Qatar’s World Cup kicks off. However, the controversy over the tournament has never really stopped. Since the Gulf state became the winning candidate to host the 2022 World Cup, the accusations regarding its eligibility have been fierce. Qatar’s human rights record has been inadequate despite some reforms during the previous years. Will the World Cup be a catalyst of change for the Arab country, or will the infrastructure be the only transformation left when the lights are off?
Qatar overview
Qatar, the smallest country to ever host a World Cup, has been ruled as a hereditary monarchy by the House of Thani since 1868. The country became a British protectorate in the early 20th century and gained its independence in 1971. Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani is the current ruler of Qatar, holding nearly all executive and legislative authority while also controlling the judiciary.
The Gulf state usually acts as a middle power in global affairs, maintaining strong ties with China, the US, Iran, and Turkey, as well as with Islamic movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood. The latter was one of the reasons why, in 2017, several Arab countries like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Yemen, and Bahrain broke diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorism. The crisis ended last year.
The country’s population is constantly increasing, standing at around 2.6 million, with only 1 out of 4 people being Qatari citizens. The same ratio applies to genders, with women accounting for just 25% of the population. Regarding its economy, the Gulf state has the fourth-highest GDP per capita and the world’s third-largest natural gas and oil reserves. Also, Qatar is the second-largest LNG exporter globally and the No. 1 emitter of Co2 per capita. Qatar’s official religion is Islam.
Qatar’s World Cup
In 2010, when Qatar won the FIFA bid to host the 2022 World Cup, becoming the first Arab nation to host the tournament, a wave of accusations emerged. Qatar was considered the weakest among the other candidates: the US, Japan, Australia, and South Korea. The Arab country had neither the football tradition nor the necessary infrastructure to host the biggest tournament in the world.
The lack of existing infrastructure was one of the issues that many highlighted. Still, money is not an issue for Qatar, which spent a whopping $220 billion on stadiums and infrastructure projects, an unprecedented amount in World Cup history.
Criticism didn’t stop there, though. After 2010, there were numerous bribery allegations between the Qatar bid committee and FIFA members or executives who were asked to vote for the Middle Eastern country. As the latest Netflix documentary “FIFA Uncovered” shows, Qatar’s candidacy accusations initiated an investigation by the US Department of Justice, claiming that FIFA officials took bribes to secure the World Cup hosting in both Russia and Qatar. There were also political agreements between Qatari officials, top-level political executives, and even Presidents or PMs.
Many critics had also pointed out the Arab country’s scorching climate from the beginning. However, FIFA refused to seriously investigate the problem, although it later decided to move the tournament to November, making it the first World Cup not to be held between May and July.
Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter often publicly supported the Federation’s decision to award Qatar the 2022 tournament, although he probably did not vote in favor of it in 2010. However, he, as well as other FIFA officials, eventually declared that granting the World Cup to the Gulf state was a mistake.
And that view became stronger when human rights allegations started coming out.
Human rights in Qatar
As a result, the world got seriously concerned when accusations regarding the mistreatment of foreign workers in Qatar started coming into the spotlight. Due to the immense amount of infrastructure projects that the Gulf state had to carry out ahead of the World Cup, thousands of migrant workers, most of them from Southeast Asia, came to the Arab country to get employed. But they faced terrible labor conditions: unsafe working conditions, meager wages, non-payment of salaries, and even forced labor. Since Qatar won the World Cup, more than 6,500 migrant workers have died in the country during the construction process.
Source: Washington Post
Undoubtedly, due to the global scrutiny brought by the 2022 World Cup hosting, Qatar’s human rights policies have led to reforms. Some of them include establishing the region’s first minimum wage policy and the unpaid wages compensation fund, better access to justice, legislation controlling domestic staff conditions, and abolishing the “kafala” sponsorship system that ties workers to their employees. However, despite the steps forward, discriminations continue, migrant worker deaths are not adequately investigated, and their families are not compensated.
The next day
Many countries threatened to boycott the 2022 World Cup, but nothing substantial happened. In fact, Qatar is expecting around 1.5 million fans for the one-month tournament, having already sold almost 3 million tickets.
Football will always be a sport that unites nations and brings joy to the fans. Nonetheless, it is an arena where millions of dollars are being spent, resulting in an opportunity for corruption to grow. FIFA and many national football federations have not proven to the world that they can guarantee transparency in football. Thus, they are not in a position to lecture the public on what criticism should or should not take place ahead of the World Cup. In any case, it’s evident that allegations against Qatar have to do with anything but racism.
Everyone hopes this World Cup will be Qatar’s and the Middle East’s unique opportunity to enter the world map of football and, most importantly, to implement essential civil liberties and human rights reforms. However, that requires a commitment that goes far beyond a sports tournament, even if this is the World Cup. If everything is forgotten once the party is over, then the allegations over the 2022 World Cup probably haven’t been unfounded.
