The 2022 World Cup is just about a year away now. This will be the first-ever FIFA World Cup tournament to be held in the Middle East.  There is actually a lot to anticipate about Qatar 2022, but there is also a huge question mark surrounding the tournament right now. Will it actually hold? Will teams boycott the competition? Will the tournament have to be moved to another country entirely for it to hold? 

These are some of the questions that have arisen in the minds of many in the last few months.  Over the past couple of months, you must have noticed different national teams protesting against the abuse of human rights in preparation for the World Cup in Qatar. Up until November 2020, workers were not allowed to change jobs for whatever reason without the approval of their employers. Workers are underpaid and are still owed wages. Sometimes, workers’ passports are even confiscated by their employers.  

Perhaps the very height of it all, since 2010, about 6500 migrant workers in Qatar have been reported dead. And these deaths can be traced to the construction work going on in preparation for the World Cup.  Basically, the working conditions in preparation for the 2022 winter World Cup in Qatar have been a gross abuse of human rights. And although it has been going on for a long, it seems that the world is just finally waking up to it.  

Joshua Kimmich, a Bayern Munich midfielder who represents Germany on the international stage, said last year that they are 10 years too late to boycott the World Cup.   His teammate, Leon Goretzka, has also been vocal about his concerns about human rights abuse in Qatar. He has not ruled out the possibility of Germany boycotting the World Cup and has said that there will be discussions about it.