The Qatar World Cup furore puts football on trial

Just over a week from the start of the World Cup in Brazil and Fifa is embroiled in its deepest crisis since its formation in 1904. When Qatar was awarded the 2022 World Cup, it was understandably controversial. Last month, Fifa president Sepp Blatter called it a "mistake". But fresh allegations, made this weekend, now go far beyond simple controversy.

There are three elements to the Qatari story, and it will surprise no one with even a passing interest in the Machiavellian world of Fifa's governance that it was only in relation to the least important of the three – the weather and scheduling (as well as a healthy dose of presidential politics) – that Blatter declared the decision a "mistake".

There are two far more serious concerns. First, the swirling rumours of bribery and corruption are hardening into serious evidence of genuine wrongdoing. If the revelations that emerged in the Sunday Times over the weekend are properly verified, then the Qatar World Cup must be halted immediately. Labour's sports spokesman, Clive Efford, has rightly said the process must be rerun if these allegations are proved.

Fifa's rules are clear – the World Cup hosting must not be bought. Just like the trophy itself, it has to be won fairly and openly. Any payments or gifts that could give even the impression of exerting influence are strictly prohibited.

Then there is the very real matter of life and death. At the start of April, I travelled to Doha as part of an investigation into the conditions of migrant workers labouring on the construction sites of Qatar. What I saw was a disgrace. The workers I met told me of abuse, exploitation and deception.

One Kenyan father I met had been unable to see his child for five years because his employer had seized his passport and left the country, leaving him stranded and unable to work or go home. Others told of no payment or underpayment and said the conditions they lived in were inhuman. Sometimes as many as eight men shared a room no bigger than a child's bedroom.

Many of those I met told me about a total lack of health and safety protection. The number of deaths by heart failure is so extreme that the firm appointed to assess the allegations which were unearthed by the Guardian, Amnesty International and others, recommended a full inquiry.

The Qataris have since announced very limited reform, including some changes to kafala, the sponsorship system for migrant labourers. But let's be clear, this is a very small step in the right direction; there is industrial-scale abuse of workers in Qatar and nothing announced so far will bring that to an end. These proud workers shouldn't have to die while building a World Cup.

Football prides itself on being the most democratic sport in the world. There are almost no limits to playing the game. I have seen the universal power of football to inspire people – whether it's the South Africans I know who used football to stand up against apartheid, or the children I joined in a kick-about with in a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan, or the trainee Afghan soldiers I watched playing a game in the Helmand dust.

Each of them love a simple and once-beautiful sport. However, it's not the power to inspire the millions but the alleged corruption of the few that now taints the game we love. Ever since the sport broke out of its ghettos in Britain's public schools more than a century ago it has had a unique appeal.

This morning those who govern the world's one genuine global sport are accused not just of corruption in a single bidding process – but of corrupting a noble and egalitarian sporting ideal. The entire sport of football is now on trial.

Jim Murphy is Labour MP for East Renfrewshire. He is the shadow secretary of state for international development.

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