As Novye Izvestia has already reported, in Qatar, where the next Mundial will open on Sunday, November 20, the weather is not at all like football.
In general, there are two seasons in this country: when it is impossible to live without air conditioners working indoors and when they can be turned off. So far, the second season, despite the approach of the calendar winter, has not come. Even in the morning in the sun, according to journalists, it's hard. And during the day the temperature rises to +35!
While the tournament has not started, the entire football world is discussing the participation or non-participation of their idols in it. For example, one of the best football players in history, Cristiano Ronaldo, announced that he would retire if Portugal won this World Cup.
But another "star" - forward of Bayern Munich and the Senegal national team Sadio Mane, unfortunately, will not play in Qatar: he was operated on for an injury received in the last game of the German team. But with him, Senegal, according to experts, could be the most successful African team ...
And, of course, the football world is discussing the information that the Qatari authorities allegedly bribed the players of the Ecuador national team, with which the hosts are just playing in the opening match. On this occasion, as well as on the criticism of his country, even the Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani spoke, who said: “At first we were positive about criticism, but then it all began to resemble a planned campaign.”
He has repeatedly said that the current World Cup is not so much a gift to the country itself, but to the entire Arab world and even all of South Asia, whose inhabitants are no less worthy of a football holiday than Europeans or Americans. For example, Indians or Arabs are unlikely to be able to go to Mexico or Brazil, but they will come to the World Cup in Qatar.
“Let the region, which has suffered so much suffering and trouble, at least once enjoy a football holiday. Get off Qatar!" - the journalists of the Qatar World Cup 2022 channel echo the pathos of the organizers of the World Cup, recalling that the Western media do not get tired of blackening this country before the championship, and the momentum is only increasing. One of the reasons for criticism was the difficult working conditions for workers from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, who were building infrastructure facilities for the 2022 World Cup. Here is what the journalists of the channel write about this:
“They are so worried that I already want to say, maybe in England and Germany they want to hire hundreds of thousands of Asian workers, and make all the documents for them and bring them to the country at the expense of local employers, like in Qatar, and provide them with wages at the level , which is not taxed, as again in Qatar, with housing, albeit not luxurious, but free, still free travel to work, treat and examine them for free, send them on vacation every two years at the expense of the employer. Otherwise, Asian workers are very sad about where they will soon go, because the construction of facilities for the World Cup in Qatar is coming to an end. They are afraid that they will have to leave for their homeland, where the salary will be ten times less, and families will still have to be fed.
In general, Qatar is a unique country. As a rule, such tiny states either live off foreign aid, other countries or compatriots, or feed themselves, but give nothing to the world. In Qatar, the indigenous local population, subjects of the emir, there are, according to various estimates, from 500 to 800 thousand. And another two million residents of the country are foreigners who work here and earn money, while not paying taxes to the treasury of Qatar, using state subsidies for utilities, free healthcare, living in a country that occupies one of the first places in the world in terms of security. The largest foreign communities in Qatar are Indian and Pakistani. If we take into account that each working foreigner in Qatar, in addition to himself, has an average of 3-4 people, either his family, or elderly parents, brothers, sisters and other relatives, then it turns out that a country with an indigenous population of 500 thousand people directly feeds six million, and residents of poor countries. And if we take into account how many people were indirectly involved in the construction and preparation of facilities for the World Cup and received money for this. Tiny Qatar spent 200 billion on equipping the entire country for the World Cup, these 200 billion for ten years fed millions of people in the poorest countries of the world, which usually rich countries do not care about, they generally hardly consider them as white people.
Yes, the salary of Asian workers is not high compared to the standard of living in Qatar, but this country has the highest standard of living in the world, and at the same time they are paid ten times more than they receive at home, which they teach their children in good private schools, build houses and feel like wealthy people in their homeland. Thousands of people in India and other countries storm the offices of Qatari companies when they hire staff, begging Qatari employers to give them work. Yes, work on construction sites in Qatar is very hard, and hard for everyone - for ordinary hard workers, and for highly paid engineers, project managers and even company owners, who also often stay up at night, because construction is carried out at night due to unbearable temperatures during the day, and travel to facilities in the desert. Yes, building in the desert is very difficult, and to be able to create in such a climate a country where people aspire to come is worth a lot..."