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Amnesty International has criticised FIFA’s new legacy fund for the 2022 World Cup, stating that it ignores migrant workers who helped build the stadiums that were used during the tournament in Qatar.
Yesterday (Wednesday), FIFA announced that it has invested $50m (£39m/€47m) into a series of social programmes in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO), World Trade Organisation (WTO), and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency
FIFA said the objective of the fund and the multi-stakeholder partnership will help the governing body deliver results “beyond the pitch” and drive positive social and developmental impacts around the world.
The legacy fund will invest in social impact projects across four key pillars: refugees, public health/occupational health and safety, education, and football development.
The second pillar will include the promotion of health and wellbeing and will extend to “improve working conditions”. FIFA said it would join forces with WHO to support Beat the Heat, an initiative to mount action to safeguard the health and safety of high-risk individuals from extreme heat and related hazards.
Human rights organisation Amnesty International believes the fund should include compensation for migrant workers.
Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s head of labour rights and sport, said: “It is shameful that FIFA and Qatar have launched their long-awaited legacy fund without any recognition of their clear responsibility towards the vast number of migrant workers who were exploited and, in many cases, died to make the 2022 World Cup possible.
“While providing money to global efforts to support refugees and protect workers from the impacts of extreme heat is important, the fund currently does absolutely nothing for the families who lost loved ones in Qatar and were plunged into poverty as a result
“In failing to provide funding to compensate workers and their families for the severe harms suffered in Qatar, FIFA is blatantly disregarding its own human rights policies and is likely to be ignoring the conclusions of its own commissioned report – which is yet to be published. As long as FIFA continues to bury its head in the sand, workers and their families will continue to suffer the consequences.
“After worldwide demands for compensation coming from fans, players, sponsors and football associations, this legacy fund cannot be the end of the story. FIFA must finally do the right thing and provide meaningful remedy for all whose rights were violated and abused as a result of its flagship tournament.”
Ahead of the tournament two years ago, Amnesty International urged FIFA to fund a major compensation programme for “abused” migrant workers. The organisation called on FIFA to earmark at least $440m – the amount it handed out in prize money at the World Cup – to provide remedy for the “hundreds of thousands of migrant workers who have suffered human rights abuses” in Qatar during preparations for the World Cup.
Discussing the launch of the legacy fund, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said: “The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Legacy Fund is a landmark project that builds on the unprecedented impact of the tournament from a sustainability point of view. FIFA is taking the concept of a legacy fund to the next level in terms of reach and impact by tackling key priorities such as refugees, occupational health, education, and football development.”
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