The decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar didn’t bother me in particular, for me, World Cups are a chance to watch great footballers playing for teams I don’t have a vested interest in. That changed when reports of hundreds of deaths of foreign migrants, allowed in to build the infrastructure required to host the tournament.
The Indian embassy in Qatar report that the death rate of their nationals involved in construction projects in Qatar is reaching epidemic levels. 233 died in 2010, 239 in 2011, 237 in 2013 and 241 in 2013. 24 died in January this year, a total of 998 since the beginning of 2010. This is a blight on humanity.
The Guardian revealed that 197 Nepalese died in 2012 and 185 died in 2013. Many of the deaths are no characterised as classic construction accidents, the heat and environmental conditions, together with the lack of facilities for immigrants, mean many die of ‘natural’ causes, including heart failure, there are other nationals there too, also dying in alarming numbers.
Labour MP, Jim Murphy, last month said, “Some of the practices we know are taking place in Qatar amount to forced labour, and there are widespread concerns that the death toll could reach well into the thousands if nothing is done.” The International Trade Union Confederation estimate (without needing to extrapolate greatly) up to 4,000 workers could die before the country is ready to host the tournament.
The prospect of a sea of blood on the pitch has not been enough to convince Fifa to call a halt to the slaughter, or at least use the threat of withdrawal to ensure migrants experience safe and humane living and working conditions.
As the tournament draws nearer, pressure groups will become better organised, but by that time, many more will have died. As fans, or, in this instance, to adopt our more effective role as consumers of TV and companies who sponsor the tournament, we have a lot of work to do, and we need to start now.
Before Fifa act they will need a lot of encouragement from sponsors, unhappy at the prospect of their brands being associated with a death trade, and they will need approval from the lawyers. Qatar ‘invested’ hugely in football as they were busy vacuuming up votes, including buying real estate on the front of Barcelona’s shirts, once regarded as an ethically responsible club. The platform association with UNICEF looks like blatant opportunism.
Today’s Telegraph offers Fifa a chance to call a halt to the project. They allege former Fifa vice president, Jack Warner and his family, were paid $2m just weeks after Qatar were awarded the tournament. The Qatar authorities deny wrongdoing.
This is perhaps the most important article concerning the football industry in decades as it opens a door to stop the despair of thousands of workers living in abject poverty and mortal danger. According to the Telegraph, law enforcement agencies are already active on this issue. They need to quickly establish if the Qatar bid was assisted by criminal activity before the tournament can be withdrawn. The danger is that irrespective of what law enforcement agencies uncover, or who ultimately goes to jail, there is so much illicit cash floating around Fifa that those in positions of power will protect their paymasters.
Before this happens, you, me, our clubs, and whoever cares from the various football associations, must organise and turn up the pressure on the criminals with their snouts in the Fifa trough. If we pass up on this opportunity, we could wait decades for the next chance to rid the top of our game of criminals.
Seville – The Celtic Movement is available now:
“Of course we’d loved Blackburn, Stuttgart, Liverpool etc, but with twenty minutes to go in Oporto, I sat with my stomach recreating a range of football related sinking feelings from the past. You know, being told I was ‘rubbish’ by the high school team prima donna as another of his cannonball passes rocketed out for a shy under my foot, or the time I ran home from primary school to watch Celtic lose to…. someone…on a black and white television during the seventies. I’ve never wanted to find out who we lost to or what year it was. The memory is more intriguing left blurry like footage of the moon landings.”
Get yours here:
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johnnyclash
09:38 on 19 March, 2014
Jamesgang
“I once interviewed a Russian General”.
That scores quite high on the scale of ‘Opening lines I least expect to read when I log onto CQN’.
; )
Fair to say I’ve had a bit of a Mr Benn (not tony!) kinda life!
The old ruskie. He hated Huns. GIRUY I’m sure he said at one point!
;-)))
Right. Pesky meeting time.
HH jamesgang
The debate between DUFC and the SFA is all about semantics about who said what and when. The reality is that there is no chance of DUFC bringing even 15,000 supporters to a cup semi in Glasgow, and DUFC know this.
Auld Jimmy fae Lennoxtown,and Laurie fae Dennistoun,are 2 Celtic men who like to speak about there team,on Superscoreboard, whats wrong with that,and talking sense I may add.Tommy Mourhino,who claims to be a celtic fan,who I think is a Rangers man.he Tommy said on the radio last week ,that being in the Champions League was all that mattered.he as for the League and Scottish Cup ,winning them was not the priority for our club.well for me as a fan I want Celtic to win all of these competitions,thats what is all about isn’t it.
http://betteroffday1.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/i-wonder-how-many-members-of-thebetter.html?m=1
hen1rik
09:27 on 19 March, 2014
Utd will still hump them……I could hump them….hahahahahahaha…..the ‘crap’ will get worse as the game approaches…..
Top of the morning to you all from sunny Fife.
Good article Paul67 and the hazards of industry are something that aren’t publicised enough. The heroes in life are those who work in hazardous conditions such as the mines but the minute they ask for a wage rise they are villains while bankers/politicians etc wouldn’t get out of bed for the money the miners had to live on.
My family like many in the working classes was blighted by industrial accidents/deaths and though I was fortunate not to have had any bad injuries myself I have worked on sites where men were killed.
On the construction of Longannet Power Station, which I worked on there were 11 fatalities IIRC. I only worked there for about a year in 1974 and in that year there were 651 industrial accident fatalities in the UK.
But sport and football in particular is a heartless business and hasn’t our international team has played in a stadium where mass executions took place (Chile?) let alone accidental deaths?
johnnyclash
09:43 on 19 March, 2014
Not the point, Johnny Bhoy …..every effort will be made to get sevco ‘over the line’…HH
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS ………FC not PLC
09.42
Thanks, yes.
My parents were generous in all things especially in the gift of handles.
timbhoy2 09:45 on 19 March, 2014
Re: Winning domestic cups.
Not at the moment.
The priority for the foreseeable future is winning the league and qualifying for the Champions League.
Celtic will win cups here and there, and it is always great when we do, but the bigger picture is staying out of sight of the Tribute Act.
Greenpinata
09:15 on
19 March, 2014
Mate.
I know.
My warped brain makes strange associations.
All nicknames in languages I didn`t understand.
Stalin…..man of steel.
Tito……..different explanations.
Manitas de plata…….little hands of silver.
I used to think his Christian name was manitas!!!!!
Pele …….nickname
Hulk ……probably nickname,for obvious reasons.
Johnnyclash with respect I disagree.
There is a complete change at clubs like Aberdeen and Dundee Utd. They recognise this is a chance to grow again and they know they have a great chance of beating the hun. They will sell out far more than that.
Take a step back here and think about what is going on. I dont mind the game being at Ibrox but it is absolutely disgraceful not to offer tickets on an even basis (well as much as segregation will allow. But worse than that is to put out that statement. the SFA have never judged ticket allocation on previous sales – never! Now they do it guess what, to suit the huns.
The SFA are intent on making this a home tie for the huns. It is an utter disgrace.
Add to that the lies they are now telling……
They will stop at nothing to protect the hun.
GUYFAWKESFOREVERAHERO
Nice hat-trick,bud. Congratulations!
steinreignedsupreme
maybe so but the hurt of having to watch the 2 cup finals at Celtic park without us being there is a sore one to take….
Go 11 mins. Into this interview, and tell me if you would let this bitter wee pished stained alky talk to you like he did without ripping into him, I know I would, my opinion, Brazil ponied it, big time.
http://youtu.be/6ULuhAOclGU
timbhoy2 09.45 hrs.
“Auld Jimmy fae Lennoxtown,and Laurie fae Dennistoun,are 2 Celtic men who like to speak about there team,on Superscoreboard, whats wrong with that,and talking sense I may add”
—————————————————–
IMO you are absolutely correct. There is nothing wrong with that.
Some over the top hysteria from some posters is frankly ridiculous; As is some calls for bans and boycotts.
Cyber forums are not for everybody. For many, radio and newspapers is still their preferred communication and news tools, no matter what some people think or would like.
Most people have a mind of their own and have the ability to differentiate crap or truth, drivel or reality.
As I am away a lot I do not listen to Superscoreboard very often, but many on here seem to, as they can almost quote word for word. It is a light relief, not to be taken as gospel and the opportunity is open to counter any disagreement or blatant untruths.
While we are still a democracy choice is paramount and in truth bans and boycotts are usually self defeating, leaves the perpetrator’s open to ridicule and simply do not work.
HH, always in Celtic.
Rather than beating about the bush with comments about neutrality of the venue (which we knew about months ago) or ticket allocation (DU will not even bring 10k to this or any other semi not matter where its played), Steven Thomson should just come out and ask the questions he really wants to ask.
Why are the SFA pretending that the current team at Ibrox are the same as the one that ceased to exist in 2012?
Why are the SFA bending over backwards to assist this new club?
Why are there still people in power at the SFA who are totally compromised by the circumstance of the dead club’s demise?
connaire12
08:45 on 19 March, 2014
…………….
Ha! Good stuff and I should have known the Greenock Celts would look after you.
Re the new car Vmh is it this one?
V
tonydonnelly67
only very occasionally do I get dissapointed by statements on here but that was one of them.
but hey ho
Till later all
Ps I do not agree with a lot AB says.
jamesgang – what about Rear Admirals?! :-)
timbhoy2 – ah the “if the bears want trophies, the bears will get trophies” mentality!
You deserve better…!
T4
Or this one
http://i61.tinypic.com/315o7j8.jpg
That link worked, tiny pic gives 3 options to post links to a picture, the one which worked was the third option grrrrr!
blantyretim is praying for the Knox family 09:58 on 19 March, 2014
“maybe so but the hurt of having to watch the 2 cup finals at Celtic park without us being there is a sore one to take….”
Aye. It is always great to see Celtic winning, the Scottish Cup in particular, but it benefits the whole league to see the cups being shared around.
If St Johnstone win the Scottish Cup this season, one of the three teams with a realistic chance, they will be the sixth top flight team to win a domestic cup in recent years and out of the top 12 clubs in Scotland only Partick Thistle will have failed to get to a final.
That can only be good for the game.
By the way – you back on your feet again BT?
Morning all,
Shamesless post here.
Some friends of mine have organised a night in the Celtic Social Club on London Rd on Fri 4th April. Its basically a night to celebrate the life of their uncle, Richard McKenna, originally a Glasgow bhoy who moved to San Francisco and was instrumental in the San Francisco CSC hosting 2 of the NAFCSC events in recent years.
There’s plenty guest speakers and photo opportunities – along with CQN stalwarts and Celtic Legends John Fallon and Tom Boyd! – and there’s food too.
Tickets are £25 a head with all money raised going to The Kano Foundation.
i’ll try and post a link for anyone interested.
HAIL! HAIL!
Token
Hamilton tim at 18:10 on the 18th
“Her son is a rabid hun”.
I mistook this saying as one of yours , sorry
Its a term another poster from a different blog used (paul mcconvilles site ) , as you know my posts are inane ramblings but always polite , once again sorry about the mistake in identity ;))
blantyretim is praying for the Knox family,
“maybe so but the hurt of having to watch the 2 cup finals at Celtic park without us being there is a sore one to take”
———————————————————-
My thoughts exactly. If we were still involved, then I could get excited. Don’t really care about ticket allocations at castle greyskull, however one though :- If they are expecting to fill the dump then I hope they dish out cans of WD 40 for all the rows of empty seats we have seen in the recent games.
HH.
here’s the link to the post i made a few mins ago:
Hope that works!!
HAIL! HAIL!
Token
Johnnyclash
Agreed.
Kayal33,
Exactly. I said similar on here last night.
Imo, Thompson is chapping his landlords door to complain about the colour of his neighbours fence whilst ignoring his big dug who keeps biting his weans.
Weirdanalogy csc
Hah!
Guess not.
2nd attempt:
[IMG]http://i61.tinypic.com/2j60it4.jpg[/IMG]
HAIL! HAIL!
Token
[IMG]http://i61.tinypic.com/2j60it4.jpg[/IMG]
God Almighty!!! Technology and I are far from bosum buddies just now!!
3rd time lucky?????
http://i61.tinypic.com/2j60it4.jpg
HAIL! HAIL!
Token
TechnophobicEejit CSC
THE TOKEN TIM
I canny get it to work either!
THE TOKEN TIM
BHOY,you gave that some build-up!
No time to respond to Macjay. Thanks though Macjay.
My ironic point to Neganon, regarding knowing Russians, was obviously lost on Gold Coast Tom. I had hoped that the words ‘Seriously though’ would have made that obvious. Obviously it wasn’t obvious enough for Gold Coast Tom. Never mind.
I used to look forward to Brazil’s almost daily promotion of CFC on talksport, how he climbed a wall into the Leeds game at Hampden, how we were the first to win the big cup, how fabulous the Celtic fans were in Seville etc etc. And this was going out all over the UK.
He seems to have been pulled in by his radio station bosses and told to get behind the Sevco cause, or at least not criticise them in any way. Durham, Gough, Keys and Gray all happily towed the line. Did Brazil have to?
The one thing you can say about the English MSM in general is that no person or club is exempt from the press hatchet. Moyes is getting the treatment right now but they’ve all copped it at one time or other; Fergie, Jose, Keane, Hoddle, Keegan, Kenny, Sven, Wenger, Man Utd, Arsenal, England and so on.
So why the sofly softly approach towards a club who have carried out probably the biggest crimes in British sporting history?
leftclicktic we are all neil lennon
10:13 on 19 March, 2014
tonydonnelly67
only very occasionally do I get dissapointed by statements on here but that was one of them.
but hey ho
Till later all
Ps I do not agree with a lot AB says.
___________________________
I don’t post to impress you or anyone else on here, it’s my opinion, and the last time looked here, many where posting opinions on many other subjects, but I think I know where YOUR coming from, .
MARRAKESH EXPRESS
Because it is owned by Ulster Television?
TTT
Looks like you need a trip to the far east to Iron oot those obvious deficiencies. ;-)
Leave the links to the professionals.
MWD