Every four years, the world watches the sport of football. However, football, like anything in this world, has an ugly side. Before games can be played in the stadiums of Qatar for the 2022 World Cup, they must be built. These beautiful buildings are being constructed in an appalling way. The migrant workers who build these stadiums are living in labor camps with poor conditions, working in extreme heat, having wages withheld from them, being forced to pay large fees and are unable to leave the country. By looking at reports of human rights violations, we can see that the Qatari government is the source of this poor treatment. Which, shows us that immediate action must be taken by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) to come to an agreement with Qatar on how to treat migrant workers better. Football’s governing body has not approached Qatar about their human rights maladies, but now is the time. If the Qatari government does not take action to improve their current human rights laws, FIFA needs to punish the Qatari Football Association.

Human rights activist groups such as Amnesty International are pushing the envelope for FIFA to take action to improve workers’ rights. Human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch, Freedom United and openDemocracy are opposed to how the Qatari government handles its migrant workers from countries such as Nepal, Bangladesh and other Asian countries (who make up over 80% of all workers in Qatar). According to a 2016 report by Amnesty International, the 234 workers interviewed all reported human rights violations. This was the first time Amnesty International found concrete evidence of human rights abuse on a World Cup construction site. The companies force workers to live in squalor, withhold wages, confiscate passports, require workers to pay large recruitment fees and to pay hospital bills. The government of Qatar outlaws the last two violations, but companies are not punished for breaking the law. The report calls out FIFA for not pressing Qatar, saying FIFA has taken a “lack of meaningful action to address the issue.” Qatar was also given one year to end worker slavery in 2016. If they do not soon they might have to deal with a United Nations investigation.

In a Freedom United video, an anonymous worker was recorded saying he came to Qatar to make money, but had 11 of his 13 months of wages withheld by the company that employs him. Another said that their overseers told them that “workers are responsible for their own safety.” How are workers supposed to pay hospital bills if they had to pay recruitment fees and are not getting paid on time?

In Qatar, the kafala (sponsorship) system binds the workers to their employers through a contract that gives the employer (the kafeel) full jurisdiction over the worker’s actions. Kafala has been discussed as a modern-day form of slavery. It was developed in the mid 20th century after slavery was abolished in Qatar. This aspect of Qatari culture contributes to human rights violations reported by Amnesty. The system prohibits workers from leaving the country or changing jobs without the employer’s permission. That is why passports are confiscated. Employers can also decide when to pay employees, which leads to withheld payments.

 The kafala system is not only present in Qatar, but in many other Gulf states. Under kafala, workers from foreign countries are targets of racism and xenophobia. The xenophobic attitudes implement themselves in a “natural disdain of women” from foreign cultures. This fits the bill for a reason why migrant workers are treated as second class citizens. According to a United States State Department report “legal, cultural, and institutional discrimination exists against women, non-citizens, and foreign workers.” Interestingly enough, Qatar has anti-discrimination laws. They are also physically and sexually abused because there are no laws that forbid domestic violence in Qatar. As one can imagine, emotional abuse is another product of discrimination. The Gulf states, especially Qatar, definitely do not have a strong civil society to press the government to inforce legislation to help against workers’ unfair treatment.

Another issue dealing with World Cup workers’ conditions and treatment is the deaths from Qatar’s devastating heat and humidity. Human Rights Watch (HRW) claims that the Qatari government has not made certain information regarding the deaths public. In 2016, Qatar listed that a worker who died after a 39-degree Celsius day had actually died from causes outside of work. In 2015, 10 workers died from “non-work related” causes. HRW says these reasons ‘obscure the underlying cause of deaths,” which are thought to be heat related. Any heat related illness such as heat exhaustion and heat stroke require medical care and can cause death from heart attack. The heat of the Middle East has already affected the tournament in another way. In 2010, FIFA moved the playing dates for the 2022 World Cup to winter because the summer heat of Qatar would be life threatening to players and fans. Currently, government regulations only limit outdoor working hours from 11:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. during summer’s hottest months. But, HRW calls for work hours to be dictated by safe temperatures using the wet bulb global temperature. This shift in the tournaments’ timing will also affect professional leagues all across the world that play during the winter. Leagues and Football Associations must reschedule hundreds of games to allow for a World Cup break.

Recently, Qatar has made a good stride towards improving the rights of workers by passing a labor law that includes limited working hours and provides vacation time amongst other statutes. The law gives rights to domestic workers for the first time ever, who are excluded from Qatar’s past Labor Law that was passed in 2004. However, the most positive components of the law are vague or are not fair to the worker. The law requires a written contract that includes details of the job, wages and working hours amongst other specifics. But, the contract is to be written in Arabic, not the native language of the worker, who most likely is from Asia. Despite rules that employers must provide food, accommodation, and healthcare, there are no minimum requirements for each. The largest flaw of the newly passed law is that there are no plans for enforcing it. It is obvious that Qatar is not fully committed to protecting all of its citizens against human rights violations. Not only does Qatar have flaws with how they deal with human rights but so does FIFA.

This coming summer the 2018 World Cup will be played in Russia and FIFA has a similar problem on their hands there too. According to a June 2017 HRW report, workers building stadiums for the upcoming tournament are not being paid their monthly wages in full or in part, and are experiencing delays of payment. On top of that, they are working in temperatures that are in the range of -25 degrees Celsius and their employers do not have contracts that are legally required for them to work. The workers in Russia are also from foreign countries of the region, such as Belarus and the Ukraine. According to the Building and Wood Workers’ International global union a minimum of 17 construction workers have died on Russian stadium projects. Problems in Russia and Qatar seem to be of the same nature, which can only mean that FIFA does not have a tight grip on how their stadiums are being constructed. FIFA sent HRW a letter describing their “labor monitoring system” in tandem with Russian authorities. In the letter, FIFA said that dozens of inspections were carried out and a few examples of issues resolved were included. However, FIFA’s trademark flaw of not disclosing more than a small amount of information continued as many details such as sites with violations and types of violations have not been published. 

On a more societal and political front, FIFA is hosting the World Cup in Russia despite the passage of anti-gay laws that was dubbed to encourage “stigma and prejudice” by the European Court of Human Rights this past summer. The laws ban the “promotion” of homosexual behavior and are commonly referred to as the gay propaganda laws. Common symbols of homosexuality such as rainbow striped flags are illegal in Russia. Chechnya, a part of Russia, was proven to have persecuted, imprisoned and tortured gay men this past year as well. FIFA’s anti-discrimination taskforce, a group of experts on issues of discrimination and football, urged FIFA to act against the Russian laws. FIFA did respond and asked for clarity on the specifics of the new law and what it meant for fans and players alike.

On top of Russia’s attitudes of anti-gay sentiment, racism is common in the country. A prominent target of racism in Russia are footballers playing in the Russian Premier League. Hulk, a Brazilian national team footballer, said that he experienced racism in “almost every game” he played during his first season at Zenit St. Petersburg. Fans have been known to make monkey sounds and throw bananas on to the field. Last September, FIFA dissolved their anti-discrimination taskforce citing the reason that it had met its goals. This news came as incidents of racism amongst Russian fans was on the rise. According to the SOVA Center and the FARE Network there was an uptick of discrimination with 92 incidents during the 2014-2015 Russian Premier League season. This number is compared to 83 total incidents for the past two seasons. FIFA responded by saying that the systems that were proposed by the task force were developed and implemented. Therefore, it was dissolved, but FIFA recognizes and continues to fight against discrimination. To be fair to FIFA, one of the programs, the anti-discrimination monitoring system, will be used at 2018 World Cup matches to observe matches that have a high risk of racism and will discipline accordingly.

In May of 2017, FIFA held discussions with the Building and Wood Workers’ International group about their submission of concern involving the poor treatment of migrant workers in Qatar. FIFA said on their website that the discussions were “constructive and fruitful” in regard to improving “workers’ welfare” in Qatar. 

Due to FIFA’s weak history of taking action against human rights abuses in football it is definitely clear why Qatar made it through the selection process for the 2022 World Cup. FIFA simply does not care enough about a host nation’s current civil society. Which, is the reason such abuses are still occurring in Qatar. Abuses also occur because the government does not have modern human rights standards to enforce on companies and citizens. The maladies of both parties make Qatar a poor choice to host a World Cup. Which is why FIFA needs to take action in order to stop these human rights violations. If Qatar does not cooperate, they should be punished by FIFA.

However, those who believe FIFA has no place interfering with the host nation’s affairs might disapprove of this plan. They might suggest that private groups should pressure Qatar instead and that FIFA should stick to football. In a very recent case, they are correct. The International Trade Union Confederation has just secured a promise with the Qatari government that they will end the kafala system. But, this is only a preliminary agreement, no action has been taken yet. Knowing the Qataris, they have a history of slow movement passing human rights laws. If FIFA were to get involved then there would be more pressure on the Qatari government to act without hesitance. FIFA could threaten Qatar with the loss of the World Cup or sanctions against their football league or national teams. These sanctions could include a ban on tournament participation or loss of funding. 

Since the question of whether FIFA should act has been answered affirmatively, the next question is how should FIFA act. The first option needs to involve FIFA pressing Qatar to enforce current worker’s rights laws and altering laws to meet international human rights standards. The laws should be improved so workers know about job descriptions and wages before they come to Qatar. When the workers are in Qatar they need to be given wages on time, have accommodations that are sanitary and working hours that protect them from the sun. International standards should be applied to statutes that include employers providing healthcare, food and adequate rest and vacation periods for the workers. HRW thinks similarly, saying that FIFA should use its power to help the cause of workers’ rights is heard and improve upon in Qatar. On World Cup construction sites FIFA needs to press Qatar to monitor the enforcement of these changes. This would hopefully lead to the restructuring or repeal of the kafala system.

If Qatar does not comply then FIFA will need to punish them. A host nation overpowering FIFA is ridiculous and authority must be shown. At that point FIFA will lose credibility if they do not impose sanctions on Qatar. Stripping them of the World Cup and/or by imposing sanctions on the Qatari Football Association would be appropriate actions. A nation that is ready to host the World Cup and that has modern human rights laws is the United States. In fact, the U.S. has entered a bid for the 2026 World Cup with Canada and Mexico. All three countries have enough stadiums already built to host competition. If FIFA were to sanction the Qatari FA they could aim their shot at youth development and national teams. If FIFA were to bar Qatar from participating in any international competition that would be a large blow to the development of their youth and senior national teams. Qatar has a First, U-23, U-19, U17, Futsal and Futsal Youth national team. If Qatar’s best players cannot compete then the country will lose a lot. If no national team games are being played that means that there are no games on television. In this scenario, many parties in Qatar such as the sports channel and the Qatari FA lose out on money and publicity. With this plan, maximum damage can be inflicted on Qatar for their wrongdoing.

By looking at reports of human rights violations, we can see that the Qatari government is the source of the poor treatment predicament. Without a doubt, FIFA needs to come to an agreement with Qatar on how to treat migrant workers better at once. If the Qatari government does not take action to improve their current human rights laws FIFA needs to punish the Qatari Football Association. However, the process of solving this problem is not fueled by the how as much as the why. In the end, it does not matter how the goals get accomplished, but it does matter that they achieve their goals. The goal is to ensure that everyone has basic human rights because everyone is entitled to them as human beings. Which, is something FIFA, Qatar and the whole world should love and stand for, just as much as football.
