FIFA 'need to show leadership' on worker compensation - Amnesty International

In less than a month's time at the Al Bayt Stadium, the 2022 World Cup will kick off with the opening fixture between host nation Qatar and Ecuador.

The 60,000-seater venue, which features a retractable roof, is one of seven stadia constructed for the tournament (the Khalifa Stadium is the only one that existed a few years ago) which has required a vast outlay in infrastructure spending that is estimated to run up to €300 billion since FIFA awarded the gulf nation hosting rights back in the winter of 2010.

But as the World Cup looms, "time is running out" to compensate migrant workers who have died or been injured during the construction process according to Amnesty International who have also outlined that "abuses persist" in Qatar despite reforms of its labour laws

The human rights group is among those to have called on football's world governing body FIFA to commit to a $440m (€449.5m) compensation fund for migrant workers but as of yet, no such scheme has been announced.

Amnesty's head of economic and social justice Stephen Cockburn has called on FIFA president Gianni Infantino to show more leadership on the issue.

"We first wrote to FIFA president Infantino five months ago. We've not had a reply to that letter," Cockburn told RTÉ Sport on Wednesday ahead of Amnesty's publication of their latest briefing, Qatar: Unfinished Business: What Qatar must do to fulfill promises on migrant workers' rights.

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"We've not had an official reply to that. We understand that they are considering it. They said last week at a meeting that it was something they were seriously considering progressing. So we know it is being discussed.

"We know it's been raised with them, we know that others have been raising it with them and