David Beckham is bracing himself for a backlash when he promotes Qatar and next year’s World Cup at the Formula One Grand Prix in Doha tomorrow.
The former football star has been criticised by human rights groups after signing a £10 million-plus deal to be an ambassador for the authoritarian Gulf state, which bans homosexuality and severely restricts women’s rights.
However, he appears to be determined not to listen and will appear with VIPs at Grand Prix. Beckham was reportedly in country, but he wasn’t seen among the spectators as Lewis Hamilton qualified for pole.
David Beckham is bracing himself for a backlash when he promotes Qatar and next year’s World Cup at the Formula One Grand Prix in Doha tomorrow
The authoritarian Gulf state bans homosexuality and severely restricts women’s rights
Although he’s a prolific social media user, Hamilton, 46, has not posted about his Middle East trip.
Beckham shared with his 69 million fans on Friday that he completed a hard workout class. He didn’t mention where he was located.
Sources have told The Mail on Sunday that Beckham’s advisers have used the World Cup to ‘position’ his controversial deal as about celebrating football, despite it being tied to promoting Qatar.
One said: ‘It all seems a little more palatable for David to associate the contract with football and make it all about a festival of football.’
Amnesty International has accused the Football Association of failing to engage with it over human rights abuses in Qatar – unlike associations in other countries.
The former football star has been criticised by human rights groups after signing a £10 million-plus deal to be an ambassador for Qatar
David Beckham is in the stands at Monterrey against Liverpool, FIFA Club World Cup semifinal at Khalifa International Stadium Doha (Qatar).
An interior view showing the general construction site of Lusail Iconic Stadium, Doha (Qatar). It’s one of the venues for the World Cup 2022.
May Romanos, Amnesty International’s Gulf researcher for migrant rights, told the BBC’s Sports Desk podcast: ‘We had a meeting with the English FA in March last year, where we started the conversation around the role they could play in the lead-up to this World Cup. But we haven’t had any further engagement with them, unlike other FAs.’
But the FA said it was ‘categorically incorrect’ to claim there has been no dialogue since March 2020, adding: ‘We are in dialogue with Amnesty and also with FIFA, UEFA, other member associations and the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.’
It said it would approach the tournament in ‘a socially responsible manner’, adding: ‘We believe there is evidence of substantial progress being made by Qatar in relation to workers’ rights, however we recognise there is still more to be done.’
England manager Gareth Southgate has said he and his players would ‘take time to educate ourselves’ over human rights issues. Since Qatar was granted the World Cup hosting rights ten year ago, human rights activists believe that 6,500 migrants from India and Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Bangladesh have perished on Qatari building sites.
A British paramedic, who worked for Qatar’s health service for three years, claimed he was regularly sent to deal with dead bodies bearing injuries consistent with being crushed or falling from a height. He said: ‘The police would always say, “It’s an assault, or heart failure, or a collapse”, when it clearly was not.’