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The World Cup, the biggest sporting event of the biggest sport in the world, has officially started. The tournament watched by billions across the world is taking place 6 months later than it usually does due to the immense heat in the summers of the host country, Qatar. That is just one of the many (and one of the much less contentious)… to put it lightly… quirks of the World Cup in Qatar.
Qatar, a small gulf state in the Middle East, has never qualified or played in a World Cup, and to many, it would seem to lack the size and necessary infrastructure to host one. So how, and why, is Qatar hosting the World Cup? Simply put, way, way, way, too much money. Qatar’s World Cup bid to FIFA was estimated to be at least $200 million, more than any other country before. According to the New York Times, “American investigators and FIFA itself have since said multiple FIFA board members accepted bribes to swing the vote to Qatar” -- just one of the numerous corruption scandals that top FIFA officials have been mired in over the last decade.
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| Qatar being revealed as the World Cup host |
The controversial hosting of the World Cup has been overrun with criticism. Firstly, human rights advocates are alarmed by the Qatari government’s treatment of migrant workers it employed to build all of its ambitious infrastructure projects. 36 workers have died while completing the stadiums, and thousands have died in the last 10 years since construction began. There are reports of thousands of migrant workers being trapped and unable to leave their jobs, with workers reporting that employers have taken their passports and threatened them for complaining about living conditions. According to Amnesty International, ”staff of one labor supply company used the threat of penalties to exact work from some migrants such as withholding pay, handing workers over to the police or stopping them from leaving Qatar.”
Secondly, being the first Islamic country to host a World Cup, many policies have been heavily criticized by western media: homosexuality is illegal in Qatar and punishable by up to 3 years in prison. Although Qatar has stated that it will “welcome all” for the World Cup, LGBTQ fans are staying away. Not all religions are treated equally, and someone found to be “proselytizing for other religions or criticizing Islam may be criminally prosecuted,” according to the US embassy in Qatar. Any speech that is also determined to be critical of the Qatari government is also grounds for arrest. On Friday, Qatar backtracked on a previous agreement and announced alcohol would be prohibited in and around stadiums, a ban that complicates Budweiser’s $75 million deal with FIFA.
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| The "Rainbow Laces" campaign |
While Qatar certainly is not as radical as a country like Saudi Arabia, Qatar’s general conservatism seems incongruent with recent progressive campaigns that have made their way through the soccer community, such as the English Premier League’s “Rainbow Laces” campaign, a show of support and inclusion for the LGBTQ+ community.
Taking a step back and looking at all the corruption, human rights abuses, hundreds of billions of dollars, and media attention surrounding the World Cup, it is easy to wonder how a simple game is the root of all of it. The World Cup raises greater questions about our societal values: does society as a whole place too much emphasis, money, and time on sports when there are other more pressing issues at stake? Probably. But will billions of people still flock to their TVs to see Messi, Neymar, Mbappe, and Ronaldo show off their one-in-a-billion talent by running around a field for 90 minutes? Inevitably.
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| World Cup final viewership |
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/19/sports/soccer/world-cup-qatar-2022.html
https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/qatar-abuse-of-world-cup-workers-exposed/
https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/19/football/qatar-world-cup-2022-lgbtq-rights-spt-intl/index.html
https://www.npr.org/2022/11/19/1137783957/world-cup-qatar-fan-restrictions-alcohol
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/18/sports/soccer/world-cup-beer-qatar.html
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/11/world-cup-2022-qatar-media
24 comments:
Qatar's decision to be the host of the World Cup was likely to try to improve the nation's damaged image in the world. The country is known for numerous human rights abuses, and is clearly a repressive regime. Hosting a World Cup, one of the most prestigious sporting events in the world, would seem to be a public relations victory, although the event has also shone a bright light on the nation's many human rights abuses and its oppressive nature. In terms of money, it seems that profit was clearly not their motive for holding the event. I don't know how much they charge for tickets, although it's safe to say that ticket sales and TV rights won't help Qatar to earn back the $220 billion it spent on the event.
Andrew makes a good point about the money. It's quite obvious that the endeavor is not profitable, so it must be done to achieve something else. Like he mentioned, it's an attempt to try and patch the world's negative view towards Qatar. From what I can tell so far, this attempt hasn't worked very well, as many people have been keen to point out the labor abuses committed to build the infrastructure for the event, as well as, like Niki also said, contradicting the accepting values that Qatar put forward. Given that the country has already spent so much on what is essentially a PR saga, I wouldn't be surprised if Qatari leaders continue to try and change the world's perception of them.
I think society definitely places emphasis on money, especially in the world of sports and other events like the World Cup. Another event similar to the World Cup is the Olympics and in 2016 Brazil took $13 billion for the event to spark economic growth and attention to the nation. Similar to the World Cup this year, the Olympics sparked with controversy and issues like the destruction of housing and general disregard for the residents during the games. Both the World Cup and the Olympics represent the issues of large sporting events in which money, politics, and government play major parts that influencing the event. I think human rights are social issues that have always come second to money and large organizations like FIFA or the Olympics Committee need to take these factors into account for the care of the public and the world.
The 2022 Qatar World Cup has been filled with treason and corruption since the very beginning stages of planning to the current event itself. On November 20, 2022 Qatar kicked off the first game of the world cup against Ecuador. It was later found out that Qatari officials had offered eight Ecuadorian players $7.4 million each to throw the game. It has also been speculated that Qatar has payed for fake fans to attend games in order to boost the clout and image of the Qatari event. I think a light should also be shone on what happens after the world cup. In cases such as the 2014 Brazil World Cup, the huge venues that were surge built for the event were left to rot which is ultimately bad for the environment and a waste of capital. Seeing the path that Qatar took to build these venues I believe they are headed for the same turnout as Brazil.
It's interesting to see how a nation like Qatar can win the FIFA bid for hosting the world cup with minimal infrastructure to host such a large-scale event and with the clear human rights violations. Yet what's even more interesting is the fact that this keeps happening. Saudi Arabia, a nation in the bidding for hosting the 2030 world cup is even worse than Qatar when it comes to human rights violations, and in 2018 Russia was arguably not a suitable place to hold the world cup with footage of police brutality seen in the days leading up to the first whistle. Yet, after that first whistle things appeared to die down. This is the same trend that Qatar is following so far, although this may be due to the suppression of the media, with many atrocities being committed and brought to light leading up to the event but then dissipating during the actual tournament. Yet, the tournament only lasts until mid December, so it will be interesting to see how things will play out come the conclusion of the tournament.
This helps bring to light the corruption in massive agencies like FIFA that even though they knew the risk and consequences of having a country like Qatar host the world cup, they still took bribes and bids, and now countless lives have suffered at the hands of corruption. The World Cup has also come into controversy with Qatar making FIFA officials warn captains of countries like Harry Kane from England that he would be yellow carded at the start of every game where he wears a OneLove armband in his support of the LGBTQ+ community. I think the events of Qatar it helped open the eyes of billions seeing the corruption in these massive events watched by the world and will stand up and make these organizations change.
Unfortunately for the citizens of Qatar, I see this situation playing out similarly to that of Sochi in 2014. After Russia dropped 51 million dollars on a state-of-the-art venue for the Winter Olympics, it was completely abandoned, with the companies owning the complexes falling into bankruptcy. There are many parallels between the situations in Russia and Qatar. For one, they are led by power-hungry and corrupt leaders who look to hold events like the Olympics and World Cup to build their wealth and status. The rights and needs of the citizens/workers have been completely ignored, as we can reference the death counts of migrant workers that Niki pointed out. Due to the money these events bring, they can create meaningful change for the citizens of the countries hosting them. But, time and time again we see the leaders of the sporting world allow the corrupt to hold these events, taking opportunities away from other places that could truly use these events to promote economic growth. Hopefully, FIFA learns from this mistake and can facilitate the positive impacts of soccer across other parts of the world.
It's interesting also how Qatar initially set out to host the World Cup with the intentions of welcoming "everyone" and allowing alcohol given the FIFA Budweiser deal, but the second it got close to the start date of the World Cup all deals were relinquished. I find it very discriminatory for many fans that they feel unsafe and unwelcome to go and watch one of the biggest sports and most we'll loved sporting events. Sports are supposed to be an experience for citizens of all cultures and demographics to join together in unity for a team that they all collectively enjoy watching, but Qatar has heavily threatened this enjoyment. Also recently with the U.S vs. Iran game coming up on Tuesday, the U.S soccer federation briefly changed the Iran flag to show solidarity for the women protesters. Which has now caused even more controversy to happen during this World Cup. The Iranian governments reaction to this was claiming that the U.S had removed "the name god from its flag", and now wants the U.S kicked out of the World Cup. Hopefully, after all of this controversy the end of this years World Cup can end in peace, and amends can be made to those who were discriminated.
https://www.npr.org/2022/11/27/1139304827/usa-change-iran-flag-to-remove-islamic-republic-emblem-before-world-cup-clash
https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/27/football/iran-us-flag-protesters-klinsmann-2022-world-cup-spt-intl/index.html
I think it is very disappointing to see Qatar host such a large and popular sporting event when they are a country that allows blatant exploitation of human rights to persist. Although they allow "all" to come and watch the World Cup, it is unfair to LGBTQ+ fans who would like to come, but might have steered clear from attending the event due to circumstances out of their control. Additionally, I am curious about the Budweiser incident and how that is being handled. I wonder if Budweiser has filed any lawsuits or how they have navigated the issue.
I have seen a lot of criticism of FIFA for allowing Qatar to host as it prevents many fans from attending due to fears of the conservative laws. Specifically, people are outraged at the recent news that a world cup official has fled Qatar after Qatari authorities charged her with "extramarital sex" when she reported that she was raped by a colleague while working in Qatar. Laws and responses from authorities such as this make the country unsafe for many and therefore an unfair place to host a world cup that is supposed to be open to all in the world. One of the bids for the 2030 world cup is Saudi Arabia (with Egypt and Greece) and I am interested to see how the current backlash to Qatar hosting will affect who gets the 2030 bid, if at all.
Given the circumstances of their selection, Qatar seems to have proven to be a troubling host for FIFA. Although the spirit of the games is intended to be unifying even across many different beliefs and countries, given that FIFA is an international body it is startling to see such a lack of human rights protections for people involved in the tournament and for fans in general. In general, I think it is impossible to call FIFA events like the World Cup unifying given how many fans feel unsafe attending the event. Moreover, attempts to justify the actions of Qatar, including their handling of the preparations for the event, should not be used to entirely negate any action. While it is understandable that one event would not change the philosophy of the nation, the lack of action as well as FIFA's decision to continue with Qatar as the host only perpetuate the lack of progressive change for both the nation and FIFA as a whole. Overall, it is a disappointing World Cup, that despite it's serious shortcomings will certainly net both Qatar and FIFA enough money to appease their guilt. However, with the global reporting of the controversies surrounding the event as well as the opinions of fans and players alike, it is possible that some considerations will be taken for future World Cups to do better at protecting human rights.
This is super interesting especially considering other topics in the middle east. With the controversy over Iran's players not singing the national anthem in their first game, it seems like the FIFA world cup is more politically charged than ever. I wonder if FIFA will continue to take a neutral stance over human rights violations in the middle east, looking ahead to 2030. It's still widely debatable whether FIFA should host another world cup in the middle east, however, looking at FIFA's donors, I don't feel as if committments to human rights are their top priority.
According to Hassan Al Thawadi, who is the Secretary General of the organization responsible for construction the facilities for the Qatar world cup, the number of migrant deaths caused by the construction of the facilities for the world cup is between 400-500 people, significantly more than the ~40 workers that was previously estimated. A few deaths is already too many. 400-500 is absolutely unacceptable. I only found this information because of this blog project, which I find disappointing; the extensive human rights violations should be front and center in the media, and FIFA needs to be held accountable for its choices of host nations.
I think the decision to host the World Cup in Qatar was not a wise decision as the Middle East has been the focus of many human rights controversies and there has been little to no change. In addition, one thing that is overlooked is the fact that like Nick said, many facilities are abandoned after the World Cup. This is evident in places such as Brazil in which they painstakingly cleared out favelas in order to build facilities. There was also a large amount of environmental destruction as well as rainforests were cleared to create areas for the stadiums but in the end, they were just abandoned. I belive that FIFA should take into account the sustainability of a country hosting the World Cup but also ensure that the workers and viewers are too.
I believe that the issue around this world cup is most definitely genuine and well founded. Given the heightened tension and pressure around the Fifa corporation already due to the corruption allegations in the past few years, the choice to hold the world cup in such a rich country is not very surprising. With many injustices being done, specifically with the treatment of the migrant workers, it is quite evident how far the corporation and Qatar is willing to go in order to create immense profits and popularity. We've seen that in the 2014 world cup in Brazil, much of the money that was spent into building those stadiums had gone to waste, as they lie unused and close to ruins following the end of the world cup. Hopefully, the large money and sacrifices that have been put into organizing and building this world cup is not put to waste once more, as it would have been a shame to see how the same funding could have had great positive impacts if used towards charities or research.
FIFA choosing Qatar to host the World Cup this yeas definitely seemed to be money motivated, ignoring the immoral decision for it to take place in a country where human rights are limited and the location itself is compacted. They overlooked the safety of their players, supporters, and their own citizens. I find it insane how they were able to build so much infrastructure in an area that is already compact and overwork their workers that death rates since construction begun have risen. I think another point is that Qatar heat in the months of June, which is the typical month the World Cup is hosted, were so unbearable for players that they had to change the timing this year and move it to November. Qatar also made promises that during the World Cup they would make exceptions for LGBTQ rights when visitors from other countries came for the game. Since the games have begun, they have gone back from their word and banned pride flags in their games, causing players to show their support through controversial photos and actions. While I think FIFA should be held accountable for choosing an unsafe and controversial country at a time where movements are happening around the world regarding human rights (Iran for example), I don't think they will get any consequences since people will still attend the games (due to it's cheap price too) due to it being a competition fans look forward to every 4 years.
Hosting the world cup in Qatar is mainly for the money. On top of that, I believe the world cup being in the middle east was not a good idea. We know from past and current issues that the middle east does not focus on human rights. For example, in Iran women are currently protesting against wearing hijabs, and the government is trying to stop this, by killing mass amounts of women who choose not to wear the hijab. I am sort of confused about why they banned alcohol in the stadiums? What was the motive for this? It's also crazy because before the World Cup Qatar had made some promises that they were going to be welcome to all. But as soon as they had their money and the game started they immediately broke their promise. In the end, this is the world we live in as people don't tend to focus on these issues the games will continue and many people will stay oblivious to what's happening. And people are going to keep going because fans look forward to supporting their country., an opportunity that they get every four years.
I agree with what Nikki is saying. Qatar and it's government are corrupt and their GDP is high but all of the country's money is centered in the top percent oil billionaires. These rich puppeteers abused workers to get stadiums built to house the World Cup, and they don't pay them (think of the Jewish people that built the pyramids in Egypt). Not to mention, Qatar is 90-100 degrees in winter, which is not when the World Cup should happen, but it has to because Qatar reaches 120 degrees in the summer which is when they built their stadiums. All of these negatives, and these huge oil billionaires paid an immense amount of money to be able to have the World Cup in their country with the expense of thousands of lives.
P.S. They don't even sell alcohol at the games!!!
I agree with what Nikki is saying. Qatar and it's government are corrupt and their GDP is high but all of the country's money is centered in the top percent oil billionaires. These rich puppeteers abused workers to get stadiums built to house the World Cup, and they don't pay them (think of the Jewish people that built the pyramids in Egypt). Not to mention, Qatar is 90-100 degrees in winter, which is not when the World Cup should happen, but it has to because Qatar reaches 120 degrees in the summer which is when they built their stadiums. All of these negatives, and these huge oil billionaires paid an immense amount of money to be able to have the World Cup in their country with the expense of thousands of lives.
P.S. They don't even sell alcohol at the games!!!
I agree with what Nikki is saying. Qatar and it's government are corrupt and their GDP is high but all of the country's money is centered in the top percent oil billionaires. These rich puppeteers abused workers to get stadiums built to house the World Cup, and they don't pay them (think of the Jewish people that built the pyramids in Egypt). Not to mention, Qatar is 90-100 degrees in winter, which is not when the World Cup should happen, but it has to because Qatar reaches 120 degrees in the summer which is when they built their stadiums. All of these negatives, and these huge oil billionaires paid an immense amount of money to be able to have the World Cup in their country with the expense of thousands of lives.
P.S. They don't even sell alcohol at the games!!!
It seems that everyone is saying different versions of the same thing. Immoral this, danger that. But I would like to introduce very familiar evidence: The 2014 World Cup. The Brazil World Cup was quite a brilliant competition held eight years ago and, just like Qatar, it had to undergo a lot of development in not much time. This meant FIFA pumping billions of dollars into a south American country in hopes they could house the most notable football competition in the world. 12 state-of-the-art stadiums were constructed and the tournament came and went. But what is to make of the stadiums now? Well if you happen to live in Brazil and do not own a car, you should know exactly what happened. The Stadio Nacional Mane Garrincha, once the third-most expensive football stadium in the world after England's Wembley Stadium and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, is now a bus shelter. Most of these expensive staidums used for the Olympics and World cup are now barely used and even demolished to cut off maintenance fees. Is it worth the economic boost in tourism? or is it just a sad bribing scheme?
I agree with Niki and all commenters and hosting the world cup in Qatar is definitely a poor decision. Accepting this offer shows FIFA's main priority which is money and they disregard the corruption in Qatar and being in the middle east the extremely conservative stance on social issues. Being an international organization, they have the unique challenge of accommodating different countries' cultures and attitudes towards different social issues compared with a national league like the NBA or NFL. Despite this challenge, they still choose to host the world cup in a country with such prominent issues and intolerance towards things like the LGBTQ community.
While I don’t know that much about soccer in general, I understand the popularity of the world cup during this time. My classmates are watching the world cup in their classes; teachers are letting their students watch it. The amount of people that are so into this sport is really interesting. I have never seen a whole entire student body so into the world cup that they literally end up getting emotional because their country lost. I really did not understand the importance of the world cup to many people. On the other hand, I do not respect the countries ways of trying to make the most expensive world cup by impacting the workers freedom and risking their lives when creating these stadiums. While I do not know if this news is real, I do believe that this world cup is a little overrated than it seems. While I do understand that it doesn’t happen every year, the amount of people that travel across the world to watch these matches live is insane. People from all over the world travel to this one country, which not only benefits the host country, Qatar, but creates a lot of societal pressure in that country, which is probably why the government tried to create as many infrastructure for this event as possible because they knew how popular the world cup is to many people.
I think it is a very interesting subject to talk about since the World Cup is such a known event worldwide and means a lot to so many people, leaving many frustrated with the criticisms that have been made regarding Qatar hosting. It is clear that Qatar has been open about not accepting all people although the World Cup stands for this idea of uniting the world. Clearly, FIFA cares more about the money rather than the social issues based on them choosing Qatar to host. It is upsetting to see all the consequences that came from the planning including the deaths and poor treatment of workers making viewers wonder if the World Cup is worth the billions of dollars spent and the harm towards the people involved in planning it. As Nikki pointed out, many LGBTQ fans are not attending the games, so it would be interesting to note if viewer rates have dropped due to this negative press towards Qatar and their lack of inclusivity.
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