The Netherlands football team will take time during their stay in Qatar to talk to migrants who helped build the stadiums for the World Cup.
The team will meet a group of about 20 migrants to talk about their working conditions and to give them the opportunity to join the players in training.
The Dutch KNVB is one of the few football associations to criticise human rights and working conditions in Qatar, where migrant workers and foreigners make up most of the 2.8 million population.
The country has come under severe scrutiny from human rights groups over the migrant issue in the run-up to the tournament, which runs from November 20 to December 18.
Last year, Qatar's government denied claims by human rights organisation Amnesty International that thousands of migrant workers were being trapped and exploited.
Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal says the meeting with the migrants is meant to give attention to the often dire conditions under which stadiums and other infrastructure for the tournament were built, before the team's focus totally shifts to the World Cup itself.
"It will, of course, be a somewhat manufactured situation, but the fact we are willing to do this tells you something about the ideas of the KNVB and of this squad," van Gaal said. "But after the hour with the migrants, the focus needs to shift to Senegal."
Netherlands open their campaign against the African nation on November 22 (NZ time).
Earlier this year, van Gaal said he felt it was ridiculous that the World Cup was being played in Qatar, as he accused world soccer's governing body FIFA of taking the tournament to the Middle East emirate for money and commercial reasons.
Reuters
