It is not clear if the 1.4 million migrant workers from some of the world's poorest countries currently building the 2022 World Cup venues and infrastructure are aware the union movement of Britain has got their backs.

But for football fans disgusted and ashamed by the lies and stench of corruption surrounding the Qatar bid, it is satisfying to learn the fight to bring Blatter et al to book and stop a ball being kicked in a ridiculous desert conceit has a small but effective united front.

We have heard much about the threat to players performing for 90 minutes in summer temperatures of 45-plus degrees Celsius. But with their platoon of physios, doctors, nutritionists and sun-tan advisers, they are afforded better workplace protection than the labourers who are dying by the day in Qatar.

"Rather than worrying about the footballers who will play in Qatar in eight years' time, Fifa should be worrying about the workers who are being exploited, abused and killed in Qatar now," said Steve Murphy, general secretary of Ucatt.

Deaths for World Cup 2022 are off the scale. In the first four months of this year, 53 Nepali and 89 Indian workers have died in the Arab state, according to Ucatt and other unions and rights groups.

Since January 2012, more than 430 migrants from Nepal have died and more than 567 from India.

At the current rates, it is estimated 4,000 migrant workers could die ahead of the opening kick off.

In comparison, Brazil 2014 recorded the deaths of nine workers, the Beijing 2008 Olympics 10 and London 2012 Olympics none.

Those who survive the dangerous conditions are enduring horrendous conditions at the hands of their ruthless employers, bosses for whom exploitation is synonymous with profit.

The labourers toil for 12 hours a day, seven days a week in scorching temperatures for as little as HK$7.21 an hour. They are, according to Amnesty International, "treated like cattle".

This is an unfair comparison. Domesticated farm animals are fed. But not so the workers assigned to build the luxury offices to be used by World Cup officials. They were not paid for a year and were left to go hungry.

Most of Qatar's migrants live in prefabricated camps, with up to 10 workers squeezed into one squalid room. Many have to drink dirty water, use filthy unplumbed toilets and have no access to showers.

"Some are exposed to sewage and live without running water. We visited one camp earlier this year where 200 workers share just five toilets," said the Ucatt delegate as people queued to add their name to the petition.

Of course, if things are so bad you would think the workers would simply up and leave. They would if they could.

Qatar's labour laws go beyond your run-of-the-mill shop-floor debasement. They run along the lines of the kafala system, which demands a worker obtain permission (and pay money for a visa) from their employer to change jobs or leave the country.

Amnesty International says this is "a blatant human rights abuse". Some call it slavery.

At the Labour Party conference, a motion was passed to bring the Qatari administration, Fifa and those British construction companies complicit in and profiting from this situation to book.

Jim Murphy, Labour's shadow international development secretary, called for more solidarity.

"As well as demanding Fifa and the Qatari government take action ... we should be clear the World Cup should not be built on the backs of workers' misery and blood," he said.

Ucatt is fighting alongside the Building and Wood Workers' International union and a slew of rights groups to stop the misery and 2022 World Cup madness, that was born out of kick-backs, deceit and graft.

Football fans have a moral duty to join their fight. We should man the picket lines, start petitions, occupy the streets and protest, and defiantly stand shoulder to shoulder with Qatar's migrant workers.

We should brandish our own red cards and let it be known the deaths and the misery caused by Fifa are not in our name.