World Cup 2022

If you were not aware, the FIFA world cup 2022 will be held in Qatar.

Trust me this blog is not about how hot it will be and how much we should change the location, and I will not be speaking about the dreaded Christmas World Cup Scenario.

I will be talking about the standards of Health & Safety currently over in the Middle East and what we can learn from it.

Firstly let’s throw ourselves back to when the Brazilian world cup was under construction…

Remember this? Death toll Rises to 8

Now, think about this…just for one minute. 8 People died building a stadium for a football match. Now put that statistic into London 2012 preparation works. The HSE and all contractors made a pledge during that period to ensure that no one was killed at work. Yet in Brazil, 8 died. A massive crane collapse occurred and who knows what conditions and health issues would have been contracted.

So how do we feel about this?

Do you actually care?

Should we as a world do more to improve standards internationally? How can it be acceptable that world events (and even now think of the South Africa World Cup 2010) achieve low standards of staff welfare & H&S?

However, the Brazilian World Cup has finished and now the Qatar World Cup is in question and is started to be developed. First things first, will the building work in Qatar be of a standard expected? Well if you look at the infrastructure and money that is being used in that country, we are continuously told that Qatar and countries around that destination are the richest countries in the world. You wouldn’t have to look far to see a Lamborghini or Ferrari.

SO will some of that money be invested on employee safety?

What we can learn from other countries is that we set the standards. Although H&S is perceived in the UK as frustrating and restrictive, would you like to work in the standards set in Brazil, South Africa and possibly Qatar?

One final thought for Qatar…would low standards of H&S in Qatar for construction workers make you feel any different about the world cup?