![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/image_2022-10-13_141655604-696x392.png\" "\\"Qatar's")
Qatar\u2019s World Cup chief has told the English and Welsh FAs to focus on their teams rather than demanding compensation for migrant workers \u2013 and revealed that drunk fans will be sent to special zones to sober up.<\/p>\n
In a wide-ranging interview in Doha, the capital, Nasser Al Khater also told Sky News that enduring criticism of the tournament could be considered racist.<\/p>\n
He said gay fans will be welcome to display affection and rainbow flags; FIFA will have to decide on captains wearing \u201cOne Love\u201d armbands while cautioning against \u201cpolitical messages\u201d by teams; Areas will be set up for drunk supporters to sober up and 95% of tickets have been sold.<\/p>\n
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The Middle East\u2019s first World Cup opens on 19 November, the culmination of a 12-year journey since Qatar won a widely tainted vote by FIFA, football\u2019s international governing body.<\/p>\n
In that time, Mr Al Khater has risen to chief executive of the supreme committee overseeing Qatar\u2019s planning and has been in the firing line of criticism.<\/p>\n
A group of European countries, including England and Wales, has spent the World Cup build-up highlighting concerns about the suffering of migrant workers and claimed inadequacies in Qatar\u2019s compensation funding.<\/p>\n
Mr Al Khater told Sky News: \u201cA lot of people that speak about this issue on workers\u2019 welfare\u2026 are not experts in the industry. And they\u2019re not experts in what they\u2019re speaking about.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I feel that they feel obliged, that they need to speak. I think they need to really read and educate themselves a little bit more about what\u2019s happening on the ground in Qatar.\u201d<\/p>\n
A UEFA working group on labour rights in Qatar held talks at FIFA HQ in Switzerland on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo when people come out and say, \u2018Yes, we agree that there needs to be some sort of compensation fund\u2019,\u201d Mr Al Khater said, \u201cthey\u2019re just reading off a piece of paper.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo let\u2019s leave that to the experts\u2026 and let us focus on football. Let the football administrators focus on their teams. And let\u2019s just leave it at that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Be respectful of culture\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Although World Cup organisers insist there have only been three work-related deaths at stadiums, concerns linger that more migrant workers died on wider infrastructure work across Qatar as every fatality is not fully investigated.<\/p>\n Mr Al Khater pointed to Qatar improving labour laws and the introduction of a minimum wage.<\/p>\n But Qatar is not prepared to change anti-LGBTQ+ laws to respond to concerns of visiting fans, but has insisted none will be discriminated against during the 29-day tournament and that gay fans can hold hands.<\/p>\n \u201cAll we ask is for people to be respectful of the culture,\u201d Mr Al Khater said. \u201cAt the end of the day, as long as you don\u2019t do anything that harms other people, if you\u2019re not destroying public property, as long as you\u2019re behaving in a way that\u2019s not harmful, then everybody\u2019s welcome and you have nothing to worry about.\u201d<\/p>\n Although Mr Al Khater has said fans can display rainbow flags, he said \u201cit\u2019s a FIFA matter\u201d whether approval is given for Harry Kane, the England captain, and Gareth Bale, his Welsh counterpart, to wear multicoloured \u201cOne Love\u201d armbands that highlight discrimination.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom what I understand, there are discussions taking place about the different political messages that are going to be,\u201d Mr Al Khater said.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cThis is a sporting tournament that people want to come [to] and enjoy. Turning it into a platform of political statements I don\u2019t think is right for the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n 95% of tickets sold<\/strong><\/p>\n Fans will be attending matches in eight new stadiums built around Doha. Accommodation remains available through organisers but 95% of tickets have been sold, Mr Al Khater said.<\/p>\n To host the World Cup, Qatar has had to open up more areas for the sale of alcohol \u2013 including outside stadiums and in fan zones \u2013 rather than it remaining restricted to hotel bars.<\/p>\n Mass gatherings of boisterous, drunk supporters is unfamiliar territory for the first Muslim nation to host a World Cup.<\/p>\n Mr Al Khater said: \u201cThere are plans in place for people to sober up if they\u2019ve been drinking excessively.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a place to make sure that they keep themselves safe, they\u2019re not harmful to anybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Al Khater sidestepped ongoing concerns about whether vote-buying secured the World Cup hosting rights in the vote in 2010, saying he feels Qatar has been unfairly targeted generally.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve taken the challenge upon ourselves and we\u2019ve risen to that challenge,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Asked if he felt criticism was racist, he responded: \u201cI\u2019m not going to get into what the intentions of other people are, I\u2019m not going to get into the minds and souls of other people.<\/p>\n \u201cBut you know, who knows, possibly.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"Drunk](\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Lusail-Stadium-will-host-the-World-Cup-final-1024x576.jpg\" "\\"Drunk")