Qatar World Cup: Campaign To Boycott The 2022 World Cup Underway

The Qatar World Cup is facing an overwhelming deal of criticism after reports of the dangerous working conditions of migrant workers. The 2022 World Cup has been marred by controversy ever since it was announced that Qatar would host the biggest event in all of soccer.

Due to the scorching summer heat in Qatar, FIFA, soccer’s international governing organization, has announced that the 2022 World Cup will be the first to be played in the winter. However, the
Qatar World Cup is facing much more serious criticisms than scheduling.

A social media campaign is now putting pressure on not just FIFA but also the sponsors of the 2022 World Cup by boycotting their products.

Sponsors supporting FIFA and the Qatar World Cup include McDonalds, Adidas, Visa, Coca-Cola, Kia, Hyundai, Budweiser and Gazprom. The campaign, #FIFASlavery, aims to promote awareness of not only the deaths of South Asian migrants and their poor working conditions, but also the problem of corruption, homophobia, misogyny and harassment of journalists associated with the Qatar World Cup.

@seanco88 Disgraceful, only way to try and stop this abuse is to hit them in the pocket with a mass boycott of sponsor’s #FIFASlavery

— sean cotter (@seanco88) May 20, 2015

Just recently, it was reported that a team of BBC journalists were detained for investigating human rights violation surrounding the Qatar World Cup in 2022. The detainment of the BBC journalists has only hampered the reputation of the host nation and FIFA.

A campaign by the International Trade Union Confederation, Play Fair Qatar and the NewFIFANow group to expose the appalling conditions endured by laborers building tournament infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup. “As things stand,” declares Play Fair Qatar, “more than 62 workers will die for each game played during the 2022 tournament.”

Stephen Russell of Play Fair Qatar stated that, “FIFA and its sponsors cannot wash their hands over what is happening. They have a moral responsibility to ensure that Qatar ends these human rights abuses now”.

While writing, a petition on change.org titled Stop Sponsoring Slavery, Corruption, Misogyny and Homophobia (Qatar World Cup 2022) has garnered over 1,000 signatures. Emails threatening to boycott the products of the sponsors of the 2022 World Cup have been in full swing.

With the growing allegations of poor working conditions of South Asian migrants and the insurmountable amount of evidence of harassing journalists the campaign to boycott the Qatar World Cup and it’s sponsors has only just begun.

Should The 2022 World Cup be hosted in Qatar?

[Photo by Christof Koepsel/Getty Images]