Recently, England's soccer team leader Thufty expressed concern about the rights of construction workers in Qatar and questioned the rationale for Qatar hosting the final week of the World Cup. The comments sparked strong displeasure from the World Cup Organizing Committee's chief executive, Ekada, who urged Hufki to travel to Qatar personally to speak to the workers and warned him that he needed to be careful with his words and actions.
In an interview during the World Cup, Shofki emphasized the injustices suffered by migrant construction workers in Qatar, while he questioned the legitimacy of Qatar hosting the World Cup. However, he also acknowledged that if England boycotted the World Cup it might not make much of an impact and that doing so could attract widespread criticism.
Shoufky's comments have angered the Qatari authorities, with World Cup CEO Al Qaeda recently publicly stating that Shoufky should "watch what he says": "What I want to know is, has this coach actually been to Qatar? Is his opinion based only on what he reads? He must come here and talk to the workers himself to understand their real situation." Al-Qaeda acknowledges that there are indeed cases of exploitation of some workers, but these are a few cases and most workers are treated well: "Some are able to send their children to university; some have their whole family living here comfortably."
