Germany star Kroos claims it was ‘wrong’ to give World Cup to Qatar but says boycott would be ‘pointless’

German football star Toni Kroos has criticized the decision to allow Qatar to host the World Cup, but has called any boycott plans for the tournament pointless.

The Real Madrid midfielder was speaking on his podcast, which he releases weekly with brother Felix, as reported by ESPN. 

With the German national team performing pre-match T-shirt protests, as a response to a Guardian report alleging 6,5000 migrant workers have died during preparations for Qatar 2022, the subject was raised by the siblings.

"You have to call a spade a spade when it comes to working conditions. It's about many workers from Qatar, but also migrant workers, having to work non-stop in sometimes 50 degree heat," Kroos began. 

"At the same time, they also suffer from malnutrition, a lack of drinking water is insane, especially at these temperatures. As a result, safety at work is absolutely not guaranteed, medical care is not there and sometimes some violence is carried out on the workers.

"All those points are absolutely unacceptable. There can be no two opinions on that," he continued.

Even so, the Brazil 2014 champion doesn't believe that honoring calls to boycott the FIFA showpiece next year will change the plight of the manual laborers. 

"What is the point of boycotting such a tournament? Is it really the case that something will improve decisively there? Will the working conditions change? I think not," Kroos stated. 

"That means that a boycott would not change much in the working situations. To award the tournament to them, I think it's wrong. But 10 years have passed since," he added, in comments that echo those made by international teammate Joshua Kimmich at the weekend. 

"Football can and must draw attention to problems, especially with its reach. But football also is not solely responsible for making everything better in the world," Kroos concluded.

Madrid fans admired Kroos' "straight talk" online, and dubbed him "Mr No Nonsense" for speaking "only facts".

Others however are growing tired of the topic, with one detractor remarking, "All these players constantly moaning saying it’s wrong and whatever else yet they’ll all still go and play.

"If they wanna do something and make a real stand against then boycott the rest of the qualifiers and boycott the World Cup full stop and make a real stand."