Football: Qatar hits back at 'untrue' worker deaths report

In this Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2010, file photo, a general view of a showcase stadium, during the FIFA Inspection Visit for the Qatar 2022 World Cup Bid, in Doha. Photo / AP.

Qatar has hit back against a "completely untrue" claim in a Washington Post story which estimated that 4000 workers are likely to die on World Cup 2022 building sites.

A strongly-worded statement from Qatar's Government Communication Office, on Tuesday claimed "enormous damage has been done to Qatar's image and reputation" by the article, "The Human Toll of FIFA's Corruption".

Doha said in the statement that no one has died on World Cup construction sites.

"An article in the Washington Post... claimed that 4000 workers are likely to die while working on World Cup sites and that some 1200 had already lost their lives," read the statement.

"This is completely untrue. In fact, after almost five million work-hours on World Cup construction sites, not a single worker's life has been lost. Not one."

The statement added that article meant "readers around the world have now been led to believe that thousands of migrant workers in Qatar have perished, or will perish, building the facilities for World Cup 2022 - a claim that has absolutely no basis in fact".

The article, which was posted online on May 27, has been viewed more than five million times, said Qatar.

Doha says it wants the article corrected and retracted.

Qatar said it had written to the Washington Post to complain but was told because the "article had appeared online and not in print", the letter would not be published.

It said the Washington Post had taken the "total annual mortality figures for Indian and Nepalese migrants working in Qatar and multiplied those numbers by the years remaining between now and the 2022 World Cup".

Doha said the calculation made no distinction for how those deaths occurred.

On its website, the Post said the story had been "updated to reflect the fact that figures include total migrant worker deaths in Qatar, not just World Cup-related deaths".

-AAP