Qatar 2022: A Year On... FIFA's most controversial World Cup?

Thursday 2nd December 2010. A historic day for the richest country in the world. A historic day for FIFA’s back pocket. A day historic for highlighting the problem with football.

Qatar, a country with a population of 1.7 million people, were announced as the hosts of the 2022 World Cup…

Money and hypocrisy have always been

two words that cloud over the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) in the most unfashionable sense possible. For decades they have been accused of taking bribes, ignoring human rights and seem to have had as many investigations against them as there has been World Cups. They are a classic model for how inclusivity in

elite sport is compromised by putting profits before people.

Rarely do you see sporting mega-events without their controversies; the 2008 Beijing Olympics was at the centre of widespread controversy over worker exploitation and the 2010 Commonwealth Games in India left 35,000 families homeless. As far back as the 1936 Olympics in Berlin there was controversy - the Nazi’s using these games as propaganda for their regime.

Wherever you look in sport there’s dispute.

In the last two years, fishing, rock-climbing and even chess have had their issues. Should fans just ‘get used’ to these issues because they are everywhere and not just in sport? Obviously not.

It does seem, however, that those people who campaign for the better are fighting a losing battle. After a tournament that had 12 years of controversy before it even started, the fact we are still talking about it a year on says a lot about FIFA as a 'business'. The prospect of the 2034 tournament being held in another Middle Eastern country, which is also well known for its human rights exploitations, shows too that FIFA cares very little about anything other than filling their offices with dollar bills.

Qatar Migrant Worker Conflict

FIFA rules state that, to host a World Cup, each stadium must hold a minimum of 40,000 people, rising to 60,000 for the Quarter-Finals and 80,000 for the opening/final ceremony. On that day in 2010, when Qatar won the bid to host the 2022 World Cup, they only had one stadium that was fit for purpose, and that was only just half the size of Wembley Stadium. Immediately, eyebrows were raised and questions were asked as to whether a country of this size could play host to 31 other countries and millions of tourists. Qatar had to construct six stadiums, a brand new transport service (including new roads) and multiple hotels in under 12 years, all from scratch.

Two million migrant workers, made up of men and women from African and Asian countries played their part in the construction of these stadiums, roads, hotels and metro services which would make Qatar the most expensive World Cup in history. It has been estimated that the tournament cost around $220 billion, 15 times more than what it cost Russia four years prior. Unfortunately, the money was not spent on workers and they were subject to years of abuse and exploitation, which resulted in thousands of medical complications and around 6,500 deaths.

In the build-up to the World Cup, there were multiple investigations and reports into the conditions that workers were experiencing, as well as a Human Rights letter sent to FIFA, signed by ten different human rights organisations. A 2013 Guardian investigation found that thousands of Nepalese workers had faced abuse that amounted to ‘modern-day slavery’; they were forced to work in 50-degree heat without any water supply and had salaries withheld by employers.

One of the workers who survived the disastrous conditions was ‘Hari’, who wished to remain anonymous in two separate interviews. He spoke about his experiences, where he had played his part in creating the World Cup spectacle :

“When I went to Qatar there was nothing. There wasn’t even a single building. Now there are towers everywhere. We built those towers in the heat. We worked out of compulsion with face covers.

“We were drenched in sweat. We poured sweat from our shoes [over our faces to cool down]. Even in that heat we worked hard.

“My son did not recognise me when I first came home from Qatar. I met him only five times in the 14 years I was away.

“I used to cry and feel bad that I had to stay away from children for work.”

Hari, this time speaking to CNN, described the working conditions in Qatar in depth:

“It was too hot; the foreman was very demanding and used to complain a lot. The foreman used to threaten to reduce our salaries and overtime pay.

“I had to carry tiles on my shoulder to the top. It was very difficult going up through the scaffolding. In the pipeline work, there were 5-7 meters deep pits, we had to lay the stones and concrete, it was difficult due to the heat. It was difficult to breathe. We had to come upstairs using a ladder to drink water.

“At some places, they didn’t have water. Some places, they didn’t provide us water on time. At some places, we used to go to houses nearby asking for water.”

FIFA can’t change the laws of a country, and they for sure can’t help the fact that the weather was so extreme. But what they can do, and failed to do, is use their platform to shed light on the issues in Qatar, to prompt change.

FIFA knew there was little-to-no infrastructure in Qatar before they awarded them the tournament. This meant that they knew the extent of the work that had to be done in order to carry out a successful tournament. They can’t help that Qatar operated under the ‘kafala system’, which binds workers to a job, allowing for exploitation. Their complete ignorance and silence regarding the situation, however, is staggering.

‘Focus on the football’ was the line from the organisation; the workers, who put their lives on the line for the world’s game, have been forgotten about, and ignored, by the people in charge.

We’re now 12 months on and FIFA have still not investigated what happened, nor have they offered any kind of solution to the workers, who have been forced to give up on justice and return home almost penniless. Families lost loved ones – that’s worth more than FIFA can repay.

LGBT: A Taboo. What to do?

‘Football is for everyone’. That was FIFA’s message before the 2022 World Cup began. Countless conferences on equality and inclusion as well as various campaigns on diversity and social acceptance took place in the years prior to the start, which they hoped would be enough to convince people that the tournament being held in Qatar was solely for footballing reasons and not in any way money-related. LGBT+ prejudice is a plague in football and authorities do very little to combat the issue which is more relevant now than ever before.

In Qatar, same-sex sexual activity is illegal and LGBT people can be prosecuted, resulting in a prison sentence of up to three years. These rules left LGBT people feeling excluded from a tournament that was supposed to unite people from different backgrounds, all over the world.

Peter Tatchell, who is a British human rights activist, became the first person to hold an LGBT+ protest in any Gulf state when he stood outside the National Museum of Qatar holding a sign which read: “Qatar arrests, jails & subjects LGBTs to ‘conversion’ - #QatarAntiGay”.

In a statement after the protest, Tatchell spoke passionately on his concern:

“I did this to shine a light on Qatar’s human rights abuses against LGBT+ people, women, migrant workers and liberal Qataris.

“FIFA is trying to pressure national teams to drop their concerns about human rights abuses in Qatar. It is colluding with the sexist, homophobic and racist regime in Doha, which is using the World Cup to

sportswash its international reputation.

“Footballers with a conscience have a right to freedom of expression, just like everyone else.

“Calling out Qatar’s abuses is not political, as FIFA claims. It’s defending universal human rights.

“FIFA says everyone will be welcome at the World Cup. But that’s not true. Seven competing nations, including Qatar, criminalise same-sex relations. In these countries, a gay footballer would be more likely to be jailed than selected for their national team, no matter how brilliant a player he is. That’s discrimination and it’s against FIFA’s rules.

“FIFA is doing nothing to stop this homophobic discrimination. It is looking the other way and allowing countries to discriminate in their team selection policies.”

People wonder why there are only a handful of openly gay footballers in the world, but if the global confederation for football is setting a precedent by hosting the tournament in a country that criminalises who they are then you can’t blame these players for wanting to hide it. It’s 2023 though, they shouldn’t feel like they need to.

If Czech Republic qualified for the tournament, would Jakub Jankto have been allowed to play?

Would Josh Cavallo have been in the Australia squad if the World Cup was held in a more accepting country?

At 21 years of age, Brazilian winger Douglas Braga quit football because “you can’t play football and be gay”; who knows where the youngster’s career would have gone if he continued.

The controversy and miscommunication of the tournament was summed up in the two years before the start. In December of 2020, Qatar announced that they would comply with FIFA ruling, promoting tolerance, inclusion and allowing rainbow flags into stadiums. FIFA themselves then banned nations' captains from wearing a ‘OneLove’ armband which was to be worn by Harry Kane of England and Manuel Neuer of Germany among others, promoting diversity and inclusion. Confusion levels were high and it left fans furious at a time of huge uncertainty.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino has been widely criticised in the media, and is often the centre of controversy. This year, before the Women’s World Cup, he said that women should “pick the right battles” when it comes to equal pay. It’s clear to see that he doesn’t handle public speaking very well.

In a press conference where he could have acknowledged problems, Infantino remarkably hit out at his critics:

“Today I have very strong feelings, I can tell you.

“Today I feel Qatari. Today I feel Arab. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel a migrant worker.

“For what we Europeans have been doing for the last 3,000 years around the world, we should be apologising for the next 3000 years.”

In other walks of life, ‘coming out’ and fully expressing yourself is getting easier. As a society, there is still a long way to go in terms of acceptance and education, but Infantino’s comments show just how far behind football is in comparison. The sport risks losing players, like they already have with Douglas Braga, if they don’t act swiftly to eradicate discrimination altogether.

FIFA: A Business

Sport is rapidly becoming a massive money game and big sporting organisations will do all they can to make their pockets that little bit heavier. Horse-racing, F1 and boxing all have some kind of Gulf state monetary input, and golf as well has recently been embroiled in controversy with the LIV tournaments.

FIFA are a business and like any other business, profits are crucial for growth. Without profits, businesses wouldn’t survive. They are the key to success, but at what point do profits become worthless if money is being put before the lives of people? For all the hardship that the LGBT community is going through for equality and for all the hard work of those who lost their lives in preparation for the 2022 World Cup, FIFA are throwing it all back in their faces for a few extra million dollars.

FIFA generate the majority of their income from the Men’s World Cup. This means they will go to extra lengths to secure the millions and billions that will only come around every four years (for now anyway). The main bulk of revenue comes from television broadcasting rights and marketing rights; the fact that FIFA are exploring the option of making the World Cup every two years indicates that they are looking to exploit people, once again prioritising profits.

From a business point of view, the 2022 tournament was a huge success. The vast number of sponsorships and the incredible football on show took revenue up over $1billion compared to the previous tournament in Russia.

Profits will only go up and up each tournament, with increased viewership and sponsorship. FIFA see this money and they will want to capitalise on the opportunity to get more of it, more often.

Saudi Arabia are looking more and more likely by the day to be the hosts of the 2034 World Cup and, like Qatar, have problems surrounding their human rights and their LGBT beliefs. So what lessons have FIFA learned from the 2022 World Cup? Well it doesn’t look like they’ve learned any.

What’s next for FIFA?

Rightly or wrongly, sport, in particularly football, always manages to find itself involved in politics. Due to the popularity of ‘o jogo bonito’, it has often been used as a platform to highlight issues outside of sport. Football shouldn’t be given this responsibility; a sport which was once purely just a form of entertainment, is now constantly entangled in whichever fiasco is unfolding in 'the real world'.

FIFA will never satisfy everyone, it’s impossible, but surely they could have paid more attention to what was happening in a country that was not fit to host and should never have been given the privilege to.

Players are being given an unnecessary duty to represent countries where their authorities are failing them, LGBT fans are unable to be who they want to be and family lives were torn apart by the abhorrent and inhumane conditions people were being made to work in. How far can this go before it gets even more out of hand than it already is?

FIFA have got a lot to do to win back the trust of football fans and even football players.

It’s nearly a year since Ecuador beat Qatar – a match which kickstarted the 4 week ‘festival of football’, papering over the FIFA cracks.

The silence is deafening. Thursday 2nd December 2010. The day football’s moral mask began slipping…