Qatar

Now it is certain the WC will go ahead in Qatar, what of the Qatari team who automatically qualify as hosts?

They are not ranked in the Top 100 countries in Fifa. Six of their current team were not born in Qatar, in fact Blatter has raised concerns (that is a first) over the award of rapid citizenship to people born outside of QATAR purely to bolster their numbers.

So to all ends and purposes the Qataris have few indigenous footballers of their own & are prepared to bypass normal regulations (nothing changes there then!) to achieve their objectives.

Qatar has never qualified for the WC Finals and will almost certainly not get out of any group they are drawn in.

Lest we forget & apparently Fifa have & close their eyes to anything that challenges their awarding this competition to Qatar, there has been huge human cost to the 2022 WC Finals as shown below.

On the nasty side there is still a lot of amazement & disbelief that the Qataris (or their money) were ever awarded the finals. Amnesty & Human Rights Watch point out to a horrendous record of bad treatment & inhumane accommodation that foreign labour has to put up with.

More than 500 Indian immigrant workers have died on sites since January 2012, 380 Nepalese immigrant workers died in 2012-2013.........................

There are an estimated 1.4 million migrant workers in Qatar. Those from India make up 22% of the total, with a similar proportion from Pakistan. About 16% are from Nepal, 13% from Iran, 11% from the Philippines, 8% from Egypt and 8% from Sri Lanka.

Not only do we not know how many migrant workers have died from those other countries, too little is known about how those from Nepal and India were killed. Latest figures obtained by the Guardian show that another 53 Nepalese people have died in Qatar this year, despite the call for action.

Many of the problems led back to the kafala system that ties migrant workers to their employers. Unable to leave the country without the permission of their sponsor, workers were often forced to accept lower wages and unsanitary, cramped and dangerous living conditions. Wages could be withheld for months. Case after case has been painstakingly documented by human rights organisations and the media.

Those more unlucky still ended up seriously injured and trapped in limbo in Qatar’s hospitals, abandoned by their employers, with passports and exit visas withheld, and with no insurance to pay for treatment. For others, their journey ended in a coffin being received by their shattered families in the arrivals hall.

Those from Nepal make up only one sixth of the migrant workers in Qatar alone. The numbers are mind-boggling: there are 1.4 million migrant workers in Qatar, making up around 94% of the overall population. The remaining 6% enjoy the highest GDP per capita of any country in the world. Yet it is the individual stories of human suffering that have brought the issue home and led a series of inspectors, from the International Labour Organisation to the United Nations, to demand change.

The link below reports on a professional footballer trapped in Qatar.


http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/foreign-footballers-describe-poor-treatment-in-qatar-a-926920.html