U.K. Secretary Urges FIFA To Put Pressure On Qatar To Improve Worker Conditions

Labour Shadow Int'l Development Secretary Jim Murphy said that FIFA and the national FAs of the U.K. "should put pressure on Qatar to improve the 'sub-human' working conditions of thousands of migrant labourers building facilities for the 2022 World Cup," according to Mike Dawes of the London DAILY MAIL. Murphy recently returned from a trip to Qatar with the Int'l Trade Union Confederation, during which he said that "he saw evidence of migrant workers being lured to the Gulf state by the promise of good salaries, only to have their passports taken away so they cannot return home." He said that "it was for the football authorities, rather than Government, to put pressure on the tiny Arab kingdom." Murphy: "What I saw there will stick with me for a very long time. Unless FIFA and the football authorities act on workers' rights in Qatar, the game that I love I will be embarrassed by and ashamed by forever" (DAILY MAIL, 4/6).