As excitement builds up around the world and throughout many football fans at the thought that the World Cup will start pretty soon, investigative journalism platform Blankspot has launched a new campaign, using the days that are left until the competition begins to speak about the real costs behind this hotly anticipated event. You can think of it as a countdown, one during which the platform plans to publish a card a day until the FIFA competition kicks off.

Designed in collaboration with the football app Forza Football and the creative agency Forsman & Bodenfors, the media outlet’s “Cards of Qatar” resemble the typical football cards that present facts about the players. Only, instead of featuring footballers, the platform printed the images of 33 migrant workers from Nepal, Bangladesh, and India who lost their lives while building the World Cup infrastructure in Qatar.

Ever since Qatar has been announced to host the event, the country has worked on developing the infrastructure — one that would accommodate 1.5 million visitors. Unfortunately, the preparations for the FIFA tournament are responsible for taking the lives and injuring many laborers who came from South Asia in the hope of a better life. More than 6,500 workers who have traveled to the Arab nation — a decision they have taken because of the poor financial situation they had back at home — have died in Qatar since December 2010.

“These workers are not just statistics,” says Martin Schibbye, Chief Editor and Co-founder of Blankspot. They are human beings, each with their own family and life experiences. “Their stories need to be heard. At first glance, everything from the portraits, the glossy surface, and the packaging creates the impression of authentic football cards. But at a closer look, the portraits and stories belong to migrant workers in Qatar, each with an unfiltered story,” continues Schibbye.

The aim of the project is to go beyond the statistics and tell their stories, narrated by the migrants’ own families. But in order to do so, Blankspot worked closely with a team of professional journalists in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. Together, they started to collect the migrants’ stories, interviewing the workers’ loved ones. The plan is to gather as much content as possible and share it with the world so that everyone is aware of the price these people paid to build new stadia, hotels, and a new airport among others.

The Cards of Qatar’s initial batch includes 33 cards packed in a handmade box. The design mimics the branding running across the World Cup 2022 to make the items look as if they were the official cards of the tournament. More stories will be added, the magazine announcing that it will reveal a new story a day up until the event starts. Long-form articles and interviews with the players, politicians, and workers’ organizations are planned to be featured as part of the campaign as well.

“Cards of Qatar is a way to both spread the stories to a large audience while putting more pressure on FIFA and other organizations that organize sporting events. This is 2022. Major championships should not be organized by countries that do not respect fundamental human rights,” comments Patrik Arnesson, Founder of Forza Football. The team at the football app was presented with this idea two years ago when Blankspot highlighted how powerful the journalism-and-soccer combination can be in speaking about the working conditions migrants have to endure in preparing Qatar for the soccer event.

“It has been an honor for all of us to have been part of this project with Blankspot and Forza Football. Hopefully, as many people as possible will read these stories,” conclude Staffan Lamm and Hampus Elfström, creatives at Forsman & Bodenfors.

Besides helping the media company with the concept development and the design that will hopefully bring justice to these people, the agency has also prepared a video to further support the initiative. Additionally, a microsite and Instagram and Twitter accounts were created, providing internet users with more content about the people who sought employment abroad.

Credits:

Client: Blankspot // Forza Football

Agency: Forsman & Bodenfors