The football was fabulous ... but at huge human cost

Fund for workers should be priority now

- Dan Kilpatrick

“THE tournament of external noise,” as Gareth Southgate put it, was capped off by the “final of records”, in the words of Didier Deschamps.

The abiding memories of this World Cup will be its many controversies and the historic brilliance of the final, as well as much of the rest of the football.

Qatar’s calculation was always that the latter would make the former worthwhile; in other words, that few people would look beyond the on-field drama to the human and moral cost of the finals. Given the breathlessness of Sunday’s showpiece and Lionel Messi’s immortal story, the hosts will almost certainly get their wish.

Being on the ground in Doha, however, the ugly side of the World Cup was harder to avoid.

This tournament was literally built on a form of modern slavery, and there was still evidence of it everywhere, from the groups of migrant workers toiling in the heat on building sites to the army of more blue-collar help propping up an unequal system.

These workers were typically subservient and obsequious to an uncomfortable degree, clearly afraid of being perceived to step out of line, which made for an uneasy and corrupting atmosphere. This was only exacerbated by the mass of FIFA volunteers everywhere, shepherding supporters around the country like it was a giant one-way system.