‘The fund currently does absolutely nothing for the families who lost loved ones in Qatar’ - Steve Cockburn

Responding to the launch today by FIFA of a World Cup Qatar Legacy Fund, Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s Head of Labour Rights and Sport, said:

“It’s shameful that FIFA and Qatar have launched their long-awaited legacy fund without any recognition of their clear responsibility towards the vast number of migrant workers who were exploited and, in many cases, died to make the 2022 World Cup possible. 

“While providing money to global efforts to support refugees and protect workers from the impacts of extreme heat is important, the fund currently does absolutely nothing for the families who lost loved ones in Qatar and were plunged into poverty as a result.

“In failing to provide funding to compensate workers and their families for the severe harms suffered in Qatar, FIFA is blatantly disregarding its own human rights policies and is likely to be ignoring the conclusions of its own commissioned report - which is yet to be published.

“As long as FIFA continues to bury its head in the sand, workers and their families will continue to suffer the consequences.

“After worldwide demands for compensation coming from fans, players, sponsors and football associations, this legacy fund cannot be the end of the story. 

“FIFA must finally do the right thing and provide meaningful remedy for all those whose rights were violated and abused as a result of its flagship tournament.”

Call for at least $440m in compensation

Earlier today, FIFA announced that in partnership with the Qatari authorities it was launching a $50m legacy fund for the 2022 men’s football World Cup, with funds going to the World Health Organisation, the World Trade Organisation and UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency). The fund does not include any compensation for affected workers, though it provides some funding for the World Health Organisation’s “Beat The Heat” programme to protect workers from heat stress in the future. Amnesty has previously reported how many workers died as a result of working in extreme heat in Qatar, while workers are also likely to be at high risk in preparing the 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia. Ahead of the 2022 World Cup, a broad coalition of human rights organisations, trade unions, fans’ representative groups and players unions called for FIFA to provide at least $440m in compensation to workers, equivalent to the prize money provided to the competing teams. The call was backed by a number of football associations and FIFA sponsors, and opinion polls showed overwhelming support for the move by the public. To date, this has been ignored by FIFA.

In March last year, FIFA commissioned an independent report to advise on whether it had responsibility to provide remedy for abuses committed in connection to the World Cup. The report is yet to be published but is believed to recommend the provision of remedy to a significant number of workers. Past FIFA legacy funds for world cups in South Africa, Brazil and Russia were reported to be worth $100m each - double the size of the Qatar fund. FIFA generated more than $7bn from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.