The black stains of the World Cup.
It’s that time of the four-year cycle again — well, not really, because normally this event is held in the middle of year — but alas, the World Cup is nearly upon us. Less than a week away we will see 32 teams battle it out for the world’s greatest prize, the FIFA World Cup.
Normally, excitement, joy, celebratory feelings prelude this festival of football and the world — a melting pot of the world’s cultures and societies, putting aside any differences and prejudices to celebrate that which unites as all: football. Normally, for the next four weeks, nothing else matters except the football. Yet, for the first time ever, a world cup is not being preluded with feelings of anticipation, but feelings of shame and disappointment. Make no mistake about it, the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar is the most controversial and will continue to be the most controversial and marred event in history, for good reason.
Let us address the giant, billion-dollar worth elephant in the room: bribery and corruption. When Qatar were awarded the World Cup hosting rights over a decade ago, to say eyebrows were raised would be the understatement of the century. How could a nation with no history, no relevance in the game of football, have possibly been awarded the hosting rights over the likes of the USA and Australia? The latter two being countries that have demonstrated the capacity to host international sporting events, have some semblance of a history in football, and have the infrastructure already in place to facilitate the influx of travel, tourism, and the stadia to host several matches at a time, across the two large nations.
Respectfully, Qatar had none of this. It had nothing to do with football, aside from a few investments into teams such as PSG, and its sports network beIN being a prominent broadcaster across the world. But that was it. At the time of its awarding of the tournament, it had no discernible presence in football, no history, not even the stadia nor infrastructure in place at the time to be able to host the world’s greatest event. What it did have, however, was money, and a willingness to flash it and to spend it. No, I’m not merely talking about the billions of dollars poured into the building of the arenas, tourist villages, and public transport (I will get to that later), I’m talking about Qatar’s willingness to spend big into the pockets and offshore bank accounts of FIFA executives and officials.
Once they won the hosting rights, accusations, allegations, and suspicions of bribery and corruption took off. Founded allegations, of course, that were indeed proven to be true. It didn’t take long for investigations and subsequent arrests to take place in 2015, as the FBI had a field day with high-profile officials. All the corrupt dominoes at FIFA fell, leaving only one standing: Sepp Blatter — a slimy pig of a man and the human embodiment of money over morals. Eventually, he fell too, following a review by the FIFA Ethics Committee (the world’s greatest oxymoron) and he was booted from the FIFA Presidency, mere days after controversially winning re-election. The investigations confirmed what we all knew, that Qatar had not won its right to host the World Cup, but had simply out-bribed the other candidate nations. Blatter has also recently come out with “bombshells”, claiming that indeed Qatar had engaged in high levels of bribery and shady dealings to win this tournament. Thank you, Sepp, for your courageous honesty at the ripe old age of 86, after your pockets have already been lined up. In other news, the sky is blue. Netflix have also just released a documentary titled “FIFA: Uncovered”, addressing the investigations into FIFA’s corruption. Spoiler alert — they found corruption.
Let’s say you’re not phased by the corruption in FIFA and the bribery that took place. Fair enough. After all, money makes world go around, and I would be disingenuous to pretend that Qatar and FIFA are the only corrupt entities in the world. Indeed, the damage was done, Qatar “won” the rights and there was nothing we could do to stop them. The next course of action was to see how exactly Qatar would be ready by 2022 with the infrastructure in place to host the tournament.
Qatar didn’t exactly have a thriving football league — though, it does have a semi-successful one now that serves as a retirement village for the world’s former best, looking for a payday and an excuse to get fat. Like other gulf nations, it was only now starting to open itself up to the world more, realising the potential that the influx of tourists and workers could bring into the country. This meant that Qatar didn’t necessarily have the roads, hotels, or transport, to manage the millions of football lovers flocking to see their heroes fail and succeed.
However, if we’ve learned anything from the oil-rich gulf states, it’s that they love to build, and build efficiently. Qatar wowed onlookers with the state of the art transport system, serving as a sort of nervous system for the event, linking all fans with swift travel between stadia and hotels, in between checking out all that the country has to offer. Not to rest on their laurels, Qatar built a host of stadia to hold the tournament, next level structures complete with in-built air conditioning to counteract the desert nation’s notorious heat — an issue in and of itself. But Qatar did it. They managed to ready themselves for the event.
But how did they build everything in a matter of a decade? There’s the other elephant in the room: modern day slave labour. Qatar’s migrant workers, a term we are all too familiar with. The sad reality of the gulf states is that a lot of their decadent buildings were built on the back of and with the blood of migrant workers, brought to the country with false promises of a well-paying job with great living conditions, and the chance to establish themselves in rich, prosperous nations. The reality could not be more different. These workers immediately had their passports seized, contact to their families cut-off, and they were at the mercy of their employers, subjected to barely a minimum wage, working sometimes up to 16 hours a day to build everything, in the sweltering Qatari sun. Human rights organisations estimated that up to 4,000 workers would die in the lead-up to the event. At the time of writing, the estimate is upwards of 6,500 workers have perished, due to the slave-like conditions they’ve been forced to endure. Qatari officials have tried to sweep this under the rug, claiming the real figure is “only” in the double digits. Let’s pretend that were true, that’s still too many people to have died all in the name of hosting a World Cup. But this is the outcome of awarding the rights to a nation that cares of no one else’s rights, awarded by an organisation that claims to be a non-profit, but with $1b in reserve.
This must be a zoo, because there is another elephant in the room — a homophobic one, to be exact. It’s no secret that these Islamic nations have outlawed homosexuality, often with the punishment of death, or a thousand lashings (still death, but less direct).
On the one hand, it is their country, their culture, their religion. Who are we to tell them how to live and practice their lives? This is true. It is indeed not the world’s business to tell Qatar how to address its society. However, it swiftly becomes the world’s business, when Qatar is hosting a world event. Questions were rightly asked about their ability to be welcoming to gay fans coming to enjoy the games. What is being answered, versus the reality, could not be more contradictory.
On one hand, Qatari officials have expertly dodged any such questions, often with the lines of “We will be welcoming to people of religions, orientations, and sexualities,” very broad statements feigning inclusivity. On the other hand, Qatari officials have also been interviewed calling homosexuality a “damage in the mind”, and haven’t made any concerted efforts to guarantee the safety of gay fans who’d like to attend the games. Au contrair. Reports have emerged that gay tourists have been lured into hotel rooms via dating apps, before finding Qatari forces that subsequently beat and arrest them, on the technicality of breaking their laws surrounding homosexuality.
There’s multiple ways to look at this. You could say that any member of the LGBT community would be crazy to try and go to watch the event. Sadly, you are right. It is the depressing reality that they have a death wish if they try to go and barely even express themselves in this country. However, football is for everyone. No one should ever feel afraid to go to a football game and be worried about being killed simply because of something as trivial as their sexual orientation or gender identity. Despite what reservations you may have about the LGBT movement, they still deserve as much of a right to be able to freely attend the matches as much as anyone else, without having to look over their shoulder and and worry about outing themselves to any forces, waiting for an opportunity to assault them.
You can also say that, as aforementioned, this is Qatar’s religion, their culture, and we have no right to tell them how to live. Again, this is true. No one is expecting Qatar to upend its society in line with western values. However, hosting the World Cup is not a right, it is a privilege. If a country cannot demonstrate values in line with the modern world, and if it cannot guarantee the safety of minority groups and marginalised communities, then it simply doesn’t deserve to host the tournament. FIFA supposedly prides itself on inclusivity, yet it’s awarded its prized event to a country that is the exact opposite of inclusion.
I know that it is Qatar’s culture, and they have every right to uphold their cultural values, but it is ironic that their religion and culture is only valid when they cannot profit off of western values. It’s against Islam to drink and/or become drunk, yet Qatar is relaxing its drinking laws to allow for fans to have beers and wines and spirits at the games (albeit, heavily regulated) for hugely inflated prices. If Qatar could find ways to profit off of LGBT rights, they’d ignore their religion in a heartbeat. Religion only matters to them when it is convenient. As soon as they can make money, it’s an afterthought.
I’m not saying to change Qatari society fundamentally. If they want to persecute gay people any other time of the year, I may disagree with it, but it’s their country, and ultimately their problem. However, this should disqualify them from being able to host such an event. It’s a privilege, not a right. Save the event for a country that won’t strike fear into a group of fans, who simply want to be themselves and watch football, without fear of persecution.
Now, I know what the naysayers will say to my sentiments. I already have seen various apologists, usually Muslims and Arabs, make statements such as “Western countries don’t want to see Arabs do well. As soon as we have success they try to tear us down.” Truth be told, it has nothing to do with that. Despite what the self-victimising Arabs and Muslims claim, the west truly doesn’t care where the tournament is held, so long as the tournament isn’t marred with red flags and controversy.
As an Arab myself, I want nothing more than to see the Middle East do well and have success. I want to see a celebration of Arab culture and history, but this tournament is not it. In fact, it just reinforces the negative stereotypes about Arabs: that they’re backwards, theocratic, corrupt, greedy, abusive, and violent. If people truly want to play the “West vs. Arabs” card, then understand that all this does is make middle easterners look even worse in the eyes of the world. It does them no favours. A promotion of the Middle East shouldn’t be this controversial and stained with black marks, yet here we are.
FIFA do not want to the players to get political and protest or speak up against the host nation, which some already have, but it is ironic that FIFA now want to engage in “Shut up and dribble” rhetoric, when it may hurt their bottom line. FIFA were political when blacklisting Russia (perhaps rightly so) after Russia invaded Ukraine, so what is the difference if players want to speak up about human rights abuses in Qatar? Can politics only be mixed with sport when it’s convenient? No. The players absolutely have the right to speak up about Qatar.
Now, of course, many will say that if you do not like it, then don’t watch. A valid argument. Indeed, what can we as football fans do, when we want to enjoy a beloved tournament being tarnished by such controversies? There are a few solutions. We can simply watch the games, only focusing on the spectacle of the sport, and not give Qatar any positive attention that a host nation is otherwise afforded. We can continue to watch, whilst also constantly reminding people that the tournament was built by blood, sticking it to Qatar and not letting them forget what the cost of this tournament turned out to be. Some players are suggesting that they will even wear pride captain armbands, a further show of resistance to Qatar’s backwards laws, and at the end of the day, Qatari officials won’t arrest Harry Kane for displaying a pride symbol, and should anything happen to him, they will surely be in dire trouble.
It’s a tricky situation, but as football fans, I believe we can navigate the complexity of the dramas at hand and still find a way to celebrate the sport we love, whilst highlighting the disgraceful actions of the host nation.
At the end of the day, it is funny, because despite being such an exclusive event, this tournament is also somehow filled with something for everyone. Putting it all together, with the overpriced tickets and accomodation, the lack of rights for women and LGBT workers, the death of thousands of migrant workers, even the fixture cramming of the domestic seasons due to the event being held in this time of the year, there is something for everyone to be upset over.
A tournament with this many blemishes, black marks, and red flags, should serve as the clear indicator that Qatar’s hosting of the tournament is a farce.
