Host Country & Tournament-Time Operations

In 2021, WWD worked with Q22 and FIFA in the three test events – FIFA Club World Cup 2020™, FIFA Arab Cup 2021™ Qualifiers and FIFA Arab Cup 2021™ – which allowed us to confirm that our systems were resilient and to identify improvements in our operational plans.

The WWD based its tournament-time operational approach on three main work streams – pre-tournament due diligence, tournament-time inspections and post-event enforcement – to assess the welfare of workers during these tournaments. These work streams, developed throughout 2021, integrate the prevention, identification and resolution of non-compliances with Qatar Labour Law (QLL) and the WWS on competition and noncompetition venues.

The FAC21 represented the biggest test event of the year and provided an opportunity for WWD to continue to develop its capabilities in an environment as close to that of the FIFA World Cup 2022™ as possible. This was the first time a fully-dedicated human rights team was deployed for a major sporting event to conduct welfare assessments of workers and identify and resolve non-compliances through contractor engagement.

Each consecutive event has provided the WWD with an opportunity to improve its operations and to increase the tournament capabilities of the team, resulting in faster capture and communication of interview results, improved workforce engagement and communication through the deployment of multi-lingual inspectors, and the application of a single, integrated Workers’ Welfare approach, which dealt with all SC, Q22 and FIFA tournament-time workers in a standard way.