What?! Like They Wouldn't Have Known?

[ChillDoubt]

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/24282713

Looks like the decision to hold the World Cup in that 'hotbed of football' looks more ridiculous by the day.
For the organisers to say they are shocked is laughable. Everyone knows how migrant workers in the ME are treated so the feigned surprise is somewhat disingenuous.

[ToraToraTora]

all down to bent fifa officials I'm afraid.
http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/News/Question1276759.html

[LazyGun]

FIFA has parallels with your stereotyped tin-pot dictatorship, in my opinion. Blatter at the helm, surrounded by fawning lackeys and overpaid yes-men,interested only in how much money they can extract out the game and ultimately the fans. Its a rotten and corrupt edifice, long overdue for major overhaul.

The whole Qatar bid was a joke and if these allegations are true, further taints the whole tournament. When even the public in Brazil, surely the spiritual heart of the World Cup, protest the costs of staging the tournament, you know things have spiralled well out of control.

[New Judge]

You're dealing here with an organisation that has suddenly been shocked to discover that it gets hot in Qatar in the summer! You couldn't make it up.

[Gromit]

They've imported thousands of foreign workers as cheap labour to build their stadia!

I wonder if they got the idea from the London Olympic Stadium build?

[emmie]

no surprise, however where are the figures for the foreign labour force who built the Olympic park, if you have them Gromit, would be very interested, my understanding is that majority of the contract work to build the Olympic stadium was in the majority UK based... that includes the contract companies, it would be a surprise if the majority were overseas worker.

[Rosetta]

There is no comparison with the conditions and pay given to foreign workers in the UK and those given to workers in the ME Gromit. I've seen for myself working conditions for immigrant workers in the construction industry in Dubai, they are appalling

[emmie]

as are the ones i highlighted in a post about clothing factories in Bangladesh, poor to downright dangerous, unsanitary conditions, poor wages, irrespective of who buys the clothes they make.

[Rosetta]

http://www.hrw.org/news/2006/11/11/uae-workers-abused-construction-boom

[emmie]

rosetta, not a new thing, once upon a time it was called slavery...

[Rosetta]

too right emmie

[cassa333]

I'm not a football fan but what were fifa thinking would happen when they chose the location?

Did they honestly think everyone woulod be so happy they would congratulate them on their wonderful choice?

If they did then they are a bunch of idiots!!!

[andy-hughes]

It doesn't surprise me that there is enough open corruption for this venue to have been chosen.

What does surprise me is that everyone plays along with the elephant in the room - including the BBC.

If football bosses in this country are as aghast at this nonsense as they claim, why don't they refuse to co-operate until this corruption is addressed properly?

As far as the 'shcok' over workers' conditions - could this a prelude to FIFA deciding that their consciences mean they have to move the venue?

It truly beggars belief that this circus is allowed to carry on with the implicit co-operation of money men around the world who simply compound the corruption by saying a lot and doing nothing.

[ludwig]

// If football bosses in this country are as aghast at this nonsense as they claim, why don't they refuse to co-operate until this corruption is addressed properly //

I suppose that also comes down to money. Everyone knows it's farcical but if the gravy train's leaving the station no-one wants to be left on the platform.
The people who pay for it all ultimately are the fans.

[andy-hughes]

ludwig - I confess. my question was rhetorical - where money is concerned, a lot of people not only look the other way, they strain their necks making sure that 'the other way' is their default position.