Dutch footballers will meet the workers who built the stadiums in which they will play. Following the announcement of the list of 26 players selected for the World Cup in Qatar, Louis van Gaal, coach of the Netherlands, announced that his team will discuss with about twenty migrant workers. Together, they will discuss the working conditions on the construction sites and the Oranje will even invite the workers to one of their training sessions.
“It will of course be a somewhat organized situation, but the fact that we are ready to do it tells you a lot about the ideas of our federation and our team,” explained the former FC Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach. . This meeting will be held on November 17. The Dutch federation is one of the few to have openly criticized the living and working conditions of the workers. Van Gaal had already denounced the attribution of the competition to the Gulf countries: “We are going to play a World Cup in a country where FIFA claims to want to develop football. This is bullshit. It’s all about the money, that’s all FIFA cares about. »
According to the International Labor Organization, 50 workers died accidentally and 506 were seriously injured in Qatar in 2020.