The claim was made last Friday by the International Trade Union Confederation who alleged that firms building infrastructure for the event are using 1.8 million migrant workers as modern day slaves.The ITUC said that using the Qatari government’s own figures, it had been able to estimate the number of workers who would die before a ball is kicked in seven years time.Qatar said the claim was “groundless” and bullishly defended its preparations for football’s biggest tournament.It said no workers had died on World Cup projects so far and added there was no reason to believe thousands would lose their lives in the run-up to the event. “The International Trade Union Confederation’s claim … represents a deliberate distortion of the facts,” the government said.”To date, after more than 14 million hours worked there have been no fatalities on World Cup project sites – not one.”The Gulf state said in a statement that it made no sense to claim that the deaths of all workers featured in the calculations had been due to workplace accidents or conditions.”If ITUC were to apply the same logic to an evaluation of worker fatalities in the run-up to the London Olympic Games, every death of a non-British worker between 2006 and 2012 would have been attributed to the London Olympics,” it said. -