Jerome Valcke: 'FIFA is not the UN'

The general secretary of FIFA discusses Brazil's readiness for the World Cup and the criticisms facing Russia and Qatar.

FIFA is not the United Nations; FIFA is about sport, it's about football .... We are not there to discuss with political authorities what they should do and what they should not do. We can discuss with them, and again be the platform for them to meet, to exchange and to make sure they are using football as a tool for change. And that's what we're doing .... But we cannot tell a country what should be their foreign policy. That's not our role.
Jerome Valcke, FIFA general secretary.

Mr. Valcke is correct FIFA isn't the United Nations but it certainly has a responsibility to ensure that the rights of the workers constructing the stadiums in the countries chosen to host the World Cup are not subject to abuse and death.

Let's face it FIFA while the governing body of world football is also a business in serach of a profit and like any corporation their only interest is the bottom line.

Folowing the deaths of several hundred workers in Qatar FIFA begrugingly acecptted some responsibility for the death of those workers.

FIFA: It's Not Our Problem That 100's of Have Died In Qatar
When FIFA awarded the World Cup to Qatar many questions were raised as to the feasibility of having the tournament in the Middle East in the summer, whether Qatar which had never hosted such an event was capable of putting it on, along with questions concerning the size of the bid.

Since construction has begun there have been serious allegations raised about the working conditions faced by those involved in the building of the stadiums.

Qatar's World Cup preparations shouldn't include abusing its workers
As the Persian Gulf emirate prepares to host the 2022 World Cup, the world must demand that it treat its foreign workers humanely.

By The Times editorial board
February 23, 2014

The Persian Gulf emirate of Qatar, flush with oil riches and seeking to push its way to the front of the international stage, is in the midst of an enormous, decade-long building boom to construct facilities and infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup soccer tournament, the largest and most-viewed sporting event in the world. Unfortunately, Qatar is preparing for that moment of international cooperation and sport by grievously exploiting its foreign workers, subjecting them to dangerous conditions that should be drawing forceful condemnations from the world community.
A report last week by the government of India, which supplies a large share of Qatar's workers, suggests that more than 500 of its citizens have died there since 2012, primarily, according to the Guardian, in either on-site accidents or from working in inhumane conditions. Nepal, another big supplier of Qatar's labor force, recorded the deaths of 383 Nepali workers in that country in 2012-13.