Gianni Infantino, FIFA's president, has announced plans to set up an independent committee that will monitor conditions for labourers working at Qatar’s World Cup 2022 stadiums following criticism of the country's human-rights record.
The proposed committee will be led by the football's world governing body, and include civil society representatives and "relevant FIFA stake-holders" to monitor the conditions for all projects leading up to the tournament.
In his first trip to Qatar since becoming FIFA president in February, Infantino met the emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and visited Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, which was named in an Amnesty International report as a site where workers have suffered rights abuses.
Infantino said Qatar, the tournament's first Arab host, supported the monitoring initiative.
"I acknowledge very much the efforts which are being done," he said in Doha.
"I want to see these efforts now being put in practice. Of course we will not just sit and wait. FIFA will step up its efforts in overseeing ... in order to ensure the protection of the workers' rights in the construction of the FIFA World Cup sites is fulfilled."
Infantino's trip came hours after Federico Addiechi, FIFA's head of sustainability, admitted that Qatar’s human-rights record was not taken into consideration when it was awarded the tournament almost six years ago.
Addiechi made the comments at a discussion around a FIFA-sanctioned report on the organisation's human-rights responsibilities at a UN forum on human rights in Doha earlier this week.
John Ruggie, a Harvard professor and the author of the report, made strong comments at the forum, saying FIFA was involved in human-rights abuses through its relationships.
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