FIFA UNDER SCRUTINY OVER QATAR WORKERS’ COMPENSATION

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FIFA Ignores Its Own Report Recommendations

A FIFA sub-com­mit­tee report on the lega­cy of the 2022 Qatar World Cup called on soccer’s gov­ern­ing body to pro­vide com­pen­sa­tion for migrant work­ers who suf­fered dur­ing the tour­na­men­t’s prepa­ra­tions. How­ev­er, FIFA has not act­ed on the rec­om­men­da­tion to use its lega­cy fund for this pur­pose, despite the report being sub­mit­ted near­ly a year ago.  

The report, pre­pared by FIFA’s Sub-Com­mit­tee on Human Rights & Social Respon­si­bil­i­ty, respond­ed to a request from the Nor­we­gian Foot­ball Fed­er­a­tion (NFF), which had asked FIFA to out­line mea­sures to com­pen­sate affect­ed work­ers.  

Legacy Fund Sparks Criticism  

In late Novem­ber, FIFA launched a $50 mil­lion lega­cy fund aimed at sup­port­ing social pro­grams but drew sharp crit­i­cism from Amnesty Inter­na­tion­al for neglect­ing the fam­i­lies of work­ers who died or were exploit­ed while build­ing infra­struc­ture for the World Cup.  

“There are work­ers who have con­tributed to the resound­ing suc­cess of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 who have not yet ben­e­fit­ed from any, or any ade­quate, reme­di­a­tion,” the report stat­ed. It also empha­sized FIFA’s shared respon­si­bil­i­ty, along with employ­ers and the Qatari gov­ern­ment, to ensure ade­quate reme­dies for those affect­ed.  

Alarming Findings on Workers’ Conditions  

The report detailed exten­sive “human rights impacts” from 2010 to 2022, includ­ing work­er deaths, injuries, months-long wage non­pay­ment, and crip­pling debts as work­ers repaid recruit­ment fees for their jobs. FIFA’s due dili­gence mea­sures, the report con­clud­ed, failed to pre­vent these issues.  

Calls for Action Intensify  

NFF Pres­i­dent Lise Klave­ness urged FIFA to act deci­sive­ly. “The report pro­vides clear guide­lines on what con­sti­tutes effec­tive and fair resti­tu­tion. FIFA must imple­ment these rec­om­men­da­tions and ensure migrant work­ers are fair­ly com­pen­sat­ed,” she said.  

Amnesty Inter­na­tion­al and oth­er human rights orga­ni­za­tions had ear­li­er called for FIFA to allo­cate $440 mil­lion, equal to the World Cup prize mon­ey, to com­pen­sate work­ers for human rights abus­es.