A papal foundation is tackling modern-day slavery as reports have surfaced that hundreds of trafficked victims have died building facilities that will be used to host the football World Cup in Qatar in 2022.
In October 2017, during an encounter Pope Francis had with the Pontifical Scholas Occurrentes foundation, Argentine Guillermo Whpei, President of the Foundation for International Democracy, presented the Pontiff with a report called ‘Behind the Passion’ on the tournament.
“I gave him this report, and due to our encounter and the reading of the material, His Holiness sent a letter to the president of FIFA through Scholas, asking for an explanation of these allegations he’d received from us,” Whpei said.
“We know that some 2,000 migrants have died in the construction of the tournament’s facilities already.”
The Pope’s letter was addressed to Italian Gianni Infantino, president of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, better known as FIFA. The missive is signed by the two global directors of Scholas, Enrique A. Palmeyro and José María del Corral.
Violations
The letter details that Francis received the report with accusations of cases of slavery found in Qatar for the building of the infrastructure of the World Cup.
“The description of situations of flagrant submission and violation of the human rights of workers and immigrants in Qatar has motivated our concern and that of the [Scholas] sports council,” the letter says.
Del Corral and Palmeyro also told Infantino that they want to meet with him to “urgently” address the issue, and that they can either welcome him in the Vatican or go to his offices.
In 2016, Infantino was in the Vatican, where at an informal encounter, Francis asked him to fight the corruption that plagued the international soccer federation.
In 2015, US federal prosecutors disclosed cases of corruption by officials and associates of FIFA. As a fallout of that investigation, which saw several defendants pleading guilty and agreeing to forfeit more than $40 (€34.7) million, Sepp Blatter resigned from his position as president of the organisation. In addition, an investigation was launched into Qatar 2022 regarding accusations of bribery in the bidding process.
FIFA and Scholas signed an agreement to carry out together activities linked to promoting peace in different soccer matches, part of a program called ‘Fut-Val’, akin to ‘soccer with values’.