WEBVTT - Qatar 2022 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:08.559 The circular conveyor belt a cabman Dou's Trobooven International Airport 0:00:08.840 --> 0:00:14.120 is chaos. Passengers returning from Qatar elbow for room to 0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:19.079 grab their cellophane wrap suitcases and battered cardboard boxes filled 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:22.360 with expensive and hard to get stuff like flat screen TVs, 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:28.360 mobile phones, and designer clothes. But in this clamor you'll 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:34.559 find another type of traveler, eyes swollen with grief, clutching 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:38.720 crumpled tissues, reaching into the jumbled mess of luggage to 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:44.199 claim something far more precious. The big wooden boxes they 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:48.479 reach for are sometimes a light beige color, other times 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:52.560 they're painted a bright red. They all have the same 0:00:52.600 --> 0:00:57.440 words stamped on the side, human remains. We've got coffins 0:00:57.440 --> 0:01:01.280 coming home every day more than a worker day on average, 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:05.440 is dying. It's a senior see repeated in airports across 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:10.199 Asia and Africa. FIFA's alleged tradition of bribery is taking 0:01:10.240 --> 0:01:15.000 a real human toll. Ever since the tiny oil rich 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:17.880 nation of Qatar was awarded the World Cup in that 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:21.920 sham election back in two thousand and ten, millions of 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:29.640 migrant workers have fled the soul crushing poverty of Nepal, Kenya, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, 0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:34.720 the Philippines in countless other countries for jobs building Qatar's 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:40.880 World Cup stadiums, new roads and tourist hotels. But opportunity 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:46.959 has come with a deadly price. In the last decade, thousands, 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:53.120 yes thousands, of these temporary workers have died, their families 0:01:53.240 --> 0:02:00.480 left to scuffle with tourists to retrieve their remains. The 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:04.000 Guardian found that over six thousand, five hundred migrant workers 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:06.880 have died in Qatar since the country was awarded the 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:12.360 contract for the two World Cup. More than six thousand, 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:16.040 five hundred people, just regular people trying to make a 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:21.400 better life, killed while working in Qatar. It's hard to 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:25.280 wrap your head around a death toll that large, and 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:30.160 if you can believe it, that staggering number might even 0:02:30.200 --> 0:02:34.600 be larger. The exact number of workers killed in support 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:40.720 of the World Cup isn't truly known because Qatar, FIFA's 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:46.360 World Cup partner, refuses to release the information. The Guardian newspaper, 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:50.720 which initially compiled the list of deaths, only had death 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:55.919 records from five countries India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. 0:02:56.560 --> 0:03:00.120 Many other countries in Africa and Asia refused or are 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:04.240 unable to provide the data, so it's almost certain the 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:07.560 total is higher. But the scale of the death should 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:11.080 be world shaking news on its own, and I guess 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:17.639 the average soccer fan hasn't even heard about it. I'm 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:26.800 Connor Powell. This is episode twelve Qatar. By listening to 0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:32.640 this series, you now understand FIFA's dark history. It's racist origins, 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:37.120 it's misogyny, it's coziness with authoritarian regimes, it's singular pursuit 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:41.800 of profit, it's systemic corruption. And you've heard how Qatar 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:44.920 won the rights to host the biggest sporting event in 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:48.320 the world, and how that sketchy vote led to the 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:51.760 indictments of dozens of soccer officials in two thousand and fifteen. 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:55.800 But with the first match of the World Cup just 0:03:55.920 --> 0:03:59.320 months away, I want to explain to you in detail 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:03.000 that two thousand ten selection of Qatar is doing to 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:06.400 some of the poorest people in the world. And why 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:10.040 a desert country smaller than the state of Connecticut, with 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:15.800 scorching hot temperatures and no modern FIFA quality soccer stadiums whatsoever, 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:19.600 has turned out to be an awful dare I say 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:23.200 im moral choice to host the World Cup and how 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:27.839 FIFA's decision to award the tournament to Guitar shows FIFA 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:33.080 hasn't learned its lessons, as the organization continues to exhibit 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:38.760 an almost total disregard for human rights and basic decency. 0:04:43.839 --> 0:04:47.359 It's a clever commercial. It plays on every emotion a 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:52.640 sports fan has. Weaving in and out in between the 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:56.080 legs of dozens of grown adults. A young boy in 0:04:56.200 --> 0:05:00.680 jane shorts with ratty white sneakers skillfully maneuvers a tattered 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:04.160 soccer ball across the bone dry dirt floor of a 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:08.839 public market. He encounters a conveniently placed set of mirrors. 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:12.479 He leans in to steal a glimpse of his own reflection, 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:17.480 but instead of seeing himself, the young soccer player sees 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:22.840 the beaming smile of the Argentine superstar Lionel Messi looking 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:26.040 right back at him. Sat get any I guess in 0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:33.359 The essence and allure of this television commercial is pretty obvious. 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:37.480 No matter what language you speak or where you come from, 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:43.960 you could be the next Messi. This slick commercial just 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:47.160 one of many that ran across Africa in the last decade. 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:52.039 Was produced and paid for by Qatar's Aspire Academy. The 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:56.359 Aspire Zone is a world class destination for sports excellence 0:05:57.360 --> 0:06:00.320 and has some of the world's finest sporting state dames 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:06.080 and venues, where we offer unparalleled opportunities for athlete development, 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:12.400 education and the making of champions. With its distinctive sloping 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:18.400 sapphire blue roof, Qatar's massive, thirteen story tall Aspired Dome 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:23.320 Stadium can be seen from miles away. At nearly one 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:26.680 point three million square feet, that's more than twice the 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:30.320 area covered by the Superdome in New Orleans. Aspire is 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.680 a state of the art sports training complex created to 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:37.839 produce the next generation of world class soccer players. This 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:40.680 place is astounding. I mean even the top clubs in 0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:43.200 the world like Manchester United environed men off and go 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:47.479 train there and they're astounded by the facilities. That's journal 0:06:47.520 --> 0:06:50.839 of Sebastian Abbott, author of The Away Game, the epic 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:54.679 search for Soccer's Next Superstars, which is all about sport 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:59.040 and Qatar. The Aspire Academy, he said, is not only 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:02.039 the largest end or sporting complex in the world, it 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:07.920 also reflects in embodies tiny Qatar's global ambitions. There's a 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:10.640 joke that Katar is really just a family business with 0:07:10.680 --> 0:07:14.600 a seat at the United Nations because it's basically the 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:20.120 family wealth of the royal family. Qatar, or more specifically, 0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:23.720 its royal family, led by the Emir Shaik Tamim bin 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:29.600 Hammad Alfani, is determined to use its seemingly infinite wealth 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:33.600 to establish the Gulf nation as a major player on 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:37.440 the world stage. While its neighbors Dubai and Abu Dhabi 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:42.200 have tapped their vast resources to become commercial and financial hubs, 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:46.600 Qatar has tried to transform its oil and gas fortune 0:07:46.960 --> 0:07:51.080 into political and athletic power. They've used that cash in 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:54.480 all sorts of ways to try and, you know, increase 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:57.800 their standing on the world stage. You can sort of 0:07:57.880 --> 0:08:01.080 understand it from their perspective, because is if you're a 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:04.160 tiny little country like they are, how else are you 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:08.440 going to throw your weight around. Long before Qatar was 0:08:08.520 --> 0:08:13.360 awarded the World Cup, the Emir's brother, shake Jessum, a 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:17.080 massive soccer fan who built a lush, regulation size soccer 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:20.560 field at his palace in Doha, set out to accomplish 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:25.720 what seemed an impossible task to elevate Qatar's national soccer 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:31.440 team into the upper echelons of the sport. Qatar's national 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:34.640 soccer team is anything but a powerhouse. It's never come 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:38.559 close to qualifying for a World Cup, and it's consistently 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:42.760 ranked in the bottom half of FIFA's international tables. With 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:46.640 a native population of just three hundred thousand or so citizens, 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:50.000 Qatar doesn't have the depth to field a native team 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:54.200 that can compete in its own regional soccer tournaments, let 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:59.800 alone the World Cup. What it lacks in players, however, 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:04.760 it more than makes up for in financial resources. After 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:09.880 spending a reported billion dollars constructing the Aspire Academy complex, 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:14.520 Qatar launched a massive worldwide search for young soccer players. 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:18.679 They started at home in Qatar and found few quality prospects. 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:22.599 So Qatar set its sights on Africa, home to a 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:27.160 billion people. I hate to say it's so crassly, but 0:09:27.480 --> 0:09:31.480 in Africa, Qatar found people passionate about soccer who were 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:36.120 too poor to pass up the opportunity. Beginning in two 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:40.480 thousand and seven, backed by slick TV commercials featuring messy 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:43.079 and armed with free Nike gear to pass out to 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:47.560 hopeful stars in the making, Aspire Academy scouts began combing 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:54.520 through the dusty and dirt soccer pitches of Morocco, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:59.160 Senegal and South Africa. In the last decade alone, more 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:02.280 than five billion young boys have tried out for Qatar's 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:08.199 Aspire Academy. Here's Sebastian habit. There's such a small nation that, yeah, 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:10.480 how else are they going to compete on the world 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:14.320 stage unless they can tap players from other countries. They 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:17.800 were scouting thirteen year old boys. So I would find 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:21.120 these young kids, bring them to Katar, have them live 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:25.319 in Doha at Aspire Academy, train them and eventually give 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:28.320 them passports and have them play for the Katar national team. 0:10:28.920 --> 0:10:32.640 To succeed in athletics, Qatar has long recruited outside talent. 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:37.040 Qatar does have a long history of basically paying foreigners 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:41.360 to become Katari nationals and compete for Qatar in sports, 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:44.920 in the Olympics and otherwise. I mean, they've donated everything 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:48.760 from weightlifting to ping pong to chess, and they've done 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:51.920 it in soccer as well. In two thousand and three, 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:56.559 the Kenyan steeplechase runner Stephen Sharno accepted Qatari citizenship in 0:10:56.640 --> 0:11:01.200 exchange for one thousand dollars a month. A few years later, 0:11:01.640 --> 0:11:05.640 Qatar offered three Brazilian soccer players a million dollars each 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:08.839 to become Qatari citizens and hopes they had helped the 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:13.079 tiny peninsula nation to qualify for the World Cup. The 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:18.160 plan didn't work. Now Qatar isn't alone. It is a 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:21.280 fairly common practice to recruit outside talent. It's done by 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:27.719 many countries, including the United States. But recruiting children, some 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:33.440 as young as thirteen, it's not only uncommon, it's downright sketchy. 0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:37.040 You hadn't ever really in history had a country go 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:41.520 and conduct a massive talent search like this across a 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:45.840 place like Africa, searching for players for its national team, 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:50.040 and so it's sort of unprecedented, even though by all 0:11:50.080 --> 0:11:54.120 accounts the Aspire Academy is a top notch training program 0:11:54.240 --> 0:11:57.599 with state of the art medical and educational facilities. The 0:11:57.679 --> 0:12:01.839 practice of recruiting young athletes off alarm bells not only 0:12:01.960 --> 0:12:06.160 with European sports columnists and human rights groups, but also 0:12:06.240 --> 0:12:09.840 within FIFA, which we know, you know, historically they don't 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:12.760 seem overly concerned with human rights. They got a lot 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:16.520 of criticism from folks internationally that they basically kind of 0:12:16.640 --> 0:12:21.120 like harvesting Africa's best young players to nationalize them, which 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:23.760 didn't go over well with a lot of folks. Not 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:28.000 long after Qatar launched the aspired program, FIFA change that's 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:32.560 eligibility rules, making it harder for young players to switch nationalities. 0:12:33.120 --> 0:12:35.680 They never sort of openly admitted that that was definitely 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:38.160 their plan, although at the beginning they said we were 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:41.880 open to these kids becoming country players, but they eventually 0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:44.640 changed their tune and say no, these players will play 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:48.120 for their own national teams. It definitely continued to be 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:51.839 controversial because a lot of people continued to suspect that 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:55.480 even though Katar was saying these kids wouldn't represent Qatar, 0:12:55.960 --> 0:12:58.600 that somehow Katar would find a way to have them 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:02.480 do that. For many years, FIFA's presidents at Bladder was 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:06.280 critical of Qatar's player harvesting. Qatar is stealing the best 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:09.160 players from Africa meant the home teams weren't as strong, 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:14.880 and the Confederation of African Football they didn't like that. Remember, Bladder, 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:19.160 like his predecessors y'all havlange South Africa as his base 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:22.640 of support. Both of them want a lot of FIFA elections, 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:27.040 keeping the legal and the illegal money flowing to African countries. 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:31.319 Then in two thousand and eight, Bladder visited Qatar and 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:34.360 the trip, says Sebastian Abbott, let him to have a 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:38.200 change of heart, platter, changes tune and became very supportive 0:13:38.240 --> 0:13:41.839 of football dreams and aspire. And on that trip in 0:13:41.920 --> 0:13:45.280 two thousand and eight reportedly said to the Amir of Qatar, 0:13:45.480 --> 0:13:48.319 We're going to bring the World Cup to Katar, and 0:13:48.480 --> 0:14:03.440 two years later FIFA did just that. From a distance, 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:09.600 Dohas Abdullaphin Jessam Street just seems to disappear and becomes 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:14.480 a stunning turquoise blue body of water. No, it's not 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:19.040 a desert mirage caused by Qatar's legendary summer heat. Instead, 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:23.640 several hundreds of the busy downtown road was painted blue 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:27.200 in two thousand and nineteen in an experiment to reflect 0:14:27.240 --> 0:14:31.720 the sun's rays and reduce the city's overall temperature, known 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:34.760 to reach highs of one hundred and twenty degrees fahrenheit, 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:40.400 cracking car dashboards and melting plastic trim. To state the obvious, 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:44.120 Qatar is a climate that makes plain soccer outside in 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:49.400 the summer impossible, even with the streets painted blue. Summer 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:53.040 temperatures and cutsar can reach some fifty degrees celsius, a 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:57.000 difficult environment to hold a professional sporting than outdoors. The 0:14:57.160 --> 0:14:59.560 idea of staging the World's Cup in the desert has 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:04.120 been tentious since its announcements. FIFA's own inspection team, after 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:08.040 visiting Qatar in two thousand and ten, called the oppressive 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:11.720 heat a potential health risk. A country that is a 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:14.840 hundred and five degrees in the summer, a country that 0:15:14.960 --> 0:15:18.880 had virtually no infrastructure at all as far as soccer stadiums, 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:22.480 this just made absolutely no sense for them to win 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:26.440 the bid. We now know Qatar bribed a lot of 0:15:26.520 --> 0:15:29.040 people to win the two thousand twenty two World Cup, 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:32.920 but the wealthy Gulf nation also made a lot of 0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:35.920 promises the FIFA before that two thousand and ten vote, 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:39.200 and now they've got to be reconciled. The lack of 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:45.200 modern FIFA style stadiums, event infrastructure, and Qatar's searing heat 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:48.200 we're all seen back in two thousand and ten as 0:15:48.600 --> 0:15:52.680 significant challenges that would prevent FIFA from awarding a summer 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:57.600 tournament to Qatar. Qatar acknowledged its potential shortcomings and promised 0:15:57.600 --> 0:16:01.600 to quote novel approach to the summer event and pointed 0:16:01.680 --> 0:16:05.200 to the Aspire Academy as proof it could design massive 0:16:05.240 --> 0:16:10.520 sporting facilities in the desert. It promised mitigations, money will 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:12.760 be thrown at the problems and the hate will be 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:16.920 overcome by technology for the countries and promising cobbon neutral 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:21.320 and cooled stadiums, training facilities and fan areas. Energy will 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:25.320 be supplied by Solo Park, with money seemingly not an issue. 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:29.560 The CEO of Qatar's World Cup bid, Hassan al Thawati, 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:34.080 promised to build twelve new state of the art temperature 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:38.040 controlled stadiums and to avoid the mistakes of previous World 0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:42.320 Cup hosts like Brazil, who built stadiums that languished and 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:46.960 blood communities dry when the tournament ended. Here shake Hassan 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:51.440 al Thawatti making his case, the government has guaranteed four 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:54.760 billion dollars to cover the costs of our twelve stunning 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:59.480 football specific, state of the art stadiums. After two we 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:03.080 will this mantle the modular elements of our stadiums and 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:06.280 reconfigure a total of a hundred and seventy thousand seats 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:10.399 to create up to twenty two new stadiums in developing nations. 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:16.720 But four years after FIFA awarded Guitar the two thousand 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:20.720 twenty two World Cup, the wealthy golf Kingdom began backtracking 0:17:21.320 --> 0:17:25.800 as the logistics of a summer tournament became untenable. First 0:17:25.840 --> 0:17:29.360 ago the number of stadiums they promised, which was cut 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:32.920 from twelve down to eight, and then they radically altered 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:36.919 the traditional summer schedule of the tournament. After much debate 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:41.119 and deliberation, FIFA confirmed a Winter World Call for cutter In, 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:46.200 which will run from November to December. The temperatures will 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:49.479 still be uncomfortable in the winter, but doable with air 0:17:49.600 --> 0:17:55.200 kindishteing if it all works. However, moving the tournament to 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:59.240 avoid the worst of Qatar's heat also puts players safety 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:03.680 at risk, and reek's havoc on soccer's lucrative professional leagues 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:09.480 like Italy's Loliga, Germany's Bundesliga, the UK's Premier League, and 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:13.960 even America's own MLS. They all will be forced to 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:18.680 shut down mid season for about six weeks. The tournament 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:21.200 schedule is different this time, as there will be four 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:24.720 games every day during the group stage, a first in 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:29.480 World Cup history. To try to accommodate the many professional 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:33.160 leagues that will be impacted by this unusual winter World Cup, 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:35.960 Viva has had to reduce the number of days in 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:40.560 the tournament. Normally, thirty two team World Cup we played 0:18:40.600 --> 0:18:43.439 over the course of thirty two days. During the two 0:18:43.480 --> 0:18:47.360 thousand and eighteen Russia World Cup, players had about four 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:51.640 to five days off between games, but with quitars shortened schedule, 0:18:52.320 --> 0:18:55.760 the games will be played over a compressed twenty eight days. 0:18:56.320 --> 0:18:58.960 Most teams will get three days off between games, but 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:01.760 in the knockout state some will only get two days 0:19:01.800 --> 0:19:04.880 of recovery. This will be the shortest tournament since nine 0:19:06.160 --> 0:19:10.200 when they're only sixteen teams competing, meaning the very best 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:12.920 players in the world are being forced to play with 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:18.199 reduced recovery times between matches. Many players will then immediately 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:21.320 return to their domestic leagues, jumping right back into the 0:19:21.480 --> 0:19:26.200 rigors of professional soccer with little chance to rest. Oh 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:30.800 and the COVID nineteen pandemic has completely rearranged the qualifying 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:33.560 part of the two thousand twenty two World Cup, making 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:37.960 things even more difficult. Sure these athletes are all professionals 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:41.080 who make a ton of money, traveled by private jets 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:44.960 and stay in five star hotels. But FIFA, which let's 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:48.200 remember is supposedly all about the good of the game, 0:19:48.760 --> 0:19:52.800 is forcing the world's best players to put an unprecedented 0:19:52.880 --> 0:19:57.800 strain on their bodies. It's conceivable Qatar's World Cup will 0:19:57.840 --> 0:20:01.480 be one of the most injury riddled tournaments. Ever, However, 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:05.640 as problematic and dangerous as the Qatar World Cup will 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:08.760 be for players, it's nothing, and I mean it is 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:13.640 nothing compared to the horrors FIFA and Qatar have unleashed 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:22.960 on the people building the World Cup infrastructure. It was 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:28.159 late March two th Norway's best players nervously looked at 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:30.800 each other as they walked out under the nights lights 0:20:31.280 --> 0:20:37.240 and onto the green soccer pitch. Please rise, Oh no Way, 0:20:40.320 --> 0:20:44.040 with slight nods of their head and sly glances of support. 0:20:44.840 --> 0:20:48.120 One by one, they peeled off their red warm up jackets. 0:20:48.800 --> 0:20:52.480 Wrapping their arms around each other's shoulders, they unveiled their 0:20:52.560 --> 0:20:57.520 message as their anthem played. All eleven starters of Norway's 0:20:57.600 --> 0:21:01.080 national soccer team before their tooth thousand, twenty two World 0:21:01.119 --> 0:21:05.040 Cup qualifying match against tribalter were the same white cotton 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:10.080 t shirt. Emblazoned across their chest was the phrase human rights. 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:15.240 On and off the pitch. Norway's statement of protests was 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:19.800 only the first. The next night, Germany's national side took 0:21:19.840 --> 0:21:22.159 the pitch with the phrase human rights spelled out in 0:21:22.320 --> 0:21:27.440 large white block letters on their black shirts. Then Denmark 0:21:27.560 --> 0:21:33.600 made a plea their target Qatar, specifically it's abysmal human 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:38.200 rights record and brutal treatment of migrant workers. For the 0:21:38.280 --> 0:21:41.600 last decade, FIFA has ignored calls to strip the World 0:21:41.640 --> 0:21:45.360 Cup from Qatar. Here's FIFA presidents at bladder in two 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:48.719 thousand thirteen, who did everything in his power to avoid 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:52.359 even talking about the corrupt two thousand ten vote and 0:21:52.480 --> 0:21:55.600 the growing concerns human rights groups had expressed about the 0:21:55.720 --> 0:21:59.280 rush to build a tournament in the desert. The decision 0:21:59.400 --> 0:22:06.240 taken by Executive Committee in October that there is not 0:22:06.560 --> 0:22:11.640 one single doubt that the World Cup twenty twenty two 0:22:12.200 --> 0:22:16.880 will be organized in Qatar, decision taken by the Executive 0:22:17.040 --> 0:22:24.080 Committee on the second of December and not diversible. Today, 0:22:24.240 --> 0:22:28.760 FIFA is led by longtime soccer executive Gianni Infantino, who 0:22:28.840 --> 0:22:31.840 were placed the bladder after the godfather of soccer was 0:22:31.920 --> 0:22:35.640 booted out of office in two thousand fifteen. After Norway 0:22:35.800 --> 0:22:38.080 and the other team's voiced their protests in the spring 0:22:38.160 --> 0:22:42.119 of two thousand and one, FIFA under Infantino issued a 0:22:42.200 --> 0:22:45.960 statement saying the players would not be punished and that 0:22:46.119 --> 0:22:49.280 FIFA believed in freedom of speech and the power of 0:22:49.359 --> 0:22:52.800 soccer to be a force for good. Whether the sport 0:22:52.920 --> 0:22:56.520 under FIFA's watch is a force for good is still 0:22:56.880 --> 0:23:00.440 very much up for debate. That soccer and the World 0:23:00.480 --> 0:23:03.480 Cup are a force of that, there is no doubt. 0:23:04.200 --> 0:23:07.919 One only has to look at Qatar's ever transforming landscape, 0:23:08.240 --> 0:23:11.320 with its endless tangle of new roads and metro tracks, 0:23:11.760 --> 0:23:17.119 glistening skyscrapers, and massive steel stadiums, all built at an 0:23:17.400 --> 0:23:22.479 unimaginable cost. Work is progressing on Kata's World Cup venues, 0:23:22.800 --> 0:23:26.040 but Amnesty International says improvements to migrant worker rights are 0:23:26.119 --> 0:23:32.240 not progressing fast enough. Long before European soccer players began 0:23:32.359 --> 0:23:37.320 protesting Qatar's treatment of migrant workers, groups like Amnesty International 0:23:37.440 --> 0:23:41.040 and the International Trade Union Confederation we're pushing for new 0:23:41.119 --> 0:23:46.119 laws and worker protections. Qatar has made improvements, but the 0:23:46.200 --> 0:23:50.879 conservative Arab Kingdom and FIFA have rejected accusations that the 0:23:51.000 --> 0:23:55.160 thousands of workers who died were building World Cup infrastructure. 0:23:55.760 --> 0:23:58.760 The headline that came out of The Guardian was inherently misleading. 0:23:59.440 --> 0:24:03.440 That's Hassan Alpha Watti, the CEO of Qatar's World Cup 0:24:03.600 --> 0:24:07.639 organizing committee. He insists the reports of thousands of deaths 0:24:08.119 --> 0:24:12.960 lack contexts. Six workers did not die on workup World 0:24:13.000 --> 0:24:16.440 Cup stadiums. If we're looking at specifically World Cup stadiums, 0:24:16.840 --> 0:24:20.840 we have had, unfortunately, three work related deaths and thirty 0:24:20.920 --> 0:24:25.119 five non work related debts. Frankly, it's Alpha Watti's argument 0:24:25.160 --> 0:24:28.840 that lacks context. He doesn't explain how the other six thousand, 0:24:28.920 --> 0:24:32.080 five hundred workers died, and he doesn't even address the 0:24:32.240 --> 0:24:35.840 thousands of bodies leaving Qatar and arrive in in African 0:24:35.920 --> 0:24:40.680 and Asian airports. You see, Qatar and FIFA only want 0:24:40.680 --> 0:24:43.959 to count the fatalities directly related to construction of new 0:24:44.040 --> 0:24:48.760 stadiums and training facilities, but those are only a small 0:24:48.960 --> 0:24:52.280 part of the building going on to support the World Cup. 0:24:52.880 --> 0:24:56.880 The construction and Qatar is booming dozens of projects, including 0:24:56.920 --> 0:25:00.320 seven stadiums, Rhodes hotels, and even a new air report 0:25:00.600 --> 0:25:04.440 have been completed or are underway. It is these projects, 0:25:04.520 --> 0:25:08.520 say human rights groups like Amnesty International and the Guardian newspaper, 0:25:08.680 --> 0:25:12.200 that have killed thousands since got won the right to 0:25:12.240 --> 0:25:18.000 host the World Cup back in all this development construction 0:25:18.080 --> 0:25:22.399 expansion is because of the World Cup. That's Mustafa Cadri, 0:25:22.840 --> 0:25:26.840 executive director of Equitum Research, which advocates for the labor 0:25:27.000 --> 0:25:31.000 rights of migrant workers. He's done reporting for Amnesty International 0:25:31.080 --> 0:25:34.880 about Qatar and the World Cup. He says, the Qatari 0:25:35.000 --> 0:25:39.520 World Cup Organizing Committee and FIFA have overlooked all of 0:25:39.640 --> 0:25:42.879 the construction projects built to support the World Cup when 0:25:43.000 --> 0:25:46.760 releasing their official death count. It's all related. They're building 0:25:46.800 --> 0:25:51.200 this massive railway system, new hotels are being built, new 0:25:51.240 --> 0:25:55.600 public spaces, shopping malls. It's really obvious that all of 0:25:55.720 --> 0:25:59.240 this is connected. So this idea that you can somehow 0:25:59.400 --> 0:26:03.320 isolate what happens within the World Cup from everything outside 0:26:03.400 --> 0:26:08.320 it is simply just nonsensical. Qatar intentionally keeps the death 0:26:08.400 --> 0:26:13.280 records of migrant workers vague, issuing death certificates with ambiguous 0:26:13.400 --> 0:26:19.200 descriptions like natural causes or cardiac failure. Many death certificates 0:26:19.280 --> 0:26:22.800 simply say the cause of death is unknown. Remember, these 0:26:22.840 --> 0:26:27.440 are mostly young and healthy man that Qatar imports to work. Statistically, 0:26:27.880 --> 0:26:29.800 this isn't an age group that should be dying of 0:26:29.920 --> 0:26:33.879 natural causes or cardiac failure, unless, of course, they're forced 0:26:33.920 --> 0:26:37.159 to work in unsafe environments like the insanely hot temperatures 0:26:37.160 --> 0:26:40.800 and Qatar. And really, why isn't Qatar doing more to 0:26:40.920 --> 0:26:47.240 investigate these deaths. Sharon Burrow, the International Trade Union Confederations 0:26:47.320 --> 0:26:51.199 General Secretary, didn't hold back when asked about Qatar's brutal 0:26:51.280 --> 0:26:54.720 working conditions. Qatar is a slave state in the twenty 0:26:54.760 --> 0:26:59.920 one century. Even when the construction projects don't kill the worker, 0:27:00.480 --> 0:27:04.280 they're still forced to live under barbaric conditions, and for 0:27:04.440 --> 0:27:08.240 most of the last decade, FIFA couldn't have cared less. 0:27:19.119 --> 0:27:24.040 Doha's glass and steel Altbita Tower is famous for its vertical, 0:27:24.400 --> 0:27:29.040 twisting design. It's long symbolized guitars march to a more 0:27:29.160 --> 0:27:33.840 modern future. Even today, as it's been joined by dozens 0:27:33.920 --> 0:27:38.040 of other newer structures, the iconic building sticks out on 0:27:38.240 --> 0:27:42.400 Doha's skyline. When the two thousand twenty two World Cup 0:27:42.520 --> 0:27:46.120 Organizing Committee was looking for office space about a decade ago, 0:27:46.960 --> 0:27:51.160 the Albita Tower was the obvious choice. From its thirty 0:27:51.200 --> 0:27:55.040 eighth and thirty ninth floors, Qatar soccer bosses developed the 0:27:55.119 --> 0:27:58.520 early blueprints for the first ever tournament in the Middle East. 0:27:59.440 --> 0:28:02.720 As much of a beacon for development as the Albita 0:28:02.800 --> 0:28:07.919 Towers for qataris. It also represents the callousness in inhumane 0:28:08.000 --> 0:28:12.640 system that underpins Guitars March of Progress and then two 0:28:12.680 --> 0:28:15.280 thousand twenty two World Cup. Some of the men who 0:28:15.320 --> 0:28:19.560 built these offices have become victims of serious labor exploitation. 0:28:20.440 --> 0:28:24.000 You see, back in two thousand twelve, just as planning 0:28:24.119 --> 0:28:27.000 for the World Cup was ramping up, it came out 0:28:27.080 --> 0:28:29.840 that many of the migrant workers who built the sleek 0:28:30.000 --> 0:28:34.600 new Albita Tower we're basically living as modern slaves. They 0:28:34.680 --> 0:28:39.280 went some paid for over a year. They were abandoned 0:28:39.320 --> 0:28:43.200 by their employer and left to live in squala. That's 0:28:43.240 --> 0:28:47.520 from a Guardian newspaper report. Qatar's government, including its Prime Minister, 0:28:47.840 --> 0:28:51.720 knew of the situation and for months did nothing. In fact, 0:28:51.800 --> 0:28:56.160 the treatment of Albida's workers it's hardly unique. Many migrant 0:28:56.160 --> 0:29:00.520