In the midst of an international break, the focus has been firmly placed on the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.
And that continues to leave events in Qatar, where the "football family" will head to fin 2022 in the shadows.
Last night, we were joined Nick McGeehan, the Bahrain, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates researcher at Human Rights Watch, to bring some of the enduring issues to the forefront including that of worker's rights, given the number of deaths that have occurred as World Cup stadia are being built.
"What we did with the research was we pooled the data, how off is it in Qatar and what is the risk to workers and how many workers are dying," he said.
"What we found is that the risk is, to put it in layman's terms, off the charts for a significant portion of the summer months and that's 24 hours a day, not just in what seems to be the hotter parts of the day."
Human Rights Watch (HRW) researcher for the Gulf states Nicholas McGeehan (l-r), deputy director of Human Rights Watch for Northern Africa and the Middle East,Nadim Houry, and the director of Human Rights Watch for Northern Africa and the Middle East, Sarah Leah, present the annual world report of their organisation in doha, Qatar, 5 February 2015. HRW has criticised the slow moveing reforms to prevent human right violation concerning constructions of the venues for the 2022 soccer world cup. Photo: Tom Mustroph/dpa
"And also we found that A, Qatar isn't releasing any information on worker deaths but on the basis of the information that we do have on worker deaths, three quarters of deaths are unexplained. So if you do some sort of basic extrapolation, we could be looking at a situation - because we don't have the data - where it could be about 2,000 unexplained migrant worker deaths since 2012 when they awarded the World Cup."
On the World Cup organisers in regards to the level of information provided on issues around workers, McGeehan explained: "They do engage, they do give us information but the information is often lacking, even on these projects which are subject to intense scrutiny."
He also gave us an insight into the reaction by FIFA.
"FIFA released a statement today for example in response to the research that we put out. There was no expression of concern at the findings. There was no expression of concern for the deaths," he said.
"The tone of it was sort of bristling with indignation that we would present information that was contrary to the narrative of events that they wanted to accept. And to me, that's what they've persistently done. The response has never been 'thank you for providing us with this information'".
But he also feels that one must also look past FIFA when looking at the Qatar issue and that "they are a bit of a convenient bogey man for everyone who'd rather not address the broader issues about the way football is funded now".
Listen to the full interview for the McGeehan's in-depth take.
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