World Cup 2022: Fifa asks all nations to compete 'to focus on football' in Qatar

Presiden FIFA Gianni Infantino. (AFP/Johan Ordonez)

Fifa has written to 32 World Cup teams to tell them it's time to "focus on football".

The tournament, which kicked off in Qatar on November 20, has been shrouded in controversy.

Qatar has been criticized for its stance on same-sex relations, its human rights record and its treatment of migrant workers.

Peaceful protests have been planned by several players.
England's Harry Kane and 9 other European captains will wear the 'One Love' armband.

Denmark will wear 'plain cardboard' World Cup shirts in protest against Qatar - their kit supplier Hummel said it 'doesn't want to show up' in a tournament it says is 'expensive' thousands of lives less.

Paris and other French cities refuse to show World Cup matches in public spaces, despite France being the defending champions.

Team Australia has released a video calling for Qatar to drop its gay law.

Speaking this week, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said it was "unfair" to expect players to make political statements or protest at the tournament.

And Britain's Beth Mead on Thursday said it was "disappointing" that the tournament was held in Qatar. Mead, who is openly gay, doesn't think the Gulf country is the "right place" to host the tournament.

Other off-field issues include Russia currently banned by Fifa following the invasion of Ukraine. Furthermore, the Ukrainian FA has called for Iran to be banned from the World Cup for "systematic human rights violations". They believe that a crackdown on protests in the country "could violate the principles and standards" of Fifa.

The World Cup turns to winter for the first time. Qatar initially offered to hold the final in the summer in closed air-conditioned stadiums, but this plan was rejected.

The Qatar World Cup organizers say "everyone is welcome" to visit the country to watch football, and that no one will be discriminated against.

Now the game's world governing body has written to all competing nations.

As well as calling on nations to "focus on football for now", the letter, signed by Fifa President Gianni Infantino and Secretary General Fatma Samoura, states:

"Everybody is welcome, no matter what. race, origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation or nationality. "

It also reads:
" We recognize that there are many challenges and difficulties of a political nature around the world. gender. "

Seven new stadiums have been built for the event, as well as an airport, roads and around 100 hotels. The Qatari government says 30,000 foreign workers have been hired just to build the stadiums, most of them from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and the Philippines.

Human rights groups have complained about the treatment of foreign workers in Qatar and the number of people who have died there.

In February 2021, the Guardian reported that 6,500 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka had died in Qatar since it won the right to host the World Cup.

Numbers are based on data provided by embassies of countries in Qatar.

However, the Qatari government says the total is misleading as not all of the recorded deaths are from people working on projects related to the World Cup.

The government says its accident records show that between 2014 and 2020, there were 37 deaths at World Cup stadium construction sites, of which only three were "construction related". job".

BBC Arabic has also collected evidence suggesting that the Qatari government has under-reported foreign worker deaths.

The Football Association of England has backed the claim for "any injury or death related to any construction project" for the World Cup.