The Norwegian club Tromsø IL has been actively working with non-profit Amnesty International to highlight the ongoing human rights abuses in Qatar during the last year and December saw the club release a third kit that uses a QR code to direct fans to a link highlighting the ongoing human rights issues in Qatar.
The objective is to help people understand why Tromsø are fighting this battle and why the whole football world should join the protest.
Launched through a PR campaign and social media push which directed fans and viewers to a bespoke website with details about what is happening in Qatar – focused on the abuse of human rights and immigrant worker conditions – and the state’s attempt to sports wash these abuses through hosting the football’s biggest tournament.
Tromsø IL launches the first kit in history with a QR code – focusing on sportswashing and human rights in Qatar. pic.twitter.com/mFb2YCJQ3r
— TIL (@TromsoIL) December 6, 2021
A statement on the club’s website read:
“Hi football world! It’s us from the high north again. We hoped FIFA and Qatar would listen to us the last time, but obviously money still trumps human rights and human lives. Remember that you one day will make your own accounting. The most valuable asset here will not be the money you made, it will actually be how you treated other people. The most scary thing is that you know you treat people bad. Why else would you spend money trying to show a more beautiful surface of the terrible things you are doing.
Well, we are back. Look at our new kit. The QR code takes you here. A page that will give you more and more information on what’s going on, on the ground in Qatar.
Please read up and consider the question: How many human rights violations will it take before the football community unites to demand better protection for migrant workers?
We can’t pretend football and politics are unrelated, and we must never look the other way when some use our beautiful game to overshadow human rights violations. We can change this together.
Stop sportswashing. Keep the game clean.”
The club also announced it would be working closely alongside Amnesty International as well as Malcom Bidali – a former migrant worker who was arrested in Qatar for blogging about the abhorrent conditions he and others were forced to work and live in.
“Tromsø were the first professional club worldwide to speak out against the inhumane conditions in the country,” read a statement on the club’s official website. “We hoped FIFA and Qatar would listen to us the last time, but obviously money still trumps human rights and human lives. How many human rights violations will it take before the football community unites to demand better protection for migrant workers? The club is now making a new push – this time in collaboration with Amnesty International and Malcolm Bidali (a former migrant worker who was arrested in Qatar for blogging about reprehensible conditions),” said the club statement at the kit launch.
The kit launch content featured Bidali who speaks at length in a video on Tromsø’s website about his frightening experience of being detained and interrogated in Qatar and the ‘power imbalance’ that he believes exists between employer and employee for migrant workers in the Gulf state.
“It’s innovative and it will raise awareness about all the things that are happening in Qatar,” Bidali explained “It’s the first of its kind and is a brilliant, brilliant move.”
Tromsø started the discussion about Qatar in Norway by suggesting that teams should boycott the tournament. In March, Norway’s players highlighted human rights violations before a World Cup qualifier against Gibraltar by wearing T-Shirts bearing the slogan “Human rights – on and off the pitch”. In promoting the kit the club said “we must never look the other way when some use our beautiful game to overshadow human rights violations. We can change this together. Stop sportswashing. Keep the game clean.”
Comment
Norwegian football has led the way when it comes to protesting against human rights abuses in Qatar since FIFA’s decision to award Qatar the 2022 FIFA World Cup
At the start of March Tromso became the first European football professional club to speak out against inhuman conditions in Qatar and to ask the Norwegian FA to consider boycotting the World Cup if the country qualified.
Several other Eliteserien clubs in Norway then made similar requests and then later in March the players themselves made their feelings clear when the national team wore T-Shirts stating ‘HUMAN RIGHTS on and off the pitch’ during a home international game against Gibraltar in a move that captured headlines around the world.
Tromsø IL was the first professional club worldwide to speak out against the inhumane conditions in the country. The club is now making a new push – this time in collaboration with Amnesty International and Malcolm Bidali.
For more https://t.co/Vv0NPRGwSJ pic.twitter.com/xCdDQeB47f
— TIL (@TromsoIL) December 6, 2021
‘HUMAN RIGHTS
On and off the pitch’The Norwegian national team send a powerful message to the World Cup organisers in Qatar pic.twitter.com/p39oDwrh4h
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) March 24, 2021
But, despite Qatar passing some light legislative reforms regarding the ‘kafala’ overseas worker sponsorship system under which foreign workers are unable to change jobs without their employer’s permission, human rights groups argue that the measures did not go anywhere near far enough and that many migrant workers were still earning as little as £1 an hour.
The Qatari government has consistently rejected Amnesty’s assertion that labour reforms have not translated into changes on the ground for migrant workers.
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