Hello. This is 6 Minute English from
BBC Learning English. I’m Neil.
And I’m Beth.
Every four years the best players in the
world gather for one month in the summer
to take part in the biggest event in football –
the World Cup.
But this year, for the first time ever, the
competition is taking place in winter.
Why? Because the 2022 World Cup is
happening in Qatar.
Over a million fans from all over the world
are expected to visit Qatar for the World Cup
which starts on the 20th of November.
Because temperatures in Qatar exceed 45
degrees in the summer, the competition
was moved to the winter.
But the decision to hold the World Cup
in the tiny, oil-rich Gulf
state has been controversial.
One of the richest countries in the world,
Qatar has no tradition of playing football and
some have criticised the focus on money
instead of sport.
And there are other criticisms too – about
human rights and the treatment of the migrant
construction workers who built the football
stadiums, roads, transport systems and hotels
without which the World Cup could not happen.
In this programme we’ll be asking:
is it right for
Qatar to host the World Cup?
And of course,
we’ll be learning some new and useful
vocabulary as well.
But before that I have a question for you Beth.
Which country has won the World Cup
the most times?
Is it: a) Italy b) Brazil or, c) Germany?
I think it must be Brazil.
OK, I’ll reveal the answer at the end of
the programme.
Advertising for the Qatar World Cup shows
football fans staying in new hotels and
watching matches in air-conditioned stadiums.
But hidden behind this, the lives of the migrant
workers from Nepal, India and other South Asian
countries reveal a very different story.
The population of Qatar is tiny and 95% of
the total workforce are foreigners
working in extreme heat,
housed in poor quality accommodation,
and often underpaid.
Rothna Begum, a researcher for Human
Rights Watch, explained their situation
to BBC World Service programme,
Business Daily:
We’re still recording and documenting
migrant workers facing abuse
and exploitation in Qatar.
They include workers reporting having
paid exorbitant and illegal recruitment fees
to secure work abroad on two-year contracts,
and then finding out they’re
coming on three-month visas,
which means that they're not able
to make up or recoup
the price that they've paid to actually get
this job, and may well be
sent home in debt on top
of everything else.
Migrant workers face exploitation.
Exploitation means treating someone
unfairly to get some advantage for yourself.
Many of the World Cup workers were
exploited by being paid less
than agreed, being
paid late, or not being paid at all.
The construction jobs seemed
a good opportunity for migrant workers
to save money to send home
to their families.
Many paid exorbitant fees –
fees which were much bigger
than they should be, just
to get a job in Qatar.
But despite being given two-year
job contracts, some workers were
only allowed to stay three months.
Because they couldn’t make
enough money, many returned
home in debt – owing money to
someone that they will
have to pay back.
What’s worse, many have
died building the football stadiums,
in accidents, or due to
overwork and heat stress.
So, with all this criticism,
added to the billions of dollars
Qatar spent preparing for the
competition, was it worth it?
James Dawsey is an expert on the
politics of football in the
Middle East.
Here he explains to BBC World
Service’s, Business Daily,
that for Qatar, hosting the World Cup
is more about improving its
international reputation than economics:
But this is not about economics for Qatar.
Qatar is a small state.
It is sandwiched between
two regional behemoths:
Saudi Arabia and Iran.
And so its whole policy
is geared towards soft power,
whether that's sports, whether
that's the airport and the airline…
Qatar may be rich
thanks to its oil,
but it’s not a large country
unlike neighbouring Saudi Arabia
and Iran, countries which
James Dawsey called behemoths –
something which is extremely large
and powerful.
Qatar is sandwiched
between these larger counties.
If you’re sandwiched between two
things you’re in a narrow,
tight space between them.
Because Qatar isn’t as powerful
as it’s bigger neighbours,
it uses soft power – the way a
country uses its economic and
cultural influence to persuade
other countries, instead of
using military power.
Hosting an important international
event like the World Cup is a part of
Qatar’s soft power strategy
to be considered an important
country on the world stage.
Whatever the rights
and wrongs of the debate,
this will be the first Arab nation
to host the World Cup,
although it’s unlikely that the Qatari
team will actually win -
unlike a more famous footballing nation,
Italy, who won the first World
Cup they hosted in 1934.
And speaking of World Cup winners,
what was the answer to your question, Neil?
Which country has won the most World Cups?
I guessed it was Brazil…
Which was…. the correct answer of course!
With five title wins, Brazil
is the most successful World Cup
team followed closely by Italy and
Germany with four titles each.
OK, let’s recap the vocabulary we’ve learned
starting with exploitation -
treating someone unfairly in
order to benefit yourself.
If the price of something is exorbitant,
it’s much higher than it should be.
A debt is an amount of money
that you owe to someone else.
A behemoth refers to something
which is extremely large and powerful.
And if you’re sandwiched between
two things, you’re in a in a tight,
narrow space between them.
And finally, soft power describes
strategies used by a country to increase
its power through economic
and cultural influences,
instead of fighting wars.
Once again, our six minutes are up.
Goodbye for now!
Bye!