FIFA team up with 2022 World Cup hosts Qatar to launch £40m legacy fund for social programmes after vowing proceeds would be used to help ‘most vulnerable people’

FIFA have launched a $50million (£39.4m) legacy fund for social programmes in collaboration with 2022 World Cup hosts Qatar and the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.

In November 2022, FIFA had promised the legacy fund from 2022 World Cup proceeds would be used to help ‘some of the most vulnerable people in the world’.

‘FIFA is taking the concept of a legacy fund to the next level in terms of reach and impact by tackling key priorities such as refugees, occupational health, education, and football development,’ FIFA President Gianni Infantino said in a statement.

Revenues from previous World Cups have been put into legacy funds for the host nation to use for the development of the game and the £39.4m corresponds to approximately 1 per cent of the commercial revenue raised around the 2022 World Cup.

FIFA said it would team up with WHO to support its ‘Beat the Heat’ initiative to safeguard the health and safety of high-risk individuals from extreme heat.

Qatar came under intense pressure over its treatment of foreign workers working in extreme conditions, leading many to raise concerns, although the Middle Eastern country has denied that workers were exploited.

FIFA promised the legacy fund from the tournament’s proceeds would be used to help ‘some of the most vulnerable people in the world’ (pictured: Lusail Stadium in Doha, Qatar)

Partnering with UNHCR would help refugees by ‘enhancing access to basic services’, FIFA added.

‘This fund will take the World Cup legacy beyond stadiums and screens to millions displaced by war, conflict and persecution,’ said Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

‘It will enable life-saving assistance and long-term opportunities for uprooted people, helping them rebuild safely and in dignity.’

FIFA also said they would help to ‘economically empower’ women entrepreneurs by supporting the Women Exporters in the Digital Economy (WEIDE) Fund, which was launched by the WTO and the International Trade Centre (ITC) earlier this year.

The ITC said the legacy fund has pledged $16.6m (£13.2m) to the WEIDE Fund, with an initial deposit of $5m (£3.9m).

On the football front, Qatar’s Aspire Academy and the FIFA Talent Development Scheme led by Arsene Wenger would collaborate in identifying young talent in remote areas in developing countries.

However, Amnesty International said the fund does nothing for families of migrant workers who died or were exploited when building Qatar’s stadiums for the World Cup.

‘In failing to provide funding to compensate workers and their families for the severe harms suffered in Qatar, FIFA is blatantly disregarding its own human rights policies,’ said Steve Cockburn, Amnesty’s Head of Labour Rights and Sport.

Qatar were criticised for its treatment of foreign workers working in extreme conditions

This display, featuring a total of 20,000 candles, was set up to commemorate the deaths of workers who had built stadiums for the Qatar showpiece. Organisers disputed the claim

‘(FIFA) is likely to be ignoring the conclusions of its own commissioned report – which is yet to be published. As long as FIFA continues to bury its head in the sand, workers and their families will continue to suffer the consequences.’

In 2022, Amnesty and other rights groups had led calls for FIFA to compensate migrant workers in Qatar for human rights abuses by setting aside $440m (£347m), matching the World Cup prize money.

At the World Cup in Doha, Infantino said a workers’ support and insurance fund set up in 2018 by Qatar had provided compensation of more than $350m (£276m) to workers in cases mainly related to non-payment of wages.