World Cup

The football World Cup is the most prestigious tournament in sport and in the world. A record 3.572 billion people watched the 2018 Russia World Cup which is over half of the world's population and the final was seen live by a combined 1.12 billion viewers worldwide. France and Croatia, who participated in the final, only have a combined population of 71.399 million which shows the immense scale of the tournament. Gianni Infantino, the boss of FIFA has said that the 2022 Qatar World Cup audience is projected at 5 billion people, which is almost double what it was four years ago. However, much controversy has arisen over this year's tournament, which kicked off on the 20th of November, for an array of reasons.

Qatar won the bid in 2010 to host the world cup. At that time, Sepp Blatter was in charge of FIFA. He himself was accused of corruption and left FIFA in 2015, Prosecutors had accused Blatter and Micheal Platini (ex chief of UEFA) of illegally arranging in 2011 a payment of 2 million francs (€1.89 million) from FIFA to Platini for a consultancy service the ex-UEFA chief delivered a decade earlier during Blatter's first term. Famously, in the year he left FIFA, comedian Simon Brodkin threw money at Blatter while exclaiming 'This is for North Korea 2026.'. Afterwards he stated ‘I think FIFA and Sepp Blatter are probably in that mix.’. Blatter has since been cleared of fraud but the prosecutors have appealed the ruling. Qatar also faced allegations of corruption as they were accused of paying FIFA millions of dollars to back their bid to host the World Cup. A two year investigation took place but the host nation was cleared of these allegations. However, Sepp Blatter has come out and said that ‘Qatar is a mistake’ and that ‘the choice was bad’, Blatter also stated "It is too small of a country. Football and the World Cup are too big for it," in regards to the first middle eastern country to host a World Cup.

Qatar has not only been accused of corruption but they have also been accused of human rights violations. An article from the Guardian states that 6,500 migrant workers have died in Qatar since the World Cup was awarded, all of which are from South Asia, however it is estimated that an additional 5,500 workers have also died in this time. A BBC article also states that It (Amnesty International) said many workers lived in squalid accommodation, were forced to pay huge recruitment fees and had wages withheld and their passports confiscated. 7 new stadiums were constructed specifically for the world cup costing between 6.5 - 10 billion dollars. The migrant workforce in Qatar is estimated at 2 million, making up nearly 95% of the labour force in a country of just 3 million people. These statistics are quite staggering when you look at the figures of the 2010 and 2014 world cups in which a combined total of 12 workers died. What is even more surprising is that Qatar has almost five times the GDP per capita of both South Africa and Brazil. Statistics like these show that Qatar was unfit to host the tournament so early due to the lack of existence of facilities like football stadiums and it is also questioned how the stadiums will be used after the world cup. Al Janoub Stadium in Al-Wakrah is set to be given to a local football team, with half of its 44,000 seats donated to football projects overseas, Al-Bayt will be turned into a luxury hotel after the tournament and Lusail, which is where the final will be hosted, is being transformed into a community hub. Stadium 974 is set to be dismantled yet there are still 4 other stadiums left in Qatar. Were the alleged deaths of over 10,000 people worth leaving constructions that could seat over 4 times this amount of people worth it?

There are several other controversies that occurred both before and during the tournament and will most likely go down as one of the most tarnished in the history of the competition.