Reading Time: 6 minutes Bribery, Corruption, Slavery, Islamophobia, Homophobia, Classism, Racism, Political Turmoil, Petro-Dollars, Tourism, and political power: it seems that the terms surrounding the Qatar World Cup have been anything but the sport of football itself. Where did it all begin?
Lo and behold, the Football (yes, it is football, please get with the times USA) World Cup is nigh and it has put a spotlight on so many other things than football that this article was a very difficult one to write.
Well, in the sense that there was way too much to discuss and the story is quite literally developing by the minute. The emphasis, it has been decided, then must be on going over the facts first and then moving onto some of the more controversial things associated with the 2022 edition of the global sports carnival that is the Fifa World Cup. So, dear reader, we are going to go over some of the most basic facts about the sport that is being celebrated in this global event and then move on to more pertinent matters that are, shall we say, even more titilating than the very sport that is being celebrated (forgive this blasphemy, if you are a fan of the sport).
Let us begin with a recounting of the sport of Football, the Fifa World Cup, and the history surrounding the influence that the sport has over the political and economic sphere of the world. Call it a lesson in Realpolitik as well as a little intro to the myriad of controversies that are inevitably going to be (and already are) a part of the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
Football is quite literally the biggest sport on the planet. In 2018, the last Fifa World Cup (arguably the biggest event in world sports followed by the Champions League) was able to garner a viewership of more than three and a half billion people.
Three and a half billion.
With a “B.”
For the statistically challenged, that means that almost half of the entire global population tuned in to watch the last World Cup. The influence that football has can be gauged from the fact that FIFA (the federation that overseas global football, established in 1904) has more member states than the United Nations.
In fact, the current president of FIFA, Gianluigi Infantino has said that the Qatar World Cup will have a viewership that will exceed five billion individuals.
Yes, five billion.
Now, it is understandable that he would want to say such an insane number for marketing reasons, but the fact of the matter is that he might not be that far off the mark- the whole world stops to watch the World Cup and if the last few times are taken as a sample than it is quite probable that the World Cup viewership might reach the four billion mark.
Who knows?
Whatever the case might be, one of the reasons why football is so widespread is because it is one of the most accessible sports out there. All you need is a ball and a friend and you can play a game of football.
The poorest nations of the world have been able to produce some of the best stars of the sport- individuals like Neymar that played in the favelas of Brazil, to African children that grew up to become superstars that overcame starvation and the worst odds to modern french stars that played in the streets of their hometown without access to academies or even a good education.
We know that football is the most popular and the most watched sports in the world- what this means is fame and money to whomever is associated with it. This brings us to the more gloomy parts of this article, and also the part that most of you are reading this for, so let us get into the weeds and try and sort out what is going on with Qatar 2022.
Bribery, Corruption, Slavery, Islamophobia, Homophobia, Classism, Racism, Political Turmoil, Petro-Dollars, Tourism, and political power: it seems that the terms surrounding the Qatar World Cup have been anything but the sport of football itself. Where did it all begin?
Well, you see, Qatar is not the first time that FIFA (a notoriously corrupt and popularly lampooned organization) has been accused of putting money over football.
Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA at the time of the selection of the Russia and Qatar as the hosts for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup has come out to point out that Qatar, as a host nation, was a mistake. Accusing World Leaders and his own organization’s heads of pressuring him into picking Qatar, Blatter denounced Qatar as a nation unfit to host such a prestigious and historic tournament.
“For me it is clear: Qatar is a mistake. The choice was bad,” Blatter told representatives from Tages-Anzeiger. “At the time, we actually agreed in the executive committee that Russia should get the 2018 World Cup and the USA that of 2022. It would have been a gesture of peace if the two longstanding political opponents had hosted the World Cup one after the other.”
But why would Qatar want to do so much to get to hold an event like the World Cup in such a small nation? And why did the rest of the world agree to it? Well, they really did not. And they still don’t.
Qatar and Petro-States.
Qatar has spent 220 Billion Dollars on the World Cup. Dwarwing what South Africa spent in 2010 (3.5 Billion dollars).
Why spend so much time and money trying to sports wash a country?
The biggest controversy is that Qatar (like most petro-states that are now trying to modernize and preserve their money, seeing a world that might move on from their precious fossil fuels) is trying to “sports wash” their history of humans rights abuses and gather soft power by hosting such a global event. If you remember, the controversies surrounding other petro-states (like Saudi Arabia) not liking Qatar for a while was that Qatar refused to “share” the world cup (and the potential to “sports wash” as well).
It is no hidden secret that for the most part, these petro-states have been using a sub-class of immigrant workers to send their ill-begotten sky-scrapers and vanity projects into the air (or the sea) whilst essentially keeping these Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Nepali, and other South Asian nationals as slaves and using their labour to build their cities.
The human rights abuses of Qatar and the other petro-states include persecution of minorities, LGBTQ+ individuals, authoritarian abuse, classism, blatant hypocricy, and direct threats of state sponsored violence.
This is where Pakistan comes in.
The World Cup 2022, set to host 1.2 million football fans in Qatar, will be provided security by the Pakistan Military itself. The only nation to provide actual infantry troops (with other nations proviting police and private security). It is stated that Islamabad sent over 4000 infantrymen to Doha to serve as security for the tiny petro-state.
Kept under horrid conditions, no AC, some not even paid for their labor, Nepalese, Pakistani, Indian and other nationals that arrived in Qatar as immigrant workers started dying under these conditions during the construction of the World Cup stadiums in since 2010 (when it was announced as the host). In fact, in 2013, the guardian published a report detailing these abuses.
“This summer, Nepalese workers died at a rate of almost one a day in Qatar, many of them young men who had sudden heart attacks. The investigation found evidence to suggest that thousands of Nepalese, who make up the single largest group of labourers in Qatar, face exploitation and abuses that amount to modern-day slavery, as defined by the International Labour Organisation, during a building binge paving the way for 2022.”
Since then, it has not eased up, with estimates reaching six thousand and more migrant workers having died in Qatar since 2010 during the states hurried attempts to be ready for a winter World Cup (another condition that FIFA agreed to, putting domestic leagues at jeopardy and leading to injuries for highly important players like Bayern’s Senegalese Forward Sadio Mane and Tottenham Hotspur’s Korean sensation Son Heung-Min due to the compressed match schedule).
Furthermore, the state has rules that curtail both LGBTQ+ expression, Alcohol consumption (at a World Cup) and other new bans that, by the way, are only applicaple to the poorer tourists and the poorer locals. Where it will be okay for you to consume alcohol, public consumption is what is banned during the World Cup. What this means is, that by far, most of these so-called Islamic-bans are actually just performative and symbolic in nature.
Qatar also went back on its promise to cater to the needs of Jewish fans (10,000 of whom were slated to arrive at the World Cup) by not providing any religious safety for Jews or any kosher food for fans. They also publicly stated that security could not be provided for any individual found to be “praying in a public space.”
The fact is that Qatar, and other Petro-states function like a spoiled brat that does not acually have the heart to take principled and moral stands.
Much like much of the Qatari World Cup so far.
It is no wonder that most of the Qatari fans left the stadium more than half an hour before the (record-breaking first ever) instance of a host nation losing the first match of a World Cup.
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