"FIFA seriously damages the integrity of world football"

The European Parliament warned this Thursday that the FIFA "has seriously damaged the image and integrity of world football" and considered that the corruption within this entity, at the center of the controversy for granting Qatar the celebration of the World Cup of football in 2022, is "rampant, systemic and deeply entrenched".

The resolution on the situation of the human rights in Qatar in the context of the tournament, approved this Thursday by show of hands, begins by lamenting "the death of thousands of workers migrants and the injuries suffered by workers during the preparations" for the World Cup and calls for "accountability" for them.

The MEPs ask FIFA to contribute to the implementation of "a global program of reparation for families of workersas compensation for the working conditions to which they have been subjected".

Investigate the death of workers

Qatar has denied that a specific fund is necessary for this, despite the fact that various human rights organizations have already claimed it.

Although the European Parliament applauds the fund that Qatar has set up - a fund for victims of wage theft - it points out that it was not launched until 2018 and has excluded millions of workers and their families.

The text, which denounces "the lack of transparency and the clear absence of responsible risk assessment" in awarding the championship to Qatar in 2010, calls for a full investigation into migrant worker deaths in the construction of the stadiums and demands that the victims of human rights violations have legal channels to request justice and demand responsibilities.

Qatar acknowledges 50 dead

Qatar, says the European Parliament, must review how to collect data on killed and injured during construction for the World Cup, after months of mixed accusations about the number of people who have lost their lives; while the newspaper "The Guardian" talks about 6.500 personas overall, Qatar often refers to a death toll of 50 for 2020 alone.

In later points, the text acknowledges "the reforms that the Qatari authorities have put in place to address the governance of labor migration" or "strengthening the voice of workers and social dialogue"

"These changes have already improved the living and working conditions of hundreds of thousands of workers, (but) many workers still do not benefit from these reforms and face obstacles in accessing these improvements as retaliation by their employers", they warn.