Broadcaster Richard Keys has blasted Liverpool for their “baffling” decision to reject a five-star hotel that has been allocated to them in Qatar for the upcoming Club World Cup.
According to The Athletic, background checks were done on the Marsa Malaz Kempinski, but those reports raised ethical concerns.
The Guardian reported just over a year ago that the hotel was in breach of labour laws and offering salaries below the minimum wage to migrant workers.
Liverpool will no longer stay at that hotel and have found new accommodation but beIN SPORTS host Keys, formerly of Sky Sports, cannot understand why the Merseyside club have taken this decision.
“We should all care about Human Rights. Progress has been made in Qatar and there is still work to be done but this is a baffling stance by Liverpool. They’ve never cared how Aspire was built when they’ve sent a raft of players here for treatment,” said Keys via his personal Twitter account on Monday.
We should all care about Human Rights. Progress has been made in Qatar & there is still work to be done but this is a baffling stance by Liverpool. They’ve never cared how Aspire was built when they’ve sent a raft of players here for treatment https://t.co/NtGMAa934X
— Richard Keys (@richardajkeys) November 4, 2019
OPINION
Keys does everything he can to defend Qatar, a country that has been riddled with accusations about it’s treatment of migrant workers. If Keys thinks that Liverpool’s stance is baffling then he needs to have a good think about how baffling it is that the Middle Eastern country is allowed to host the next World Cup in 2022. Not only is it going to cause havoc to host a World Cup in the winter, but there have been a lot of stories about the conditions in which people are made to work in on the stadiums. Liverpool should be applauded for this stance and maybe it will make other hotels in the region re-think the way that they treat those who are working for them. The Kempinski has made headlines for the wrong reasons and have lost the chance to host the Champions League-winning squad at their hotel. Well done Reds, this is a great stance to make and fools like Richard Keys should be ignored.
