May 17, 2002
ITGLWF Press Release

"Irresponsible" FIFA profiting from labour abuse and exploitation

The murky world of FIFA licensing and sponsorship was under attack today with the world soccer body branded as socially irresponsible and acting in bad faith and deceit for profiting from but ignoring abuse and exploitation in the production of footballs and other soccer-related products.

Speaking in Tokyo, where World Cup 2002 will kick off in less than two weeks, Neil Kearney, general secretary of the Brussels-based International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation (ITGLWF), branded soccer "a dirty business" and said FIFA's neglect of the labour behind its lucrative licensing and sponsorship deals was "bringing shame on the game". The ITGLWF was one of the three global union organisations which negotiated a Code of Labour Practice with FIFA in 1996.

Mr. Kearney said that more than 750,000 workers produce FIFA-licensed goods or are employed, directly or indirectly, by FIFA's main sponsors. Tens of thousands of these, including children as young as 10 years, work up to 16 hours a day for starvation wages. Working conditions are often horrendous, health and safety hazards abound and, in China, the personal restrictions on workers in a number of factories border on forced labour. Workers who object or try to organise to improve conditions are harassed, beaten-up and often fired.

"Tragically" said Mr. Kearney, "the situation has actually worsened since the exposure of the widespread use of children in football stitching forced FIFA to address the problem for the first time and negotiate a comprehensive Code of Labour Practice which they themselves touted as the mechanism that would rid the soccer industry of worker exploitation, including child labour.

"True, some of the children formerly employed in football stitching in Sialkot in Pakistan have left the industry but child labour has emerged elsewhere particularly in India and worker rights' abuses have rocketed in the sporting goods industry and in new football stitching centres such as China. FIFA appear largely to have turned a blind eye while pocketing millions of dollars in licensing and sponsorship arrangements including US$24million from adidas alone.

Mr. Kearney said that having negotiated the Code of Labour Practice, FIFA then inexplicably refused to sign it. This could only be described as "bad faith" or worse. "Why negotiate then refuse to sign?" he asked. "A deal with their then marketing agents - the now defunct ISL - perhaps?"

"Though FIFA claimed to have written most of the terms of the Code of Labour Practice into their licensing agreements there appears to have been no follow-up, no system for ensuring compliance, no monitoring and no verification. This suggests that the negotiation of the Code of Labour Practice was little more than a public relations exercise aimed at deflecting criticism in the short-term. It is hard not to see this as deceit on a grand scale.

"Worse, FIFA now deny any responsibility for the abuses behind their licensing and sponsorship income responding to recently expressed concerns by saying that 'FIFA as a sports organisation has as its primary duty the organisation of world football and cannot be held responsible for the labour conditions in factories'. 'Take the money, no questions asked!' seems now to be FIFA's motto, not 'Fair Play' and certainly not 'Fair Pay'.

"No wonder FIFA have for months refused to meet the global unions with whom they negotiated their Code of Labour Practice or with worker rights' NGOs appalled at labour practices in the sporting goods industry.

"Like soccer, the labour behind FIFA licensing and sponsorship needs rules and a referee. Now that FIFA is handling it's own licensing and sponsorship through the newly created FIFA Marketing AG it should urgently negotiate an update of its 1996 Code of Labour Practice, adopt it, sign it and implement it. This should then become a contractual obligation in every licensing and sponsorship deal. FIFA must then monitor the outcome and provide public verification that it is driving the dirt out of football.

Concluded Mr. Kearney, "Licensing and sponsorship deals appear to be behind the current malaise at the heart of football. FIFA should immediately begin tackling this malaise by giving the red card to the current abuse and exploitation of the labour which oils these deals."

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The International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation is an International Trade Secretariat bringing together 225 affiliated organisations in 110 countries with a combined membership of 10 million workers.

For more information, contact: Neil Kearney (General Secretary) at 32/475932487 (mobile) or nk-gs@itglwf.org or ITGLWF Secretariat at tel: 32/02/512.2606, fax: 32/02/512.0904 or office@itglwf.org .