Playfair Qatar is the British TUC’s contribution to the global campaign seeking better lives and internationally recognized – properly enforced – workers’ rights for Qatar’s desperate migrant workforce.

We are very proud of our role in the Playfair 2012 alliance which saw not only an incredibly safe London Olympics, but also unprecedented agreements by suppliers to ensure that workers’ rights were respected in their supply chains, no matter where in the world they were working. Qatar may not be on our doorstep like London 2012, but while a love of football knows few national borders we still have some responsibility. Britain gave the world football, as well as trade unions.

So we are working with football fans via the Football Supporters’ Federation, an organisation that represents more than half a million fans that not only love football but are prepared get involved in supporters’ groups to defend and campaign for the good of the game. Fans have been responding with compassion to the plight of people who must feel as unfairly treated as players in a game where the referee only ever blows the whistle against them.

Sepp Blatter claimed to believe that ‘Football is about freedom, equality and respect’. The grim irony of that claim does not make life any better for the people dying, starving or suffering from intense heat as they work or sleep. No FIFA president is ever going to say, ‘Football is about slavery, discrimination & abuse’, and yet these are the principles underpinning the Qatar world cup in 2022. This is what makes it an issue for football, from fans to administrators to sponsors, and not just workers’ rights campaigners. The fans we have spoken to feel angry and helpless at the utter disregard for anything other than money being shown by football’s custodians.

Based on the ITUC’s figures, and on previous tournament formats, 62 workers will die for each game played at the 2022 world cup. FIFA’s response to this has been limp at best, frequently offensive and ultimately callous. If FIFA can force countries to change laws to sell beer – as it did in Brazil – but not to save lives, then it is time for it to disband.

FIFA wants to grow the game of football. Sepp Blatter has joked that he foresees football played on other planets, which seems fair enough since he clearly has little interest in humanity. Of course, Qatar itself and FIFA’s sponsors want the reflected glory of world football. From what we have heard from fans FIFA, Qatar & the sponsors should realise that they are not going to get what they want unless they listen to what we are all saying. You do not grow a game by letting people die. You don’t become the glamorous sporting hub of the Middle East if your country becomes synonymous with death and desperation, and sponsoring the world cup with conditions as they are makes as much sense as sponsoring an oil slick. This is not something you want your name on.

The arrests in Switzerland have changed everything for FIFA, but have changed nothing for workers’ in Qatar. Corruption is destructive in that it leads to awful choices like that which awarded the cup to Qatar in the first place, but it should not be our biggest concern. This issue is about the value of human life, not the quantity of money in brown envelopes, and Playfair Qatar and the fans, unions and rights’ organisations backing us, will continue our work to make sure no-one forgets that.

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Stephen Russell is coordinator of Playfair Qatar and international policy officer for the TUC

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Photo: Playfair Qatar