Qatar Airways
Abuses Women Workers
When Barcelona
had Unicef on the front of their jersey, it gave the public a feeling that
Barcelona was always giving back and had the best intentions. Then in 2011,
Barcelona dropped Unicef from the front and put the logo on the lower back of
the shirt. The replacing sponsor at the time was “Qatar Foundation.” Although
people were upset about Barcelona dropping Unicef, such a rich and established
charity, at least they were still sponsored by a foundation that gives back to education and
community development .
Ahead of the
2013 season, FC Barcelona released their new kits with “Qatar Airways” on the
front, and had completely dropped the “Qatar Foundation.” There is speculation that
using Qatar Foundation was only an effort to make the transition from a
charitable organization to a commercial company a little smoother. Refer to this link to read more up on how the
Qatar Airways deal was “a decade in the making.” (http://www.sportspromedia.com/sportspro_blog/fc_barcelonas_journey_from_catalonian_ideal_to_economic_reality)
If this theory
is true, then that is a clear business move by FC Barcelona. One of their main
defenses for being a club was that they are more concerned about the players,
members and the wellbeing of the world rather than their commercial success.
However, if this deal was 10 years in the making, the Unicef Sponsorship was
simply a marketing effort.
Aside from this
theory, a true club would look deep into their sponsors and not do deals with
companies that have poor values and morals. This is exactly how you can
describe Qatar Airways. In June of 2015, it was released that the airline was
telling their female staff that they would be FIRED if they become pregnant.
Moreover, there was found to be another clause in contracts that says workers
must ‘obtain prior permission from
the company in case [he or she] wishes to change marital status and get married.’ These are clear violations of Human Rights. Although many
of these clauses have been removed from contracts since, Barcelona were
involved with Qatar Airways for almost three years while these clauses were
still common in their staff’s contracts.
