French President Emmanuel Macron called on the State of Qatar to “continue the changes that he considered the FIFA World Cup Finals to be a witness to.”
“The FIFA World Cup, which is the first organized in the Arab world, testifies to the tangible changes taking place. Qatar has embarked on this path and must continue, it can count on our support,” he said in a statement on social media between the two halves of the France-Denmark match.
Qatar has come under fire for deaths, accidents and failure to pay foreign workers, and Qatar has passed major reforms to improve worker safety and hold companies accountable that fail to adhere to standards.
The authorities also paid hundreds of millions of euros to compensate for delayed salaries, but human rights organizations considered that these reforms were late and insufficient.
Macron said on November 17, on the eve of the 2022 Qatar World Cup, that sports should not be “politicised”.