World Cup 2018/2022 Decision

[quote=“Fitzy, post: 834522, member: 236”]The European leagues have bent over and meekly taken it up the arse from Platini and Blatter and the 2022 WC in Qatar will now go ahead around about Christmas time. For fucks sake.

I thought the english FA were going mental about this idea and would fight them on the beaches about it?

What a complete and utter fucking joke. The WC at Christmas. In a country the size of Offaly. With the same social values as Offaly.

I hope Israel qualify and beat the living shit out of these Quatari cunts.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/sep/19/qatar-world-cup-europe-winter

They favour Nov / Dec so it doesn’t clash with the Winter Olympics? Is this that what they’ve done to Pele’s beautiful game? No one gives a flying fuck about the winter olympics, its only marginally more boring than rugby. But football is now reduced to working the most important sporting competition in the world outside of the All Ireland championships around it. Sweet fucking jesus.:mad:[/quote]
Blatter has been against Qatar getting the world cup from the beginning

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/25/revealed-qatars-world-cup-slaves

[SIZE=6]Revealed: Qatar’s World Cup ‘slaves’[/SIZE]
Exclusive: Abuse and exploitation of migrant workers preparing emirate for 2022

[LIST]
[]Pete Pattisson in Kathmandu and Doha
[
]The Guardian, Wednesday 25 September 2013 17.46 BST
[/LIST]
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.

The allegations suggest a chain of exploitation leading from poor Nepalese villages to Qatari leaders. The overall picture is of one of the richest nations exploiting one of the poorest to get ready for the world’s most popular sporting tournament.

“We’d like to leave, but the company won’t let us,” said one Nepalese migrant employed at Lusail City development, a $45bn (£28bn) city being built from scratch which will include the 90,000-seater stadium that will host the World Cup final. “I’m angry about how this company is treating us, but we’re helpless. I regret coming here, but what to do? We were compelled to come just to make a living, but we’ve had no luck.”

The body tasked with organising the World Cup, the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee, told the Guardian that work had yet to begin on projects directly related to the World Cup. However, it said it was “deeply concerned with the allegations that have been made against certain contractors/sub-contractors working on Lusail City’s construction site and considers this issue to be of the utmost seriousness”. It added: “We have been informed that the relevant government authorities are conducting an investigation into the allegations.”

The Guardian’s investigation also found men throughout the wider Qatari construction industry sleeping 12 to a room in places and getting sick through repulsive conditions in filthy hostels. Some say they have been forced to work without pay and left begging for food.

“We were working on an empty stomach for 24 hours; 12 hours’ work and then no food all night,” said Ram Kumar Mahara, 27. “When I complained, my manager assaulted me, kicked me out of the labour camp I lived in and refused to pay me anything. I had to beg for food from other workers.”

Almost all migrant workers have huge debts from Nepal[/URL], accrued in order to pay recruitment agents for their jobs. The obligation to repay these debts, combined with the non-payment of wages, confiscation of documents and inability of workers to leave their place of work, constitute forced labour, a form of modern-day slavery estimated to affect up to 21 million people across the globe. So entrenched is this exploitation that the Nepalese ambassador to Qatar, Maya Kumari Sharma, [URL=‘http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Envoy+Sharma+in+soup+&NewsID=375975’]recently described the emirate as an “open jail”.

“The evidence uncovered by the Guardian is clear proof of the use of systematic forced labour in Qatar,” said Aidan McQuade, director of Anti-Slavery International, which was founded in 1839. “In fact, these working conditions and the astonishing number of deaths of vulnerable workers go beyond forced labour to the slavery of old where human beings were treated as objects. There is no longer a risk that the World Cup might be built on forced labour. It is already happening.”

Qatar has the highest ratio of migrant workers to domestic population in the world: more than 90% of the workforce are immigrants and the country is expected to recruit up to 1.5 million more labourers to build the stadiums, roads, ports and hotels needed for the tournament. Nepalese account for about 40% of migrant labourers in Qatar. More than 100,000 Nepalese left for the emirate last year.

The murky system of recruitment brokers in Asia and labour contractors in Qatar leaves them vulnerable to exploitation. The supreme committee has insisted that decent labour standards will be set for all World Cup contracts, but underneath it a complex web of project managers, construction firms and labour suppliers, employment contractors and recruitment agents operate.

According to some estimates, Qatar will spend $100bn on infrastructure projects to support the World Cup. As well as nine state-of-the-art stadiums, the country has committed to $20bn worth of new roads, $4bn for a causeway connecting Qatar to Bahrain, $24bn for a high-speed rail network, and 55,000 hotel rooms to accommodate visiting fans and has almost completed a new airport.

The World Cup is part of an even bigger programme of construction in Qatar designed to remake the tiny desert kingdom over the next two decades. Qatar has yet to start building stadiums for 2022, but has embarked on the big infrastructure projects likesuch as Lusail City that, according to the US project managers, Parsons, “will play a major role during the 2022 Fifa World Cup”. The British engineering company Halcrow, part of the CH2M Hill group, is a lead consultant on the Lusail project responsible for “infrastructure design and construction supervision”. CH2M Hill was recently appointed the official programme management consultant to the supreme committee. It says it has a “zero tolerance policy for the use of forced labour and other human trafficking practices”.

Halcrow said: “Our supervision role of specific construction packages ensures adherence to site contract regulation for health, safety and environment. The terms of employment of a contractor’s labour force is not under our direct purview.”

Some Nepalese working at Lusail City tell desperate stories. They are saddled with huge debts they are paying back at interest rates of up to 36%, yet say they are forced to work without pay.

“The company has kept two months’ salary from each of us to stop us running away,” said one man who gave his name as SBD and who works at the Lusail City marina. SBD said he was employed by a subcontractor that supplies labourers for the project. Some workers say their subcontrator has confiscated their passports and refused to issue the ID cards they are entitled to under Qatari law. “Our manager always promises he’ll issue [our cards] ‘next week’,” added a scaffolder who said he had worked in Qatar for two years without being given an ID card.

Without official documentation, migrant workers are in effect reduced to the status of illegal aliens, often unable to leave their place of work without fear of arrest and not entitled to any legal protection. Under the state-run kafala sponsorship system, workers are also unable to change jobs or leave the country without their sponsor company’s permission.

A third worker, who was equally reluctant to give his name for fear of reprisal, added: “We’d like to leave, but the company won’t let us. If we run away, we become illegal and that makes it hard to find another job. The police could catch us at any time and send us back home. We can’t get a resident permit if we leave.”

Other workers said they were forced to work long hours in temperatures of up to 50C (122F) without access to drinking water.

The Qatari labour ministry said it had strict rules governing working in the heat, the provision of labour and the prompt payment of salaries.

“The ministry enforces this law through periodic inspections to ensure that workers have in fact received their wages in time. If a company does not comply with the law, the ministry applies penalties and refers the case to the judicial authorities.”

Lusail Real Estate Company said: “Lusail City will not tolerate breaches of labour or health and safety law. We continually instruct our contractors and their subcontractors of our expectations and their contractual obligations to both us and individual employees. The Guardian have highlighted potentially illegal activities employed by one subcontractor. We take these allegations very seriously and have referred the allegations to the appropriate authorities for investigation. Based on this investigation, we will take appropriate action against any individual or company who has found to have broken the law or contract with us.”

The workers’ plight makes a mockery of concerns for the 2022 footballers.

“Everyone is talking about the effect of Qatar’s extreme heat on a few hundred footballers,” said Umesh Upadhyaya, general secretary of the General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions. “But they are ignoring the hardships, blood and sweat of thousands of migrant workers, who will be building the World Cup stadiums in shifts that can last eight times the length of a football match.”

Hardly groundbreaking stuff there - most of Dubai was built in the same way. Horrible shit.

It’s not Mac, but this could now become a huge problem for FIFA. This story won’t go way because there’s no hope of the Qatari’s treating workers well. Its a story that will continue tight up to 2022, unless someone cops on and takes this ridiculous decision away from Qatar.

I still can’t unerstand how the UEFA countries went from being wholeheartedly against a winter break to agreeing to the winter WC.

[quote=“Fitzy, post: 837405, member: 236”]It’s not Mac, but this could now become a huge problem for FIFA. This story won’t go way because there’s no hope of the Qatari’s treating workers well. Its a story that will continue tight up to 2022, unless someone cops on and takes this ridiculous decision away from Qatar.

I still can’t unerstand how the UEFA countries went from being wholeheartedly against a winter break to agreeing to the winter WC.[/quote]

thinly veiled"the rest of the world must conform to the Anglo American globalization model"

I cant see why its a ridiculous decision to be honest, not every decision should be made to suit Farangs

[quote=“The Wild Colonial Bhoy, post: 837406, member: 80”]thinly veiled"the rest of the world must conform to the Anglo American globalization model"

I cant see why its a ridiculous decision to be honest, not every decision should be made to suit Farangs[/quote]

I’m still pissed off it wasn’t awarded to Australia obviously.

Australia, Britain and the US shouldnt be allowed host anything considering the numerous imperial wars they are currently engaged in

Aw mate, don’t be like that. Can you imagine how good it would have been for us to be supporting Ireland at Suncorp stadium, sitting together in the coporate box, wearing Celtic jerseys (you with the Tennants one, Samaras on the back, me with the Carling Larsson one), drinking Crownies, just being Irish.

Proposals to invite countries outside of Europe to the 2020 euros on the proverbial table. Hardly be the euros anymore then would they?

It’s weird that the crooked old cunt Blatter and the mentalist Platini have so much power in the only truly world wide sport. They’re like global Frank Murphys.

[quote=“Appendage, post: 841960, member: 11”]Proposals to invite countries outside of Europe to the 2020 euros on the proverbial table. Hardly be the euros anymore then would they?

It’s weird that the crooked old cunt Blatter and the mentalist Platini have so much power in the only truly world wide sport. They’re like global Frank Murphys.[/quote]

The Coppa America often has invitees playing in it, don’t see the need for it given the amount of countries in Europe.

Why do you think Platini is a mentalist?

[quote=“chewy louie, post: 841966, member: 1137”]The Coppa America often has invitees playing in it, don’t see the need for it given the amount of countries in Europe.

Why do you think Platini is a mentalist?[/quote]

Basing it on his vision of expanding the euros to incorporate more teams than are actually on the continent.

The south Americans only invite Mexico, USA and Costa Rica. Effectively an All American tournament. Makes no sense to invite the likes of brazil to the euros. It’s just another world cup then.

[quote=“Appendage, post: 841971, member: 11”]Basing it on his vision of expanding the euros to incorporate more teams than are actually on the continent.

The south Americans only invite Mexico, USA and Costa Rica. Effectively an All American tournament. Makes no sense to invite the likes of brazil to the euros. It’s just another world cup then.[/quote]

You sure? I remember Japan playing in the Copa before

No team has to qualify for the Copa America, therefore inviting in a couple of North American teams, who are average enough anyway, doesn’t really put anybody’s noses out of joint.

Inviting Brazil and Argentina into the Euros would be like having a de facto World Cup every two years. Blatter talked in the past about wanting a World Cup every two years. Sporting administrators have always been a special breed of cunt.

Japan, USA and Mexico (multiple times) have all taken part in Copa America. But there is no qualifying for CA.
Not sure how you would do it for the Euros, which have a year long qualifing stage.

I’m not sure. You’re right it seems.

Why would FIFA want a world cup every two years?
Floyd knows why
http://blacksportsonline.com/index/29bo8wm.gif

Marina Hyde has a wonderful piece on this in the Guardian today. I’d say she’s my favourite columnist currently operating in the world today.

Let the court cases begin.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/25653594[SIZE=6]

Qatar 2022 World Cup not held in summer[/SIZE]
The 2022 World Cup in Qatar will not be held in the summer, according to Fifa general secretary Jerome Valcke.

The scheduling of the tournament has been debated since it was controversially awarded to Qatar in December 2010.

Fears have been raised that the summer heat in the Gulf emirate would be dangerous for players and fans alike.

“The dates for the World Cup (in Qatar) will not be June-July,” Valcke told Radio France.

"To be honest, I think it will be held between 15 November and 15 January at the latest.

"If you play between 15 November and the end of December that’s the time when the weather conditions are best, when you can play in temperatures equivalent to a warm spring season in Europe, averaging 25 degrees.

“That would be perfect for playing football.”

it will indeed be extremely entertaining should Israel qualify for this

True, I can’t think of much else that will occupy my mind for the next 7 years