French legend Zinedine Zidane has urged fans to “forget the controversies and focus on the football,” less than a month before the World Cup is set to kick off in Doha on November 20. As Qatar is busy perfecting the finishing touches to a much-talked-about celebration of its assumption of the gaming crown, an uproar from Asian and African workers over a heated eviction from dozens of buildings is the latest to turn up the heat. Hosting a global sporting event only second in popularity to the Olympic games comes with extraordinary responsibility as at least five million people are expected to tune in from all over the world to enjoy the quadrennial soccer tournament. Therefore, the administration should have tried its level best to at least walk a fine line around the controversies related to human rights abuses. Investing $220 billion to build seven new stadiums and over 100 new hotels, supported by sprawling road, rail and air linkages was no small feat. But the bid to achieve the impossible came at the heart-wrenching cost of withheld salaries, confiscated passports and filthy living conditions for a 30,000-strong group of labourers. In an unprecedented change in the tide, Qataris have been on their best behaviour; responding to all such criticisms with laws for the protection of migrant workers. Far more impressive than cutting back on the hours or improving the quality of living remains the constant willingness to speed up reforms. Yet, a lot more still needs to be said and done when it comes to embracing the architects of a modernised image likely to drive tourism and business opportunities. A reasonable first step could include ensuring hapless men are not forced to bed on the pavements. Pushing those who raised the towering structures of a new age to obscurity does not fare well for either optics of humanity. *