The Workers Cup (2017)

Directed by: Adam Sobel | 92 minutes | documentary, sports

Major sports tournaments such as the Olympic Games and the World Cup often cost the organizing country billions, but if all goes well, those investments can pay for themselves. However, reality shows that for many years only losses have been incurred. For example, a 2012 study by the University of Oxford showed that the costs since the 1960 Summer Olympics have been on average 179 percent (!) higher than estimated. And then there are political games. No wonder that nowadays only countries with a lot of wealthy sugar daddy – and with a hint of corruption around them – manage to rake in the big tournaments, such as the World Cup in Russia in June/July of 2018. The next World Cup, in 2022, was awarded to the tiny Gulf state of Qatar, to the surprise of many football fans. Qatar has no football tradition whatsoever and so almost all stadiums and training complexes have to be built from scratch. And then we haven’t even mentioned the climate; in the heat it is not really pleasant or healthy to have to perform at a high level. But the oil barons in Qatar pulled the wallet and so the World Cup circus is coming to the Middle East in four years.

‘The Workers Cup’ (2017) is a documentary that shows the people who are currently working hard in Qatar to build all the facilities needed to host the World Cup. Men from Africa and Asia who have traveled to the Arabian Peninsula, often under false pretenses, in the hope of earning a lot of money and escaping poverty in their own country. Men like 21-year-old Kenneth from Ghana, who was fooled by an intermediary that he could become a professional footballer. Oh yes, if he wants to put down another 1,500 dollars for the agency costs. Once at work, very strict rules apply to the workers. They have to work seven days a week, do heavy physical work and work long hours. Their papers have been confiscated, so they cannot return home. It is also impossible for them to quit their job. When they are not working, they are forced to hang out in labor camps; they are not allowed to go anywhere else. To illustrate: in Qatar all together about 2.3 million people live; 1.6 million of these are migrant workers. It is hard to imagine as a free westerner, but these people literally live like modern slaves, for a modest wage of 400 dollars a month. Money that is often sent directly to the home front; they don’t have the opportunity to publish it themselves anyway.

In order to give these people a break, a football tournament is organized for the workers. Under the flag of the construction company they work for, they first play three group matches against each other. The best teams advance to the knockout stage. Just like in the real World Cup. Kenneth and the other men that director Adam Sobel follows come out for the team GCC. For men like Kenneth and Indian Umesh, who named his two sons after Manchester United players Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney, participation in the ‘Workers Cup’ means a lot. They are not really trained and attuned to each other, so when they lose the first game 6-1, that absolutely has to change. It is a pity that Sobel, originally a journalist who had not previously directed a long(er) documentary, filmed the matches in such a flat and businesslike manner. A little more tension, dynamics and experience would certainly have done the film well. He could have done a lot more, especially with the game being decided on penalties.

It’s a good thing that the men who are the subject of the conversation are so candid and talkative themselves, and in that way give the film some much-needed life because ‘The Workers Cup’ doesn’t need it from Sobel. The fact that the workers live in appalling and degrading conditions is a humanitarian disaster, but this is not the first time we see something like this. These people find their footing in sports or, for example, in music, and that also applies to Kenneth, Umesh and the others in this film. But Sobel captures it as dryly as the cold facts that roll across the screen. As a result, the film never comes to life. Towards the end of ‘The Workers Cup’, racial tensions between the Africans and the Asians rear their heads and the team’s coach, Sebastian, emerges as an inspirational speaker who wants to instill a political self-awareness in the men, but precisely when it is. interesting issues are discussed, Sobel draws a line under his film. Partly because of this, ‘The Workers Cup’ is nowhere near what it contains.