Secretary-General Gijs de Jong of the KNVB will visit Qatar this week. On its official website, the association states, among other things, that it wants to contribute to ‘sustainable changes’ in the country that is organizing the 2022 World Cup. Although the the Dutch is not yet certain of participating in the global tournament, De Jong is already traveling to speak to ‘various organizations and persons who have an influence on the position of the guest workers’.
“Of course we still have to qualify for the World Cup, but changing a system that has existed in that region for decades takes time,” De Jong noted on the KNVB website. Since last year we have had intensive discussions about this within the international football world, but also with the Dutch government, international trade unions and human rights organisations. We certainly don’t want to celebrate too soon, but by continuing to emphasize change structurally, some progress has already been made in recent times. Especially if you compare it to the rest of the region.”
“It has become clear here that Qatar has made progress in the past three years,” continues De Jong. “That has everything to do with the World Cup that takes place there. The challenge is that all the new laws will be complied with everywhere, so there is and remains a lot of work to be done. By continuing the dialogue, the UEFA working group and the European associations play a supporting role in this, but also in the intended further developments in Qatar.”
Although the secretary-general indicates that the KNVB has not voted for Qatar as the organizer, he believes that the democratic decision should be accepted. “We are eleven years later and the kick-off will take place there in more than a year. We would like to participate because we are a football association and a World Cup is the highest stage in sporting terms. Because of the signals about the labor migrants in Qatar, we want to do this in a socially conscious way that contributes to sustainable change in the host country,” De Jong concludes.