Qatar 2022

sort of. I actualy learned they are much worse than I thought.

 

Wow... horrifying, and totally predictable. In fact, I believe that was highlighted as a likely outcome years ago. And why I planned to boycott my second straight World Cup almost as soon as it was announced. Turns out I was right. This whole thing is a disgrace.

 

A lot of those deaths would've happened anyway. I mean Doha doubles its population every 15 years so there is a lot of construction happening anyway. But WC definitely added to the death toll.

 

I think you need to read about this more and not just react to a headline. (Or if you do know about what happens in Qatar and still make such a statement I'm responding to an entirely different level of a person.)

How many deaths are acceptable to you for construction workers? "Some" in other nations, even with that growth would be 100ish maybe. And if you read the article, you'll see that it is beyond deaths. Workers have been lied to by recruiters about their wages. When they enter the country to work they are told they are paid significantly lower than what they were promised AND they are responsible for paying the recruiting fees making them instantly in debt. Just as important, they aren't allowed to leave their jobs or the country unless the company which holds their contract agrees to allow them (which doesn't happen.) This is backed by the government creating almost a slave workforce. (I say 'almost' because technically they get paid and technically did agree to initial employment.) People worry in the US about minimum wage, in a free labor market, not being enough to raise an entire family on, but they're fine with enabling this for other nations? Sad on many levels.

Oh, and I wish I still had the article, but there was a US soccer player many years back where this same thing happened. He signed to play in Qatar. The team wasn't paying him properly. He tried to leave, but he was blocked from exiting the country b/c the team wouldn't release him from his employment contract.

 

Quite Davidjd, and often their passports will be held by the employer so they can't even forget about the money they're owed and just go home.

 

To correct myself from above, it was a French player.

Here is the article: https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...r-pep-guardiola-zinedine-zidane-qatar-trapped

As of that article in Nov 2013, the player had been trapped in Qatar for 17 months not being allowed to leave.

"Under the kafala system that ties employees to their "sponsors", migrant workers cannot leave the Gulf state unless their employer agrees and Belounis has been left in limbo in Doha with his wife and two daughters."

"He warns that "hundreds if not thousands" of others are suffering the same way"

In 2013 it was called out here: "International Trade Union Congress claiming that up to 4,000 could die before the World Cup kicks off in 2022. Belounis says: "I am not alone in this predicament. Many workers who are to build the stadiums for the 2022 World Cup risk finding themselves in the same situation as me."

 

I get it and its awful. But given where we are having this discussion, one needs to separate the WC-related deaths from other construction deaths and other deaths that have nothing to do with building WC stadiums. I read the article and it doesn't provide this info (probably because Qatar is hiding it).

 

There is zero reason why FIFA should be enabling such behavior especially if they knew this was their mode of operation (which they did.) If there was ever a time for this cancel culture this would be it.

 

Yep, we’re not disagreeing.

 

There will now be a 7 month interval for Conmebol teams between their last games in November and their next ones in June

I expect these postponements will weigh on the development of the teams affected by them and this will manifest itself at the WC. A real pity

 

Is postponing the WC for a year a possibility?

 

CAF Afcon qualifying is still on.

A question for anybody in the know. I just looked at the UK rules, and it says that anybody comming into the UK has to quarantine for 10 days. So that would seem to apply to anywhere in Europe.

So why are the Conembol qualifiers cancelled but not UEFA, if going by the rules as I understand them you would have to quarantine for 10 days whether you play in Brazil or anywhere in Europe outside of the UK.

Rules are below.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-travel-corridors

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...vid-19-travellers-exempt-from-uk-border-rules

= jobs that qualify for travel exemptions: Elite sportspersons. However:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/transport-measures-to-protect-the-uk-from-variant-strains-of-covid-19

 

What if we delayed the World Cup to June/July of 2023?

 

you couldn't hold it in Qatar if we did.

 

The latest you could hold it in Qatar is to be done by mid-April. Weather is fairly pleasant right now, but about to become scorching hot in about a month or so and won't cool down till November....

 

Any negative impacts though?

 

Having to listen to everyone talk about Qatar for another four to eight years after FIFA compensates them by giving them the 2026 or 2030 edition.

 

True, but even a fraction of that being the responsibility of the World Cup lies squarely at FIFA's feet.

 

Is this a definite? We are less than two weeks out and there doesn't appear to be a schedule for these matches - if you are going to get Euro names to turn up then it's cutting it a bit fine.

J

 

Now that they're under a microscope I doubt they'd give it to them again. Besides, what's Qatar going to do. Bitch that their bribes didn't work out the way they planned?

 

https://www.cafonline.com/total-africa-cup-of-nations/qualifiers/matches/

scroll down, the matches all have dates and times.

the Nigerian squad has already been announced and the clubs are aware.

There are only a few African nations on the UK's red list, which require the 10 day quarantine, and its only a problem if those nations have home games.

For example Senegal plays Eswatini who is on the red list, but they play them at home, so it isn't a problem.

Most of the South American countries were on the red list which is why they cancelled their qualifiers.

Portugal is the only euro country on the redlist, so its likely that UK based Portugese players may not be allowed to play in Portugal's home game.

 

None of their behavior was a secret the last time their bribes worked. Are the voting members any more moral today than when Qatar won the original vote?