Qatar emir slams ‘ferocious’ campaign against World Cup host

Sheikh Tamim factors to an ‘unprecedented marketing campaign no host nation has ever confronted’ within the lead-up to the event.

The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani smiles during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland
Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani took goal at critics on Tuesday [File: Markus Schreiber/AP Photo]

Qatar’s emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani says his nation has confronted an “unprecedented marketing campaign” of criticism within the lead-up to this 12 months’s soccer World Cup.

World soccer’s governing physique FIFA in 2010 awarded the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, and the host has since spent lots of of billions of dollars in preparation for the event that is because of kick off on November 20.

All through, the energy-rich Gulf state has confronted fixed scrutiny over its remedy of overseas employees, in addition to LGBTQ and girls’s rights.

“Since we gained the honour of internet hosting the World Cup, Qatar has been subjected to an unprecedented marketing campaign that no host nation has ever confronted,” Sheikh Tamim stated in a speech on Tuesday.

“We initially handled the matter in good religion, and even thought of that some criticism was constructive and helpful, serving to us to develop features of ours that should be developed,” the emir instructed Qatar’s legislative council.

“However it quickly turned clear to us that the marketing campaign continues, expands and consists of fabrication and double requirements, till it reached a stage of ferocity that made many query, sadly, about the true causes and motives behind this marketing campaign.”

FIFA President Gianni Infantino has stated the upcoming World Cup, the primary to be held within the Center East, would be the “greatest ever”.

In August 2020, Qatar introduced landmark adjustments to its labour legal guidelines, together with scrapping the necessity for employees to acquire their employer’s permission – within the type of a no-objection certificates – earlier than altering jobs.

Different labour work reforms embrace the abolishment of the kafala system, the introduction of a minimal wage, and cancelling the requirement for employees to get exit permits from their employers to go away the nation.

Earlier this 12 months, Hassan al-Thawadi, head of Qatar’s World Cup organising committee, stated the labour reforms achieved by Qatar have been “historic” and the occasion would go away “really transformational social, human, financial and environmental legacies”.

Lately, human rights teams have reported extensively on the abuse suffered by migrant employees constructing World Cup stadiums.

In Could, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty Worldwide, together with eight different organisations, despatched a letter to Infantino calling for FIFA and Qatar to compensate households of employees who died within the build-up to the World Cup.

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