FIFA and Qatar are preparing for the start of the World Cup in less than a month.
With less than a month to go before the 2022 World Cup begins, FIFA has come out in defense of Qatar due to the recent complaints made by different NGOs about the alleged violations of human and labor rights that occurred during the organization of the tournament
The president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, defended Qatar on Thursday from the criticism it has received for not respecting human rights and assured that the Arab country has made several “real changes” to improve the conditions of migrant workers.
The World Cup is “an opportunity for Qatar and the Persian Gulf to present themselves to the world in a different way and get rid of the prejudices that unfortunately still exist today,” Infantino said in a speech at the ‘Future Investment Initiative’ (FII ), known as the “Davos of the Desert”, held in Riyadh.
In this sense, he said that in Qatar there have been “real changes” in terms of labor rights, praised the fact that the Arab country approved a minimum wage for the first time in this region of the Middle East and applauded the “abolition” of the sponsorship system that binds employees at the will of their employers.
“These changes have happened in just a few years in Qatar, while in other countries, including some of our beloved European countries, this took decades,” said the FIFA president, who stated that this is due to the “real impact of the World Cup”.
The Italian-Swiss celebrated that to date FIFA has received 23 million requests to get a ticket for the World Cup, something he called a “record”, while he said that “more than 3 million tickets have been sold and will be sold” and the tournament will have 5,000 million viewers from television.
Infantino also spoke about the campaigns during the World Cup to encourage people to lead a healthy life, since especially “after the pandemic it is important to focus on health.”
“Football is happiness. And FIFA has been the official happiness provider for over 100 years. And happiness, obviously, is one of the best medicines against any type of disease, as we know, “he said.