En Passant

Allegations of bribery have long plagued FIFA, especially since its controversial decision to grant Qatar the 2022 World Cup. But much worse is the plight of South Asian migrant workers brought in to build the stadium infrastructure there: Since 2010, more than 1,200 migrant workers have died in Qatar under hazardous working conditions, and a 2013 Guardian investigation found that at least 4,000 total are projected to die before the 2022 World Cup even starts.

Today there is a growing separation of the professional player from their usual working class roots writes Jorge Jorquera in Red Flag. We need new football heroes like Caszely – players who defy FIFA’s policing, refuse to become adornments for bourgeois society and side with the working class communities who gave them their start.

If only one of Brazil’s players could stand up now and utter the words Socrates once did: “Give my goals to a better country.”

Preparations for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar have brought to light the modern slave trade being used to build tournament infrastructure writes Jayesh Maharaj in Red Flag.