Featured Image Credit: ITV Sport
Topics: Football, Football World Cup, Gary Neville, Qatar
George Priestman
Topics: Football, Football World Cup, Gary Neville, Qatar
Gary Neville slammed the UK government in a withering rant ahead of the World Cup final.
Neville has been a pundit for ITV Sport in Qatar and has used the platform to spread awareness around the poor working conditions for migrant workers among other wider issues in Qatar.
In the build-up to the World Cup final between France and Argentina, he spoke out on these issues, but then also diverged into a rant on the UK government.
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His anger was directed towards the government's handling of the NHS - accusing them of 'demonising' key workers.
The former United defender pointed towards workers' rights, not only in Qatar but in the UK as well.
His argument centred specifically around rail workers, ambulance workers and nurses, and acknowledged that this is problem around the world.
"We should detest low pay, we should detest poor accommodation and poor working conditions and that is something we can never ever accept, in this region or any other region," he said on ITV ahead of the final.
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"It is just worth mentioning that we have a current government in our country who are demonising rail workers, ambulance workers and, terrifyingly, nurses.
"So, in our country, we have to look at workers rights, but certainly where football goes now, we have to make sure we pick up on worker’s right wherever it goes, because people have to be equal and treated equal.
"We can’t have people being paid an absolute pittance to work, we can’t have people in accommodation that is unsavoury and disgusting – we can’t have that.
"That shouldn’t happen here with the wealth that exists and it shouldn’t happen in our country that our nurses are having to fight for an extra pound or two pounds either.
Neville, 47, came under fire for his decision to appear as a pundit on Qatar's football coverage as a pundit, with many believing he was going against what he was supposedly fighting against, but he hit back against those claims.
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Earlier in the tournament, he hit out at the UK media for their coverage of the Qatar World Cup, claiming that he felt global attitudes had changed in the last week for three reasons - and that England's mood had not shifted towards the matter.
With Neville never being far from the headlines, his willingness to speak out against workers' rights in Qatar and England should be commended.