Tarnishing the trophy: Qatar 2022
Historically, the World Cup has been a globally uniting event, a spectacle watched by hundreds of millions of football fans from every corner of the globe. This impressive tournament was a force of societal influence and community. The true effects of uniting countries like this can never be understated.
However, in more recent years, the World Cup has become less about the people and more about money, sponsors and more about FIFA themselves. With its vast global audience, the World Cup has been a growing target for sponsors and advertisers. They plaster their branding absolutely everywhere. There’s no place you can gaze to without being bombarded by branding and products.
Money. It’s all about money. The big sponsors bring big money and the massive audience makes it politically lucrative for a country to host the World Cup. For these reasons, the money spent on World Cup bids has exponentially risen in the last decade or two. Now, you may be asking: who decides where the World Cup is hosted? That’s where FIFA comes in. They have a small committee of a couple dozen members who vote on the locations. When there’s a small group like this and big money is involved there’s an obvious problem that arises: corruption.
Recently, FIFA has become an organisation that is corrupt to the core. It is inevitable then, that somewhere like Qatar would win the bid for the 2022 World Cup. They’ve spent significantly more money on the World Cup than any other country in the past. Their team hasn’t even qualified for another World Cup once! They were so insignificant in the football world that it was incredibly surprising they beat other countries like the USA in the bid. It all comes back to corruption. Qatar didn’t even have the infrastructure needed for an event like the World Cup – they had to build all the stadiums from scratch. Moreover, the tournament would have to be held in winter because of the heat. But nevertheless, they bought their way through the vote by coercing and bribing a majority of top FIFA officials to vote for them. So here we are now: a World Cup in Qatar. But, the controversy doesn’t end here!
It isn’t just corruption that tinges Qatar’s World Cup in shame. Over 6,000 migrant workers died whilst constructing the stadiums in horrific and unbearable conditions. Qatar’s human rights abuses are scarily numerous. In addition to this, homosexuality is illegal in Qatar and the punishments stated in law are very severe. This country is not a welcoming, accepting location for a community event such as the World Cup. So, what did the western countries do about this? Boycott the tournament? No. The media might be talking about the abuses of Qatar but we are still playing there, complicit in their violations. You’d expect the teams to at least wear an armband in protest of Qatar's laws but no! They couldn’t even stand up defiantly to a corrupt FIFA where the strings are being pulled by Qatar.
This marks an unprecedented and concerning point in the history of the World Cup. The unity and togetherness of this special event has been eroded this year, in 2022.
Jack Bates
However, in more recent years, the World Cup has become less about the people and more about money, sponsors and more about FIFA themselves. With its vast global audience, the World Cup has been a growing target for sponsors and advertisers. They plaster their branding absolutely everywhere. There’s no place you can gaze to without being bombarded by branding and products.
Money. It’s all about money. The big sponsors bring big money and the massive audience makes it politically lucrative for a country to host the World Cup. For these reasons, the money spent on World Cup bids has exponentially risen in the last decade or two. Now, you may be asking: who decides where the World Cup is hosted? That’s where FIFA comes in. They have a small committee of a couple dozen members who vote on the locations. When there’s a small group like this and big money is involved there’s an obvious problem that arises: corruption.
Recently, FIFA has become an organisation that is corrupt to the core. It is inevitable then, that somewhere like Qatar would win the bid for the 2022 World Cup. They’ve spent significantly more money on the World Cup than any other country in the past. Their team hasn’t even qualified for another World Cup once! They were so insignificant in the football world that it was incredibly surprising they beat other countries like the USA in the bid. It all comes back to corruption. Qatar didn’t even have the infrastructure needed for an event like the World Cup – they had to build all the stadiums from scratch. Moreover, the tournament would have to be held in winter because of the heat. But nevertheless, they bought their way through the vote by coercing and bribing a majority of top FIFA officials to vote for them. So here we are now: a World Cup in Qatar. But, the controversy doesn’t end here!
It isn’t just corruption that tinges Qatar’s World Cup in shame. Over 6,000 migrant workers died whilst constructing the stadiums in horrific and unbearable conditions. Qatar’s human rights abuses are scarily numerous. In addition to this, homosexuality is illegal in Qatar and the punishments stated in law are very severe. This country is not a welcoming, accepting location for a community event such as the World Cup. So, what did the western countries do about this? Boycott the tournament? No. The media might be talking about the abuses of Qatar but we are still playing there, complicit in their violations. You’d expect the teams to at least wear an armband in protest of Qatar's laws but no! They couldn’t even stand up defiantly to a corrupt FIFA where the strings are being pulled by Qatar.
This marks an unprecedented and concerning point in the history of the World Cup. The unity and togetherness of this special event has been eroded this year, in 2022.
Jack Bates
