Keep football beautiful by ending slave labour in Qatar
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Version 0 of 1. Our game of football has helped unite the world and brought joy to people in every town, village and community on the planet. It’s our global conversation and has the power to unite and inspire like nothing else. The World Cups are at the epicentre of this shared experience, when billions of people around the globe sing the anthem, hug strangers and celebrate as one. But with this unity comes responsibility. Thousands of migrant labourers are slaving away in the heat of Qatar to build the infrastructure for the World Cup under a system of modern-day slavery called “kafala” (Report, 19 May). More than a million workers, the majority of them immigrants from poor nations, are effectively held hostage on the world’s biggest building site which experts say could see 4,000 people dying even before the first ball is kicked. Qatar’s authorities themselves say this should be abolished, but so far the promises have yet to turn into action. Football’s name should not be sullied by the blood, sweat and tears of those who are building this spectacle. In signing this letter, we urge Fifa, Qatar and all the construction firms profiting from this business to abolish the kafala system. We stand with the workers in Qatar and the 800,000 people across the world in calling for a change to the kafala system – let’s keep our game beautiful.Lee Dixon Former England footballer, Robbie Rogers USA footballer, Abdes Ouaddou Former Morocco footballer, Vikash Dhorasoo Former France footballer, David Ginola Former France footballer • Having just seen the Fifa press conference following the arrests of some of its senior officials (Report, 27 May), it’s apparent that Fifa has much more to do with the voting arrangements in the Eurovision song contest than the sport of football. Fifa is a cartel whereby power is assured by those in power agreeing to vote for each other, with Sepp Blatter in overall charge. He is the linchpin that holds the outdated mechanism together. Whether arising from the FBI investigation or by a decision of Fifa itself, Blatter has to go – otherwise it is football that continues to suffer. In the wake of his departure there has to be a change in Fifa’s constitution and processes so that no one person can ever again run the organisation as their personal fiefdom.Mick GoughStoke on Trent |