Watching the World Cup with Qatar’s migrant workers and hearing about their

The Athletic has live coverage of Japan vs Costa Rica at the World Cup.

Inside a cricket stadium on the outskirts of Doha, hundreds of men gather together. It is a funfair layout with food and drink stands, 5-a-side football pitches and volleyball courts. A big screen broadcasts the FIFA World Cup matches, while half-time means a performance by Indian dancers.

Welcome to the “Industrial Fan Zone”, located in Asian Town, which is essentially Qatar’s mall for migrants. Qatar has a population of about 2.9 million people, the majority of which are made up of low-paid migrant workers or foreigners. Qatari nationals number only 380,000. Asian Town is a shopping and entertainment complex close to “Labour City”, which opened in 2015 and accommodates close to 70,000 migrant workers who assisted the construction projects that were critical to the state’s World Cup.

In this area of Doha, hundreds of thousands of workers are housed. Yet despite their essential role in creating this World Cup, many of the fan zones populated by travelling fans in the centre of the city are out-of-bounds for the workers. This is because access requires a Hayya card, for which registration depends upon possession of match tickets.

Many of the workers spoken to by The Athletic said they could not afford to buy tickets for matches in Qatar, despite the significant number of empty seats visible at games. There were a small number of tickets available for Qatar residents at a cost of only 40 Qatari riyals ($11 USD) in the ballot but these had proven elusive for many workers. The higher brackets, with tickets rising to 800 riyals, were out of reach for the majority.

At first glance, the Industrial Fan Zone is an uplifting sight. Men from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Kenya and Uganda co-exist harmoniously, enjoying ball games, chatting away and taking refuge from the daily grind. FIFA’s branding is present on signs and one message, written in English, Arabic and Hindi, reads: “Thanks for your contributions for delivering the best FIFA World Cup ever.”

Yet peel away the glossy sheen and a more troubling picture emerges. A group of Kenyan workers tell how they left their country behind with the promise of greater opportunities in Qatar. They ask not to be named so as not to risk their employment in the country. One shows me his contract on a document on his mobile phone. “We receive 1000 Qatari riyals ($275, £227) per month, as well as a food allowance of 300 rials ($82) per month.” The food allowance is essentially taken away as soon as it comes in as the workers eat at a facility close to where they sleep.

Dormitories (included with their job offer) house four men in each room — sleeping on bunk beds — but a Ugandan worker said there are other dormitories that sleep as many as 12 men in the same room. Other four-men rooms, they show in pictures, have a low mattress in each corner, with each worker afforded one tall cupboard.

The salary…