If you want to pick small bits of quotes out of the larger whole, Sepp Blatter said something positive about the disgusting working conditions in the 2022 World Cup host country.
But when you step back and look at the body of work, what he said is pretty worthless.
On the heels of countless reports of horrid working conditions for immigrant workers in Qatar at World Cup building sites and repeated deaths as a result, Sepp Blatter finally conceded that things must change, but he didn’t sound too convincing.
“It is encouraging to hear the emir’s personal commitment to workers’ welfare and to get a sense of the improvements planned for all workers in Qatar,” Blatter said in a statement. “As various human rights groups have recently noted, progress has been made already, especially with regard to the standards introduced by the Supreme Committee relating to 2022 construction sites, but more must be done in Qatar to ensure uniformly fair working conditions for all.”
Well, on one hand, Blatter finally admitted that “work must be done” but overall he praises the country for “progress made” which is somewhat silly considering it certainly doesn’t appear anything has been done yet about the dire situation in the tiny country.
He also went on to say, “It is clear that Qatar takes its responsibility as host seriously and sees the FIFA World Cup as a catalyst for positive social change.”
Blatter can say things like this all he wants, but until serious action is taken it will hardly mean anything more than a PR move. According to the Associated Press, Qatar’s proposed human rights improvements from back in last May still have yet to be implemented, and little has been done to force anyone on the work sites to treat their laborers fairly and safely.