After the completion of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, all eyes are on Qatar when it prepares to host football’s biggest event in 2022.
Qatar is going to become the first country in the Arab world to be chosen to host a FIFA World Cup, breaking the tradition with a winter kick-off as it looks in order to avoid the heat of the summer.
Qatar beat bid rivals including the United States, Australia, Japan, and South Korea in 2010 to claim the hosting rights.
When it opens its doors to all football fans and teams from around the world for its biggest sporting event since the Asian Games in 2006, the Gulf nation has come under growing scrutiny over its treatment of foreign workforce.
According to the tournament organizers, there are three work-related fatalities and nine non-work related deaths of workers related to the construction of the FIFA World Cup stadiums in the country.
However, the United Nations’ International Labour Organization dismissed all complaints lodged against the country following a draft bill last year, which introduces minimum wage and legal protection for the migrant workers, approved by the Qatar government last year.
There are up to more than 26,000 people who are directly involved in the construction of the stadiums.
Contractors involved in the FIFA World Cup projects have agreed to reimburse above $14.4m to the thousands of workers having paid recruitment fees before coming to work in the Gulf country.
Seven new state-of-the-art stadiums with advanced air cooling technology are being built for the 2022 big event.
Al Wakrah Stadium, in the south of the country, was inaugurated earlier last year and the Khalifa International Stadium was inaugurated after undergoing renovations and upgrades one year earlier.
Meanwhile, Al Bayt stadium in Al Khor have also been finished in December of last year.