Danish media reported that the national team players will travel to the 2022 FIFA World Cup without their families, as the national federation wants to reduce its activities in Qatar in protest against the country’s human rights record.
“We don’t want to contribute to making a profit for Qatar. Therefore, we have reduced our travel activities as much as possible,” the Danish Football Association’s director of communications, Jakob Heuer, told Extrabladet newspaper.
He added, “In the previous (World Cup finals), the players’ wives and girlfriends traveled with the management of the federation, but as I said, we canceled those trips (in these finals).”
Qatar has faced heavy criticism from human rights groups and the media over its treatment of migrant workers.
The Guardian newspaper reported in February 2021 that 6,500 migrants from South Asia had died in Qatar since 2010, and the International Labor Organization said Qatar was not adequately reporting worker deaths.
The World Cup’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy disputed the claim that “the tournament cost thousands of people their lives”.
The Qatari government has denied Amnesty’s 2021 report that thousands of migrant workers are still being exploited.
And local media reported last week that the Danish Federation reduced the number of trips to Qatar for its board members, as each member can attend only one match, while no more than two members of the board of directors may attend each of the team’s matches.
The company “Hommel”, the sports sponsor of the Danish national team, decided to obliterate its logo on the official shirt during its participation in the World Cup in Qatar, in protest against the Gulf state’s record in relation to human rights.
“We do not want to appear (our logo) in a tournament that has cost thousands of lives,” the company said in a statement last month, referring to the deaths of workers during the construction of sports facilities and infrastructure, something Qatar denies.
On the other hand, the organizers of the Qatar World Cup 2022 considered that the Hummel company “underestimates the importance” of the Gulf state’s commitment to protecting workers, after the company’s decision to blur its logo on the official shirt of the Danish team.
Denmark will start its campaign against Tunisia on November 22nd.