Ever since the start of the 21st century, sports, especially soccer, is seen more as a business than a sport. Corruption and bribery is nothing new nowadays for FIFA, the sport’s main organization. The earliest forms of these crimes have been seen in the 2002 FIFA World Cup, fixing games for the South Korea national team and even the champions the Brazilian national team. The referees were one of the main culprits but FIFA didn’t do anything about it.
About 10 years later, FIFA has been involved in more crimes. Back in 2015, about 14 FIFA officials were accused of corruption and they’ve been accused of bribery and corruption. According to Vox, sports marketing executives bribed FIFA for $150 million for broadcasting rights. According to Vox, “FIFA official Chuck Blazer admitted to taking bribes in exchange for awarding the 1998 World Cup to France and the 2010 World Cup to South Africa.” Back in 2010, Qatar won the World Cup bid for 2022. Years later so many people said it was a bad idea even former FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, who was also the president at the time, also realized it was a bad idea. No one thought much of it until recently. This was seen as a case of bribery by many. FIFA were also accused of. The US Department of Justice arrested seven officials and have been investigating the 2022 World Cup bid since 2015.
First off it is a horrible idea to host the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. The climate alone is what makes it a horrible idea.
According to The Guardian, the average temperature at Qatar during the summer there is 105 degrees fahrenheit. This isn’t only a hazard for the players and the fans, it is also a hazard for everyone else involved with the World Cup. Players have played in high temperatures like that before, for example, in 2014, teams played in Brazil so the heat was there for sure, reaching temperatures varying from 68 degrees fahrenheit to 77 degrees fahrenheit with only 2 matches played in 90 degree weather, but Qatar is a country that never seems to be cold.
Because of these temperatures, this forced the tournament to be played in the winter, as opposed to the summer to solve the climate problems. This means every league in the world will be interrupted. The summer is when all club football is done and that gives the chances for the team to thrive and that is the time of the year the FIFA World Cup always takes place. According to Bleacher Report, “To say this isn’t ideal would be an understatement.” The ideal world cup to many is a summer tournament, during vacation times, etc. and Qatar is bringing the opposite.
Moving things to the winter hurts the players a lot, COVID-19 already made their seasons hard enough by playing more games in one week. Since Qatar is the host nation and got the tournament moved to the winter, this forces players to play even more games than they have to in such a short span of time, which can cause burnout and make them more prone to severe injuries, especially muscle injuries.
These are only some of the issues of Qatar hosting the world cup.
The main issue is how much they’ve invested and how little is done. According to ESPN, the world cup in Qatar will cost around $220 billion, making it the most expensive World Cup in history. Other countries in the past, such as Russia, who spent around $12 billion in 2018. Brazil spent about $15.6 billion back in 2014. The gap is huge.
The World Cup final is supposed to take place in Lusail City, but this isn’t a real city yet as they haven’t finished building the structures to make it a city. Construction on some of the stadiums are not done yet and there is only one month left, what are they going to do? Get more workers? That would be impossible for Qatar to do in one month.
Workers at Qatar are going through some of the worst work conditions possible in Qatar. They have to live in shacks without water and electricity. According to Amnesty International, a human rights organization, stated that if they’re foreign workers, their passports get revoked. According to The Guardian, they’re only earning approximately $380 USD per month working 12-hour shifts for six days without overtime pay. According to The Guardian, statistics from 2021 show 6,500 workers have died from these conditions. With the way Qatar tried to cover those deaths, it is a possibility that those numbers have gone up by now.
Qatar is also known to be homphobic and has taken measures to reduce LGBTQ+ representation. According to Bleacher Report, homosexuality is illegal in Qatar. There’s no point in hosting the biggest sports tournament in the world if they can’t even let LGBTQ+ fans represent.
Hosting the FIFA World Cup in Qatar is one of the worst ideas possible FIFA can have. Hopefully by the end of this world cup, FIFA can learn from their mistakes.