The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, claims that in the run-up to the World Cup 2022, his nation has seen a “unprecedented campaign” of criticism.
FIFA, the organization that oversees international football, gave Qatar the right to hold the 2022 World Cup 12 years earlier. Since then, the host nation has invested hundreds of billions getting ready for the competition, which will begin in less than a month.
The oil-rich Qatar has been under spotlight for how it treats foreign employees as well as LGBT and females throughout these years.
In an address this week, Sheikh Tamim stated that since Qatar was awarded the privilege of hosting the games, Doha has been exposed to an unparalleled campaign that no World Cup host has ever encountered.
The emir said to Qatari state legislature, they originally addressed the issue in proper purpose, and even believed that some criticism was helpful and useful. They claimed that the critics allow them to enhance elements of their need for a way through development.
“But it soon became clear to us that the campaign continues, expands and includes fabrication and double standards, until it reached a level of ferocity that made many question, unfortunately, about the real reasons and motives behind this campaign,” Sheikh Tamim asserted.
Qatar World Cup, the first to be staged in the Middle East, will be the “greatest ever,” according to FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
Qatar announced significant reforms to its labor regulations in August 2020. The revisions removed the need that employees get a no-objection certificate from their employer before transferring employment.
Qatar Reforms; Too Little, Too Slow
The elimination of the kafala system and the implementation of a minimum wage are two more labor reforms. The necessity that employees get departure permits from their employers in order to leave the country was also abolished in Doha.
The president of Qatari World Cup organizer, claimed months ago that the country’s labor changes were “historical”. Hassan al-Thawadi said that the World Cup will leave “really revolutionary societal, cultural, financial, and ecological legacies.
Human rights organizations have written a lot about the mistreatment migrant laborers have experienced while constructing World Cup stadiums in previous years.
Amnesty International, HRW, and multiple other parties wrote to Infantino addressing the foreign workers in stadium construction operations. The group demanded that Qatar and FIFA pay compensation to the families of workers who lost their lives while working for the World Cup construction facilities.
Nearly 50% of German people though the DFB, German Football association, shouldn’t participate in Qatar for 2022 games. The complaints centre on the host nation’s rights abuses and the fatalities of stadium construction laborers.
The DFB prefers to engage in conversation over boycotts, although there is significant popular resistance. In a representative poll conducted by the opinion research organisation YouGov in July, 48% of respondents expressed support for the national team of coach Hansi Flick pulling out of the World Cup.
Only 28% of people supported competing in the games. Japan, Spain, and Costa Rica will be Germany’s rivals in the first round of the World Cup. 24 percent of those who took the poll made no comment.
Amnesty International detected a slowing in reform efforts in 2021 after early gains in the three-year period the preceded it, according to a report for the meeting of the sports department. The Qatari government’s inactivity, AI said, “in some cases even reversed the progress that had already been made.”
