Scottish Soccer Fans Are Boycotting Tonight's Friendly Game with Qatar

This article originally appeared on VICE UK.

Poor Qatar. They may be an oil-rich absolute monarchy with more money than they know what to do with, but they've had a pretty tough time recently when it comes to international soccer. Arguably tougher even than Scotland, which is currently trying to qualify for its first tournament since 1998.

Tonight, in a darkly comical display of bad timing, the two sides will line up against each other at Easter Road, the Hibernian ground in Edinburgh, where they'll be competing for something called the "Qatar Airways Cup." Going to the effort of getting an actual trophy made up for a meaningless friendly game played out to a half empty stadium would, usually, seem like an unnecessary extravagance.

But unnecessary extravagance is what Qatar thrives on, which may partly account for the messy situation they're now in. From the country's starring role in the increasingly convoluted FIFA corruption allegations to the mounting global outrage over the appalling conditions their huge migrant workforce is living— and dying—in, the country has rarely been out of the headlines recently.

Not bad for a microstate with a citizenry of about 250,000, with the eyes of the world presumably what the country's PR-hungry rulers were after when they applied for and won the right to host the 2022 World Cup. But it hasn't quite played out as they intended, with their visions of presenting themselves as a shimmering desert dreamland now looking about as likely as the "legacy for humanity" they once proposed. Instead, the country has become a gleaming metaphor for corruption and indentured labor, neither of which are exactly desirable when it comes to building your national tourism brand.

So with all that in mind, it's good to know that the Qatar Football Association still has some friends on the world stage—namely their Scottish counterparts. Although the SFA are keen to reassure everyone that they're against human rights abuses (round of applause guys!) and that they're aware of the "disturbing reports" emanating from Qatari construction sites, they say that it's "important to separate this sporting fixture" from the allegations. Whatever the case, it hasn't stopped them from issuing a joint press release about how thrilled Scotland is to be hosting the game, with manager Gordon Strachan posing for photos next to the "trophy" for this non-event, emblazoned with the branding of Qatar's state airline.

In Scotland's defense, they say that they need a game to prepare for next weekend's crucial Euro qualifier against Ireland (who now has its own FIFA scandal to boot), and Qatar just happens to be nearby. That's mostly because Qatar isn't playing many home fixtures at the moment given that, as even FIFA now concedes, you can't play soccer in 105-degree temperatures, so they've retreated to the slightly cooler climes of Staffordshire for a training camp. The match seemed like the perfect arrangement for both sides—what could possibly go wrong?

Well, things did start to go wrong. On May 27, the FIFA arrests in Switzerland kicked off, with corruption allegations around the awarding of the 2022 World Cup at their center. Later that day the Washington Post published the now famous infographic showing the estimated 1,200 migrant worker deaths that have happened in Qatar since late 2010. If playing a friendly game against Qatar had ever seemed like a brilliant idea, it suddenly didn't seem like such a wise one anymore.

Trade unions and some politicians have been vocal in calls for tonight's match to be boycotted by fans or scrapped entirely, highlighting the conditions of "modern day slavery" and widespread human rights abuses that Qatar seems intent on relying on in their massive drive to build up infrastructure capable of holding a World Cup.

A protest is set to take place outside the ground tonight, with union activists joining with members of the Scottish Football Supporters' Association to raise awareness of the situation, in the hope of putting pressure on the future World Cup hosts. "If the match on Friday was a World Cup 2022 game, 62 workers would have died to stage it," says Scottish TUC General Secretary Grahame Smith, pointing to the grim statistic on how many workers it's estimated will die for each match that's played in Qatar.

Earlier this week, the Qatari government commented on the reports around migrant worker deaths on World Cup construction sites, calling them "completely untrue" and saying that "not a single worker's life has been lost." They appear similarly unmoved by the growing corruption allegations, insisting that they won the tournament fairly, although the clamor from sponsors for action to be taken is growing.

Qatar's troubles may be about to get even worse though—tonight they might face the indignity of getting humped by Scotland.

Follow Liam on Twitter.