What Does it Cost to Host a World Cup Introduction In the year 2022, the world cup will be located in Qatar, a country with a population of around two million people, with ten percent being Qatar citizens and the ninety percent being foreign workers. The workers in Qatar are trapped in a labor system that uses forced labor and trafficking, in which migrate workers pay unreasonable recruitment fees to come to Qatar and when they arrive their passports get confiscated by their employers. In addition, their legal status to their employer requires them to need an exit visa from that employer in order to be able to leave the country.
Often the employer will refuse to provide an exit visa or will not pay them for a few months causing them to basically be enslaved to their employer. Furthermore, many voluntarily travel to Qatar from Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, and Syria, in order to find work as a laborer or servant but are subsequently faced with terrible conditions involving physical and or financial harm. Examples of this include withholding of pay, confiscation of their passports, job switching, false chargers, physical and mental abuse, and arbitrary detention.
Also, they usually live in unsanitary and cramped conditions with extremely long hours and sometimes unpaid wages. Whether one is a well-paid professional or a poor migrant worker, the basic rights and freedoms are not existent for workers in Qatar. This working system is known as the Kafka system. It is clear that both FIFE and the employers of the workers, along with the government of Qatar are acting unethically, both not showing any signs of corporate responsibility and both working towards bettering oneself verses the community as a whole.
If FAA is going to place an event in a location that druggies when it comes to legal and ethical responsibilities, FIFE itself needs to be prepared to at least make sure that the process to construct and prepare for this world cup occurs in an ethical and legal manner. The Event Prior to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the International Trade Union predicted that about 4000 migrant workers could potentially die due to the terrible working conditions including salty drinking water, long hours in extreme heat, and living in cramped areas.
In fact, since they originally announced the location of the cup, 1200 workers have already died, making the estimate of 000 people seem a bit on the safe side if things were to continue on the same. This means that this event will take more lives than 9/1 1 . About 500,000 extra workers are predicted to be needed in preparing for the World Cup, adding to the current total of around 1. 4 million migrant workers that will be working under unfair labor practices in Qatar.
Thee Zingier, a member of the FIFE executive, stated, “What do you expect of a football organization? FIFE is not the lawmaker in Qatar. 1” He did also agree that the circumstances in Qatar are undesirable but claimed that there can be no detraction of the location decision of the world cup. To add to this, FIFE is also under federal investigations due to the former UP, Jack Warner, supposedly accepting bribe money from a company that is associated to Staffs bid. The Telegraph claimed Jack was personally paid $1. 2 million dollars five days prior to the decision.
In addition, on March 25, 2014, a Reuters report claimed that FIFE contemplated halting an investigation into the alleged bribes that was being performed by an independent ethics committee for both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. This makes Fife’s practices seem UN-doubtfully quite questionable. If the claims of the bribe are true, Jack Warner management style is quite immoral, and for an organization to have no concerns or to take no responsibility for the harm it is going to cause for a sports event makes their ethical grounds appear non-existent.
Response A variety of responses have occurred in reaction to the location of the world cup and it seems that FAA is a bit thrown off by how this has spiraled through the media. In fact, many are calling this a humanitarian crisis. Shoran Burrow, a general secretary of the international Trades Union Congress said, “If you intention to run the World Cup in a state which enslaves workers, it shames the game. The government must end of the system Of Kafka if the World Cup is to be played in Qatar in 2022. 2 For the most part it seems that FAA does not take responsibility for the actions of the countries hosting the world cup and has labeled the current situation in Qatar “a complex matter”. Seep Bleater, Fife’s president, has emphasized that they cannot intervene in the rights of workers which seem to contradict Fife’s declaration that reads, “Providing a safe and healthy working environment for all of our people is a basic responsibility. Furthermore, with the continually accelerating international criticism of the working conditions of Qatar, it seems to have caused the authorities of Qatar to finally appear to be making an attempt to change things. The European parliaments’ human rights committee has representatives in Doth to look into the issues of the working conditions among migrant workers and they have been told from the Qatar government that changes are to be made to the labor laws. These changes involve protection of domestic workers, reforms to the sponsorship system, and some changes to the Kafka system.
Sarah Lee Whitish, Middle East director f the Human Rights Watch, says “Qatar is in the spotlight over an issue that blights the Gulf region, and Qatar officials should see this as an opportunity to set a positive example. If Qatar seizes the opportunity, it will win international acclaim. 4” It looks as though the government of Qatar has acted positively to the pressure of society to act in a more ethical manner, although currently what is being said is just talk as nothing official has taken place to date.
On the other hand, FIFE has only gone as far as to allow investigations to take place into the legality of the bribe, but has done nothing in terms of improving the conditions for the workers of Qatar or even change the location of the cup. Conclusion There really is no simple solution to this issue of the location of the world cup in Qatar. Since Qatar was awarded the bid of the world cup for 2022 the working conditions have been highlighted and emphasized in the media and society will not just forget about what is happening in Qatar even if FIFE changed the location of the world cup.
If FIFE did change the location and failed to act in a way that would assist Qatar in making changes to the Kafka system and giving rights to workers, society would not be satisfied. The only way to please society is by improving the conditions in Qatar, which in itself is not an easy task. Many people would have not even been aware of the issues in Qatar had this event not occurred and spread so drastically throughout the media. As more people become aware and voice their opinions throughout the media, it has added pressure to FIFE and Qatar to improve the conditions and make a positive change in Qatar.
Whether FIFE decides to make any changes and act socially responsibly or not will have a dramatic effect on society’s view of the organization as a whole. Moreover, as the issue moves room stage 2 in the issue development life cycle to stage 3 how FIFE decides to resolve this dilemma will be what makes or break them. What once started as simple bid for the location of the World Cup has now turned into an ethical battle between society and FIFE and has appeared to have started some positive changes in Qatar.
