Qatar World Cup: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

"A cartel-like group of scumbags and assorted criminals who ocassionaly put on soccer matches." This is by far the best FIFA's description I've ever heard of.

They didn't smash the camera. Tantholdt (the journalist) stood his ground and they left. He kept reporting. We like him here in Denmark.

Update: the media forgot about the human rights abuses and covered the cup enthusiastically

HBO is legendary for putting whole episodes of Last Week Tonight on YouTube.

I'm a Kenya who works in Qatar, and John has got it right again. Last week John talked on what happened to us in the past and now the present.... thank you.

"I won't say that Qatar definitely got the World Cup through bribery, but I won't say that they didn't and I will say that they did." God, I love this.

"Cheering on England until they're inevitably knocked out in the quarter-finals on penalties" this aged like a fine wine

The 'ahh' from the audience after oliver converted 52°c to Fahrenheit did it for me 😂😂😂

The way audience's reaction changed from nothing when hearing 52C to a big gasp after knowing 125F was really funny.

I know it's a terrible topic, but I laughed way too hard at the audience ahhhhing at the temperature after John converted it to Fahrenheit

The face of that official when the journalist told him he's been there and saw everything was priceless.

John's impression of David Beckham was so good lol

"The workers are living in a comfortable, healthy, environment" has the same energy as "Our slaves are happy to be here, look at how joyfully they sing"

When that reporter said "Have you been to the labor camps?" that was such a powerful question.

massive respect for shining the spotlight where people don't want it shone upon

Australia consistently bids to host the world cup but we keep losing out to other countries. I guess we just cannot match their shady under the table bribes!

As a Nepali, hearing and seeing dead Nepalese body entering country now and then, hearing the stories of the family members of the deceased people. I am so glad that John Oliver and HBO decided to shed light on this topic.

To add some context to the environment those stadium workers had to deal with: I was deployed there as a Navy Corpsman in a USMC unit back in 2014. The Navy/Marines use a system called the WBGT (Wet Bulb Globe Test) index. When it is over 90, all non-essential activity is prohibited as a severe risk of heat stroke, dehydration, etc. This is known as "Black Flag". Over the summer (we arrived in August), it was Black Flag before the sun even rose, and was often into the low 130s. The heat is exacerbated by the extreme humidity (it was often over 90% humidity when we were there), so your sweat doesn't evaporate, which means your body can't cool off naturally, and you have an increased risk of heat injuries. When that man said it felt like it was raining, that's not an exaggeration. As soon as you left an air-conditioned space, your clothes soaked through with sweat in 5-10 minutes. It felt like what I imagine being in an oven would be like. Our commanding officer cancelled a lot of our training, includeing MCMAP (Marine Corps Martial Arts Program). We were finishing up a Brown Belt course, and about to start Black Belt, and we were having heat injuries, even training at 5 a.m. to avoid the heat. In my time in the military I've been to CA, NM, AZ, TX, FL, IL, WA, NC, Guantanamo Bay, Japan, and Qatar (and many more places aside from military service). No place on Earth had weather as miserable as Qatar... it's not even close. It's hard to imagine working outside all day in such a hellscape. I feel for all the workers who had to endure that.

I used to live in Rio, Brazil and it would hit 50 degrees in the summer some days. The government would send out water trucks to dose the businesses and some people who asked to get sprayed. It was so incredibly hot and humid that if just got out of the shower and dried yourself off. By the time you wrapped the towel and started walking to your room your entire body would be sweaty. (No most people don't have AC, and if they do its just in room of the house to save costs) I can't imagine doing any actual labour in that type of environment without straight up passing out. Reminds me of the old movies of Egyptian slaves working to build temples in the heat while getting whipped. So damn sad

“It's like the Super bowl, except the rest of the world actually gives a f*ck.” 😂