November 1 – In a remarkable move, World Cup organisers have agreed to pay for the flights and hotels of selected fan groups in exchange for promoting the tournament on social media.
The Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) has confirmed the policy of inviting groups of supporters as guests after reports by Dutch public broadcaster NOS that Qatar was paying for 50 Dutch fans.
In return they have to sign a ‘code of conduct’ and post favourable comments about the tournament as well as report “any offensive, degrading or abusive comments” by other fans.
Qatar’s organisers have been at constant pains to stave off a slew of negative headlines about staging the tournament. Human rights activists have long protested the country’s treatment of migrant workers, many of whom have reportedly died building World Cup stadiums.
NOS cited two Dutch fans who said they had been selected as ‘Fan Leaders’ and asked to pick a group of 50 loyal supporters for the free trip.
“As the tournament nears, we have invited our most active fan leaders to personally nominate a small selection of fans to join us as our guests, as a manner of thanking them for their collaboration,” a spokesperson for the Supreme Committee told Reuters.
On its website, the Qatar World Cup describes its Fan Leaders programme as a network of around 400 fans and influencers from 60 countries who have offered “insights, research, content creation and message amplification,” for the tournament.
“We are not asking you to [be] a mouthpiece for Qatar, but it would obviously not be appropriate for you to disparage Qatar [or] the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy”.
The code of conduct warned that: “You understand that SC will be monitoring your Posts.”
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