BERLIN, 10 Apr. (dpa/EP) –
The German Football Federation (DFB) will pressure FIFA to create a compensation fund for the families of workers who died on construction sites for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, according to its president, Bernd Neuendorf.
“I would support that. We know of the deaths on construction sites and we don’t know how the families who depended on the money of these workers are doing,” Neuendorf told German public television ZDF.
The demand for the creation of this fund began at the initiative of the human rights organization Human Rights Watch. Thousands of migrant workers have died in Qatar since the country was chosen in 2010 to host the 2022 World Cup, including in works directly related to the sports event.
“Of course, it would be a fantastic sign from the Qataris, but also from FIFA, if they said they would support such a move,” Neuendorf said.
As he advanced, the German Football Federation would participate in an aid fund, but he pointed out that in the first place it is up to the governing body of world football “to see if there is the possibility, through FIFA, through the associations, of creating such a fund that can also help.
Neuendorf revealed that the DFB also contacted the president of the Norwegian Football Federation (NFF), Lise Klaveness, after she questioned the World Cup host during the FIFA congress earlier this month. .
Klaveness told the German Sunday newspaper ‘Bild am Sonntag’ that he will hold a telephone conversation with Neuendorf on Monday. “We want to talk about what we can do together concretely to change something. And maybe this is the start of a long-term productive cooperation between the German and Norwegian federations,” she anticipated.