A World Cup chief has made a shocking admission on the number of workers’ lives lost during construction to get Qatar ready to host the football tournament.

Hassan al-Thawadi, a top Qatari official, put the number of deaths “between 400 and 500” — drastically higher than a previous confirmation of 40.

The comment appeared to have come off-the-cuff during an interview with British journalist Piers Morgan.

Qatar has previously rejected as a “myth” the repeated condemnation of the conditions migrant workers endure which advocates say have led to thousands of deaths.

In the interview, Morgan asks al-Thawadi: “What is the honest, realistic total do you think of migrant workers who died from – as a result of work they’re doing for the World Cup in totality?”

Al-Thawadi replied: “The estimate is around 400, between 400 and 500.

“I don’t have the exact number, that’s something that’s been discussed. One death is too many, it’s as simple as that.”

He added: “I think every year the health and safety standards on the sites are improving, at least on our sites, the World Cup sites, the ones that we’re responsible for, most definitely.”

Migrant labor helped build more than $US200 billion ($297b) worth of stadiums, metro lines and new infrastructure needed for the Middle East’s first World Cup.

Al-Thawadi is secretary general of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy which was responsible for delivering the infrastructure.

Tweet from @PiersUncensored

The Supreme Committee and Qatar’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment

Previous reports from the Supreme Committee dating from 2014 to 2021 put the total number of deaths at 40.

They include 37 from what the Qataris describe as non-work incidents such as heart attacks and three from workplace incidents.

One report also separately lists a worker death from the coronavirus amid the pandemic.

Construction workers renew paths in downtown Doha. Numerous streets were redesigned in the run-up to the World Cup. Photo: Getty

Since FIFA awarded the tournament to Qatar in 2010, the country has taken some steps to overhaul the country’s employment practices.

That includes eliminating its so-called kafala employment system, which tied workers to their employers who had say over whether they could leave their jobs or even the country.

Qatar also has adopted a minimum monthly wage of 1000 Qatari riyals ($408) for workers and required food and housing allowances for employees not receiving those benefits directly from their employers.

It also has updated its worker safety rules to prevent deaths.

“One death is a death too many. Plain and simple,” al-Thawadi stated in the interview.

‘It’s shocking’

Activists have called on Doha to do more, particularly when it comes to ensuring workers receive their salaries on time and are protected from abusive employers.

Al-Thawadi’s comment also renews questions on the veracity of both government and private business reporting on worker injuries and deaths across the Gulf Arab states, whose skyscrapers have been built by labourers from South Asia nations such as India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Mustafa Qadri, the executive director of Equidem Research, a labour consultancy that has published reports on the toll of the construction on migrant labourers, said he was surprised by al-Thawadi’s remark.

“For him now to come and say there is hundreds, it’s shocking,” he told The Associated Press. “They have no idea what’s going on.”