA calling for this game to be scrapped.
Ultimately, I hope that common sense and decency prevails, that scotland doesn’t play this game. And that the building workers of Qatar begin to be treated with respect and that the World Cup gets back to being a celebration of sport — not an event built on the blood of workers.