Promoters Individuals Back Out Of Support To FIFA 2023 Over HR Violations By Qatar
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Roshan Amiri
- . May 3, 2022
- . Update: May 3, 2022 7:59 pm
Qatar– Celebrities and athletes apart from sportsmen are now looking at deserting and distancing themselves from the FIFA World Cup to be held in Qatar. The latest example of this comes from the Gary Lineker, a former English striker and currently a presenter, who was roped in to be the World Cup drawer.
Lineker has refused to be associated as of now; the big reason behind this remains Qatar’s inability to give respect to its former migrant workers and acknowledge the human rights violations. This has now become a huge cry amongst human rights groups, which is why many promoters and advertisers are also pulling themselves out of the world cup.
As the world’s most high-profile sporting event, many companies are going to lose millions as they lined up their goodies to be a part of this in 2023. Qatar has long pushed back on perceptions about the country that it considers inaccurate or at best outdated, attempting to explain that as the physical appearance of the country changed, so have its protections for workers. But examples of abusive conduct and poor treatment stubbornly persist and remain fodder for news media outlets, particularly in Europe, where the Qatar World Cup continues to be a source of protest and a lightning rod of criticism for those that associate with it.
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ING Group for example has made it clear that it would forgo any association with the World Cup the coming year. ING Group is a major international financial services and banking group that sponsors the Netherlands and Belgium national teams. It has decided not to leverage those relationships during the event.
GLS, a parcel service provider that has been undertaking ticket allocations for Red Devils on Belgium since 2011, wouldn’t be doing so for 2023. The official statement is “because we consider a commercial use of the World Cup 2022 in the context of the human rights situation better not take place.” Carrefour who also sponsors the Belgium team and joined the boycott league.
Human Rights messages would be seen on official merchandise to support fight against malpractice and ill treatment of migrant workers. This includes support by the national lottery Danske Spil and a prominent bank, Arbejdernes Landsbank for the Danish team. None of the team’s sponsors, the Danish federation said, would take part in any commercial activities in Qatar “so that participation in the World Cup finals is primarily about sporting participation and not promoting the World Cup organizers’ events.”
While companies are taking a stand in some countries, individual participation would be scrutinized more closely. One such name is that of David Beckham who has continued his association with Qatar and avoided media scrutiny over his association, though his position over Ukraine puts his intentions to question as to why would he want to support Qatar?
