Skip to main content
On Air Now

Alan Shearer says FIFA should provide 'compensation' for workers' rights with their billions in profit

Share

By Grace Parsons

Alan Shearer says that with the billions in profit that FIFA will make from the Qatar World Cup, there should be "compensation for workers' rights" which Amnesty Internation has pushed for.

Alan Shearer said there are clear issues with sending players to a country where the FIFA World Cup Ambassador, Khalid Salman says being gay is "damage in the mind".

The football legend told Nick Ferrari: "It's a really difficult conversation because, for the first six or seven years, FIFA didn't really accept or acknowledge workers' rights."

Discussing FIFA's review of players' rights, Mr Shearer said: "Because of the pressure, particularly from Amnesty International, the agreement then to reform the labour laws only happened in the last two or three years...it's only because we keep asking these difficult questions."

READ MORE: Homosexuality is 'damage in the mind' and gay visitors 'have to accept our rules', Qatar's World Cup ambassador says

Amnesty International has been "pushing FIFA for a compensation fund", as stated on their website:

"Amnesty and a coalition of organisations launched a campaign calling on Qatar and FIFA to establish a comprehensive remediation programme to compensate migrant workers who suffered abuses in the preparation and delivery of Qatar 2022."

The football pundit said: "FIFA make billions out of this World Cup.. the prize fund is about £400 million and that's what Amnesty is looking for to at least have some compensation for workers' rights."

READ MORE: Qatar hosting World Cup is a ‘mistake of biblical proportions’, says professor after criticism of Southgate’s comments