Decision Day: Norway football clubs to vote on Qatar W/Cup boycott
Will Norwegian football star Erling Braut Haaland stay home or play on what fans have dubbed a “cemetery?”
This Sunday, a meeting of Norway’s football community will decide whether to boycott next year’s World Cup in Qatar.
Under pressure from grassroots activists the Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) has decided to hold an extraordinary congress to decide on whether to pass up football’s showpiece event all together.
The games on the pitches in the Middle Eastern emirate will “unfortunately be like playing on a cemetery,” according to Ole Kristian Sandvik, spokesman of the Norwegian Supporters Alliance (NSA), invoking a commonly used metaphor among opponents of Norway’s participation.
Norway, which has not qualified for a major international competition since Euro 2000, is currently fourth in its World Cup qualifying group behind Turkey, the Netherlands and Montenegro.
So while qualification seems an uphill task, the result of the vote could have an impact on whether Norway and its young star Haaland — one of the rising stars of world football — continue to play qualifying matches.
The movement calling for a boycott began north of the Arctic Circle when football club Tromso IL spoke out against turning a blind eye to alleged human rights abuses at the end of February.
“We can no longer sit and watch people die in the name of football,” the first division club proclaimed.
Qatar has faced criticism for its treatment of migrant workers, many of whom are involved in the construction of stadiums and infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup, with campaigners accusing employers of exploitation and forcing labourers to work in dangerous conditions.
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Qatari authorities meanwhile insist they have done more than any country in the region to improve worker welfare.
“There is no doubt that this World Cup should never have been awarded to Qatar,” Tom Hogli, a former professional footballer turned public relations officer for Tromso IL, told AFP.
“The conditions there are abominable and many have lost their lives,” he added.
In March, a spokesman for the Qatari organisers put the number of deaths on the construction sites at “three” since 2014, with another 35 having died away from their workplaces, challenging the heavy toll reported by some rights groups.