Image courtesy of Jumbo

The television commercial by Jumbo featured orange-clad workers smiling and laughing as they performed a conga line through a scaffolded building site.

It was deemed in bad taste given the deaths of thousands of migrant workers on construction projects in Qatar as the country prepares for the tournament later this month.

The Guardian reported last year that 6,500 workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka had died in the 10 years since Qatar was awarded the World Cup.

There has also been criticism of the way Qatar has treated those building its World Cup infrastructure, including non-payment of wages, cramped living conditions and forced removal ahead of the tournament.

The Jumbo television commercial, which has now been removed from YouTube, showed the rapper Donnie leading a line of construction workers through a building site.

A statement read: “Jumbo has immediately decided to stop the World Cup TV commercial that was shown yesterday. We realise that there is a link here to the appalling working conditions in Qatar and that was never our intention. We apologise for this.”