Labour Wrap: Qatar, Fifa and the ugly game

Cape Town -Bribery and corruption have seen soccer, once known as the beautiful game, becoming the ugly game, says Terry Bell in his latest Labour Wrap. 

He adds that whether South Africa was involved in bribery — and what constitutes a bribe — will continue to bedevil the sport, both locally and internationally for years to come. Is it bribery, for example, to pass on $10m (R120m) of income to an African diaspora fund in the Caribbean when it could have been used for development in Africa, let alone South Africa? asks Bell. And he wonders if the fact that the Caribbean region brought with it 41 votes might have had anything to do with the payment.

He also points out that this scandal has moved the terrible earthquake tragedy of Nepal off the front pages and news leads. Yet, he maintains, the two matters are linked by the fact that the tiny, oil rich Gulf state of Qartar was controversially awarded the right to stage the 2022 World Cup.

Among the 1.4 million migrant workers in Qatar, many are from Nepal where, as the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has pointed out, workers live in appalling conditions as virtual slaves. They labour for up to ten hours a day in summer temperatures of 45 degrees and more and, to date, more than 1 200 of these workers have died on World Cup stadium building sites. Many more have been injured or maimed.

According to Bell, Fifa did care about the effects of the temperature. But only on players and paying spectators. This was the reason that Fifa supremo Sepp Blatter proposed moving the tournament to the slightly cooler winter months.

And when the earthquake struck Nepal, killing thousands and destroying villages, Nepalese workers were refused permission to return home to seek, to bury and mourn family members who had died. They are tied to their jobs by debt incurred through recruitment agencies. According to an ITUC investigation, poor workers pay on average R12 000 after being promised good jobs and pay by global labour brokers.

This, says Bell, is a global reality that we should all face up to and demand fair play from both Qatar and Fifa.

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* Terry Bell is a political, economic and labour analyst. Views expressed are his own. Follow him on twitter @telbelsa.