On the day the World Cup kicks off, Bristol mayor Marvin Rees has called out Qatar for its human rights abuses, as well as Fifa officials for awarding hosting rights to a nation under fire for its authoritarian regime and its attitude to LGBTQ+ people.
In a public statement, Mr Rees said the hosting decision was a "stitch-up" by a group of Fifa officials, 16 of whom have been indicted, arrested, or convicted of crimes and banned from football. A further eight of the deciding officials have been investigated for similar crimes.
The mayor highlighted how, since Qatar was awarded the competition in 2010, many thousands of Asian migrant workers have died working in the country, while many more hundreds of thousands have complained of widespread human rights abuses of this workforce.
