Back to Qatar. And football. But not – except in passing – back to workers’ rights. Channel 4 News tonight reported that the 2022 World Cup will go ahead and the place will be Qatar. But there were still concerns.

What were they? Well, the summer heat, really. So could the event be moved to winter? No. To have it at Christmas would clash with the Champions League “at its most lucrative stage”. So that’s Christmas ruled out. So it’s got to be after Christmas, then? No. That would clash with the Winter Olympics or Superbowl – presumably for the same lucrative reasons. Some say that to leave it in the summer period will put the health and safety of players at risk. Others say the newly built eco-friendly stadiums will solve the problems of the desert heat.

So stalemate.

But the last two points (health and safety of players and eco-friendly stadiums) ought to remind us of something else. For while the health and safety of players is important, what about the health and safety of the workers who are building the eco-friendly stadiums and other bits of superstructure at such risk to life and limb (see previous blog)? Unless that issue is addressed, the accidents will continue, the death toll will rise. Qatar 2022’s Hassan al-Thawadi tried to reassure us tonight with talk of “initiatives” by the government and his organisation, but his gabbled and garbled message failed to convince. Meanwhile, FIFA’s Sepp Blatter proclaimed that there were 9 years in which to resolve the issues. He also said that he couldn’t predict the outcome of the arguments about winter, summer, before Christmas, after Christmas, or even, I think, about desert heat, because he was not a prophet. One thing seems likely though: there will be many families in Nepal and India who, after seeing their relatives off to construction jobs in Qatar, will be fearful of predicting whether they will ever return.