Soccer World Cup 2022: Telekom shows all games live on MagentaTV – despite 15,000 deaths!

The next World Cup will be held in Qatar in 2022. Qatar as a host country is controversial over human rights concerns – much like China was as a host country for the 2022 Winter Olympics. However, Deutsche Telekom will still broadcast the entire FIFA World Cup 2022 on MagentaTV.

Soccer fans can watch all 64 matches of the 2022 World Cup on MagentaTV from November 21, 2022. Live and in UHD, as the company proudly states. 16 games (including two rounds of 16, a quarter-finals and the game for third place) are even shown exclusively on MagentaTV.

MagentaTV will therefore be the only provider in Germany to show all 64 games of the World Cup. In addition, viewers can expect extensive reporting (background reports, exclusive interviews and live broadcasts) on all aspects of the games with up to 14 hours of daily programming. Telekom speaks of more than 200 hours of live programming.

Johannes B. Kerner is present as moderator, assisted by the expert Michael Ballack and the commentator Wolff Fuss. Thomas Wagner is a reporter at the games and in the DFB camp.

Group draw on April 1 live on MagentaTV

Already on April 1, 2022 you can follow the group draw for the World Cup live from Qatar on MagentaTV. In addition to the hosts, 31 teams will be divided into four pots in the draw to determine the eight World Cup groups in the preliminary round. The broadcast with Wolff Fuss and Michael Ballack starts at 5.30 p.m. and can be seen on MagentaTV via the channel #dabeiTV.

Allegation: More than 15,000 people died working for the World Cup

Deutsche Telekom knows that Qatar is very controversial as the host of the soccer World Cup. According to a 2021 Tagesschau report, “More than 6,500 migrant workers, mostly young men, have died in Qatar since the desert emirate won the bid to host the 2022 World Cup in 2010.” These are migrant workers from India , Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka as well as from Pakistan. The Tagesschau also adds: “The actual total number of fatalities is probably higher because there is no data from countries such as Kenya and the Philippines. The deaths from the last months of 2020 are also not yet listed.”

Spiegel Online even reported more than 15,000 dead in Qatar at the end of 2021, citing Amnesty International. Based on this, the Tagesspiegel calculates the following: 234 people died for each of the 64 World Cup games! And n-tv puts it in a nutshell: Anyone who goes to the World Cup becomes part of the abuse.

This is how Telekom tries to justify the transfer

That is why Telekom has published a long statement on this question here. It says, among other things:

“Telekom does not consider a media boycott of the soccer World Cup in Qatar to be expedient. It sees the critical monitoring of the tournament as an opportunity to draw full attention to the existing problems, such as the working conditions of guest workers

. ”

And further:

“Telekom will also shed light on the events for its viewers in its own reporting. Detailed reports before and after the games will provide information about the situation on site. The team of moderators headed by Johannes B. Kerner will critically monitor the sports-political aspects of the World Cup. In addition, Telekom is planning detailed documentation on the emirate. Among other things, she will deal with the exploitation and disenfranchisement of migrant workers, women’s rights, the rights of all people in the LGBTQI+ community and criticism of the sustainability of the World Cup. The documentary will be broadcast around the World Cup.”

In its long statement, Telekom does not name a single number of victims!