Real Madrid midfield star Toni Kroos has spoken out against working conditions in Qatar and believes it is deserving of more attention.
The Germany international was not involved during this international break but his national teammates have raised awareness via pre-match t-shirts highlighting human rights issues.
A report in The Guardian last month outlined how 6,750 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka had died in the gulf state since it was awarded the hosting rights for the 2022 World Cup.
That means that an average of 12 migrant workers had died per week in the nation, coinciding with an unprecedented building programme to prepare Qatar for hosting the tournament.
The decision from FIFA – world football’s governing body – to award the competition to Qatar, who have never previously participated in the tournament, proved a highly controversial one.
“Immigrant workers are subjected to days without rest with the temperature under a torrid 50 degrees, they suffer from insufficient nutrition, without drinking water and at crazy temperatures,” said Kroos, as per Cadena Cope.
🇩🇪 @ToniKroos junto a su hermano @felixkroos18, sobre el Mundial de #Catar2022
🗣️ “Los trabajadores inmigrantes tienen jornadas sin descanso bajo 50 grados”
😕 “Sufren una alimentación insuficiente, sin agua potable”https://t.co/uBCq8AzZhc
— El Partidazo de COPE (@partidazocope) March 31, 2021
“All of these are absolutely unacceptable point. Would a boycott serve to improve working conditions? I think not.
“Football always arouses extreme attention. Be it before the tournament or during it.”
Players from Norway, Germany and the Netherlands are among the nations who have highlighted the human rights issues in the gulf state prior to matches this week, when qualification for the competition got underway in Europe.
This is stupid no really. FIFA announced the world cup would be hosted in Qatar in 2010. 6750 people died since then. The syrian civil war started in 2011 and is ongoing and over 200000 people died in that and noone talks about it as if syria is nothing. This should be stopped every single time a world cup is hosted people die bulding stadiums. FIFA should of never made it in qatar in the first place cause 1. Gay people/homosexuals are dicriminated in the middle east not because of the government, the religon, In the holy quran it sais gay people are bad and islam isnt the only religion christianity doesn’t support gay people.