A year ago, Lionel Messi and what seemed to be the entire population of Argentina were celebrating victory after perhaps the most dramatic World Cup final ever played. In a closing tournament press conference, the president of Fifa, Gianni Infantino, described Qatar 2022 as the best World Cup in history. The accounts showed that world football’s governing body had pocketed a record $7.5bn worth of revenue.
Then, as Christmas approached, the sporting and media caravans moved on. But many migrant workers, whose labour had enabled this sporting spectacle to take place, did not. By March this year, a coalition of eight union federations had issued an angry statement noting deteriorating working conditions, as the spotlight of global attention abruptly switched off.
Twelve months on, Qatari labour courts are dealing with a vast backlog of claims from labourers seeking redress for abusive practices ranging from illegal recruitment fees to withheld wages. The iniquitous kafala system – a form of bonded labour officially abolished in 2017 as preparations for the World Cup placed Qatar under heavy scrutiny – reportedly continues in places under the radar. An Amnesty International report last month found that “despite significant changes in legal frameworks, abuses persist on a significant scale”. The lack of proper investigation into migrant worker deaths means that vital information to buttress relatives’ compensation claims has often been missing. Cases where relevant paperwork is available have been ignored, say human rights groups.
If Qatari authorities have questions to answer, despite limited reforms, so does Fifa. Notoriously, Mr Infantino grew exasperated with criticism of the decision to stage the World Cup in a desert state with a poor human rights record. On the defensive, he boasted to the media a year ago that his organisation would work tirelessly to protect a positive legacy for migrant workers. But a mooted migrant workers’ centre in Qatar did not come to pass, and there has been little apparent progress on vague post-tournament promises of a “labour excellence hub”.
Perhaps most egregiously, given the record profits banked by Fifa, a “legacy fund” set up by Mr Infantino contains no provision for remedying human rights abuses suffered by foreign workers in Qatar. This despite pre-tournament suggestions that a form of reparations fund would be seriously considered. A promised assessment of the organisation’s human rights responsibilities, including on compensation, has yet to be published.
It is hard not to conclude that with the heat now off, Fifa’s preoccupations and PR priorities lie elsewhere. That is, of course, depressing for the poorly paid workers from countries such as Ghana, Kenya and Nepal who have discovered that the protection of their rights is no longer such a pressing issue. But it is also deeply concerning, given Saudi Arabia’s status as the sole candidate to host the 2034 World Cup.
More than six times as many migrant labourers work in Saudi Arabia, compared with tiny Qatar. An expanded World Cup of 48 teams will require a colossal infrastructure programme to be undertaken by a foreign workforce subject to kafala rules. Inevitably, the same cycle of reassurance and spin will begin, energetically fronted by Mr Infantino. But the evidence of the last 12 months does not inspire confidence that, for some of the world’s most vulnerable labourers and their families, impressive rhetoric will be followed up with a meaningful legacy.
