It is a speech that will make a date.

On Thursday, the Australian national football team became the first selection to qualify for the competition to openly and collectively criticize Qatar on respect for human rights, denouncing the "suffering" of workers who accompanied the organization of the 2022 World Cup in the gas emirate.

Sixteen members of the team, which is in the France group along with Denmark and Tunisia, nicknamed the "Socceroos", appeared in a short video explaining their position.



 “For the past two years, we have devoted ourselves to understanding and getting to know the situation in Qatar better,” explain the players, speaking in turn.

"We are not experts but we have listened to organizations such as Amnesty (International), FIFA, International Labor Organisation, FIFPRo" and, "more importantly, foreign workers in Qatar".


A message from our @Socceroos on the @FIFAWorldCup #SupportingThePlayers pic.twitter.com/bUqW2pne1w

— Professional Footballers Australia (@thepfa) October 26, 2022

Access to this content has been blocked to respect your choice of consent

By clicking on "

I ACCEPT

", you accept the deposit of cookies by external services and will thus have access to the content of our partners

I ACCEPT

And to better remunerate 20 Minutes, do not hesitate to accept all cookies, even for one day only, via our "I accept for today" button in the banner below.

More information on the Cookie Management Policy page.



The video is accompanied by a statement from the Football Association of Australia.

"We recognize the significant progress and legislative reforms that have taken place in Qatar in recent years to recognize and protect workers' rights and we encourage all actors to continue along this path of reform," writes the FFA.

More tolerance for LGBTQ people

“However, we have also learned that the tournament has been associated with the suffering of migrant workers and their families and this cannot be ignored,” the federation continues.

Football Australia has also urged the tiny gas emirate to show more tolerance for same-sex relationships, which are currently illegal in Qatar.

"As our country's most multicultural, diverse and inclusive sport, we believe everyone should be able to feel safe and free to be themselves," Football Australia said.

In addition, the captains of a number of European nations - including England, France and Germany - will wear rainbow colored armbands during the World Cup with the message "One Love" in the as part of an anti-LGBT discrimination campaign.


Sport

2022 World Cup: A group of women warns of the reception conditions for female supporters

World

World Cup 2022: Human Rights Watch accuses Qatar of arbitrary detention of members of the LGBTQ community

  • Soccer

  • Sport

  • World Cup 2022

  • Qatar

  • Australia