The World Cup is the most popular sporting event in the world, with millions of spectators and viewers from all around the world. But take a little look closer at this celebration of soccer…mainly at its location. Qatar is a country in the Middle East with scorching temperatures, burning to the point where you would wonder why they would host a competitive event there anyways. But if you think it would be hard for the players, just think about the workers. See, Qatar has been paying the World Cup billions of dollars to host the extravagant tourney they didn’t have any stadiums. Or, at least they didn’t until they forced thousands of migrant workers into what is basically modern-day slavery to build the Al Bayt stadium, which about 6,500 people died building. So, why, and how, is this all going unnoticed?

So, first off, it’s almost impossible to talk about the corruption behind the World Cup without talking about the slave labor that was used to build the stadium. These “workers” are mostly migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and southern Asia. These people lack stable jobs or income in their home countries, and the desperation for a stable source of money for their families leads them to take on jobs with horrible conditions, and are usually bound into contracts without escape by their employers. These construction jobs often lead to many deaths, in the case of building the Al Bayt stadium, about 6,500.

Second, one must take into account the players that will be competing in the 120-degree heat. See, this would probably be the thing to make FIFA reconsider letting Qatar host the world cup, because if you’re a multi-billion dollar organization, who cares about 6,500 worker deaths when one or two star soccer players get heatstroke? This, in addition to the aforementioned worker deaths, probably would have been enough for FIFA to reconsider, but who cares when you get paid billions of dollars?

Finally, we have to think about what this means for the world. The worst part about all of this is that it all went by mostly unnoticed by the public. All most fans care about is the thrill of watching soccer and the most hyped soccer tournament in the world. These horrible acts were all brushed aside, as though they were minor details. The scariest part is, if Qatar can get away with it, what’s to stop the world from reverting back to using full-scale slavery?