Qatar’s 2022 venture: Perfecting the skill of scoring own goals
Members of the Swiss UNIA workers union display red cards and shout slogans during a protest in front of the headquarters of soccer’s international governing body FIFA in Zurich. Al-Jazeera’s lack of reporting also comes under fire. REUTERS Photo
State-owned Qatari television network Al-Jazeera prides itself on hard-hitting, let-the-chips-fall-where-they-fall reporting. Yet, it has systematically avoided in recent days the one story that potentially could affect the very future, shape and security of the wealthy Gulf state: controversy over the timing of the 2022 World Cup and mounting criticism of the living and working conditions of up to a million unskilled and semi-skilled workers expected to build infrastructure for the tournament.
That controversy is coming to a head with world soccer body FIFA under increasing pressure to revisit its awarding of the tournament to Qatar. FIFA’s executive committee postponed a decision on changing the timing of the 2022 competition until after next year’s World Cup in Brazil and instructed its chairman, Sepp Blatter to meet with Qatari emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani to discuss the often appalling conditions for foreign workers expected to be involved in the construction of tens of billions of dollars of infrastructure related to the tournament. This is a sensitive issue for Qatar, a country in which local nationals constitute at best 15 percent of the total population and 6 percent of the workforce. the rest of the article is found here
JAMES M. DORSEY
Mounting criticism of the living and working conditions of up to a million unskilled and semi-skilled workers expected to build infrastructure for the tournament, controversy is coming to a head with world soccer body FIFA under increasing pressure to revisit its awarding of the tournament to Qatar
That controversy is coming to a head with world soccer body FIFA under increasing pressure to revisit its awarding of the tournament to Qatar. FIFA’s executive committee postponed a decision on changing the timing of the 2022 competition until after next year’s World Cup in Brazil and instructed its chairman, Sepp Blatter to meet with Qatari emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani to discuss the often appalling conditions for foreign workers expected to be involved in the construction of tens of billions of dollars of infrastructure related to the tournament. This is a sensitive issue for Qatar, a country in which local nationals constitute at best 15 percent of the total population and 6 percent of the workforce. the rest of the article is found here
No comments:
Post a Comment