As easy as it is to be cynical about the meeting of football millionaires with migrants who earned 250 euros a month under often appalling circumstances building World Cup stadiums in Qatar; they are moving images. Virgil van Dijk embraces workers. Memphis Depay takes selfies. Frenkie de Jong signs a shoe. The laugh is exuberant, as if they have known each other for years. Louis van Gaal’s voice carries across the field.
Virgil van Dijk: ‘It seems simple, but it is special, for them and for us. I just wish it had happened behind the scenes. It was nice that they also had so much fun. That gives us energy.’
Frenkie de Jong, about a man who spoke emphatically to him, with many gestures: ‘I wanted to ask him about the situation here, but he was so enthusiastic. He tried to persuade me to come to Liverpool.’ The man, Jimmy Francis from Uganda, was a superintendent during construction. He says: ‘I also told Mr Van Gaal that Frenkie should go to Liverpool. Ah, it was one of the best days of my life.’
Artificial, Van Gaal judged the meeting in advance, because it hardly ever happens that the migrant from the low-wage country meets the professional football player. The criticism is easy to deliver: PR, a conscience stunt. But the most important question to the KNVB, via the unions, was about what players could do: do you want to make the problem visible?
The construction workers were selected through a football tournament and through the Supreme Committee, the organization of the World Cup. It couldn’t be otherwise. Trade unions are banned in Qatar. The foremen in the battle for better working conditions prefer to remain out of the picture. That is the harsh reality.
The chosen ones cheer on field 6 of the university complex in Doha for goals by the Dutch team, before they are allowed on the field themselves. They play a game with the internationals. ‘Aké, Ake’, a man shouts to Nathan Ake, when he wants possession of the ball.
Secretary General Gijs de Jong of the KNVB realizes that many in the Netherlands will mock the action. So be it. “We don’t need flowers.” Only four of the 32 countries organize a similar action. Sixteen unions stick to a different form of interaction. Twelve countries do nothing.