FIFA sponsors are "being asked by a
new campaign grouping to speak out about working conditions at the 2022
World Cup building sites in Qatar," according to Bill Wilson of the BBC. The working and housing conditions of migrant construction workers "have been heavily criticised." Letters have been "sent to eight big sponsors urging them to use their position" to put pressure on FIFA. They are adidas, Gazprom, Hyundai, Kia, McDonald's, Budweiser, Coca-Cola and Visa. There was "some pressure from sponsors last year over the actual awarding of the World Cup to Qatar." Qatari authorities said that they "have made improvements in conditions for hundreds of thousands of migrant workers, but the issue hit the headlines again" when a BBC reporter was "detained for endeavouring to see labour and living conditions first-hand." U.K. Conservative MP Damian Collins, a "leading force" in New FIFA Now, said, "Everyone who is part of FIFA's family, as the sponsors are, has a responsibility about what is going on in Qatar, about the abysmal conditions, and numerous deaths, of migrant workers. If they do not speak out about the appalling conditions, then their reputations will be tarnished around the world." As well as New FIFA Now and the Int'l Trade Union Confederation, the call to sponsors "has also been
backed by Stephen Russell of Play Fair Qatar," which has the backing of
the U.K.'s Trade Union Congress. Russell: "FIFA and its sponsors cannot wash their hands over what is
happening. They have a moral responsibility to ensure that Qatar ends
these human rights abuses now" (BBC, 5/18). REUTERS' Michael Hann reported Swiss-based sportswear company SKINS Chair Jaimie Fuller -- whose company is the "official non-sponsor" of FIFA -- accused the sponsors of "contravening their own values and principles"
by contributing significant sums of money to FIFA and thereby providing
"implicit support" for working practices and conditions in Qatar. Fuller: "We don't want sponsors to withdraw their support from
FIFA, we don't want them to take their sponsorship away, we don't want
them to take their money away. But we do want them to use the power of their money to get reform done" (REUTERS, 5/18).
