MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The statement from Human Rights Watch (HRW) comes one day before the FIFA presidential election on May 29 and a day after the US Justice Department indicted 14 FIFA officials on wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering charges.
"The next FIFA president needs to deal directly with crises – including human rights abuses and corruption – that are undermining the foundations of football’s management," HRW's Director of Global Initiatives Minky Worden was quoted as saying on the organization’s website.
Worden said that countries seeking to host the World Cup should be expected "to play by the rules," especially with regard to avoiding human rights violations.
"There should also be new scrutiny of the conditions for a vast army of migrant laborers who are building massive new infrastructure to host the World Cup," Worden said.
Qatar, the host country of the 2022 World Cup, uses a highly exploitative labor system, according to HRW, in constructing the eight stadiums for the 2022 event.
In March, a television crew from Germany was arrested by Qatari authorities while documenting migrant worker conditions on construction sites.
