Chris Hayes of MSNBC Discovers The Abuse of Workers For The 2022 World Cup

One has to admire the myopathy of Americas news outlets concerning the abuse of workers hired to construct the various stadiums and other facilities for the 2022 World Cup to be held in Qatar in 2022.

European news outlets have chronicled the abuses of these laborers since last year chief among them the Guardian.  Yet, just two days ago Chris Hayes  a presenter on the American cable news outlet MSNBC broadcasts a segment on these abuses as though they have just come light.  Mr. Hayes offers up Jeremy Schaap of ESPN and his report for that sports network as the definitive reporting on the treatment of labors in Qatar.    

Mr. Hayes just because an American sports channel broadcasts a report on these abuses doesn't make them the sole arbiter on this issue.

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.

Qatar under growing pressure over workers' deaths as FIFA is urged to act 

Victims' groups and UN urge football governing body to halt death toll before 2022 World Cup

As the executive committee of Fifa convened in Zurich for two days of talks including a session on Qatar's preparations for the biggest sporting event ever to be held in the Middle East, the Uefa president, Michel Platini, said he was "much more concerned" with allegations over the treatment of migrant workers in the Gulf state than with discussions over whether to move the tournament to winter.

Ramesh Badal, a lawyer in Kathmandu who represents Nepalese workers victimised in Qatar, including those who have lost hands and legs in construction accidents, demanded that Fifa place a deadline on Qatar by which it must prevent deaths and labour abuses. He said if it fails, the right to host the World Cup should be withdrawn.

"If Fifa applies pressure on Qatar now, then they will definitely change," he said. "This is now in the hands of Fifa."

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.

 Abuse and exploitation of migrant workers preparing emirate for 2022

The Nepalese workers in Qatar who don't make it home alive 
Analysis: Qatar 2022 puts Fifa's reputation on the line

Dozens of Nepalese migrant labourers have died in Qatar in recent weeks and thousands more are enduring appalling labour abuses, a Guardian investigation has found, raising serious questions about Qatar's preparations to host the 2022 World Cup.
This summer, Nepalese workers died at a rate of almost one a day in Qatar, many of them young men who had sudden heart attacks. The investigation found evidence to suggest that thousands of Nepalese, who make up the single largest group of labourers in Qatar, face exploitation and abuses that amount to modern-day slavery, as defined by the International Labour Organisation, during a building binge paving the way for 2022.
According to documents obtained from the Nepalese embassy in Doha, at least 44 workers died between 4 June and 8 August. More than half died of heart attacks, heart failure or workplace accidents.
The investigation also reveals:
• Evidence of forced labour on a huge World Cup infrastructure project.
• Some Nepalese men have alleged that they have not been paid for months and have had their salaries retained to stop them running away.
• Some workers on other sites say employers routinely confiscate passports and refuse to issue ID cards, in effect reducing them to the status of illegal aliens.
• Some labourers say they have been denied access to free drinking water in the desert heat.
• About 30 Nepalese sought refuge at their embassy in Doha to escape the brutal conditions of their employment.