![]() “Apart from visibility, it’s also about having some influence in international affairs and being able to punch above weight.”īut the increased international scrutiny that accompanies the tournament also creates significant political liabilities for hosts. “Qatar is a small state, and for small states, the main objective in international affairs is visibility,” said Danyel Reiche, a visiting associate professor at Georgetown University Qatar, where he leads a research initiative on the political and economic legacy of the World Cup. “I mean, I’m excited about the upcoming World Cup, even though I think it probably shouldn’t be in Qatar.”įor ascendant nations like Qatar, the benefits of hosting the World Cup are still very real. Blew the Whistle on the World’s Biggest Sports Scandal. “I know lots of people who say horrible things about FIFA who are still very excited about the coming World Cup,” said Ken Bensinger, an investigative reporter and the author of Red Card: How the U.S. The very sources of that appeal - the sweeping stakes that accompany 32 nations competing in a month-long tournament, the power of old rivalries, the possibility that a single goal could change a country’s fate - are the same things that make these controversies so intractable. Given that approximately 3.5 billion people tuned in to the World Cup in 2018, it’s impossible to deny the tournament’s continued global appeal. ![]() Since at least 1934 - when the second World Cup took place in Benito Mussolini’s fascist Italy - soccer fans have had to temper their enthusiasm for the game with an awareness of unsavory political compromises that inevitably accompany the multibillion-dollar spectacle. The 2018 tournament in Russia raised questions about FIFA’s cozy relationship with authoritarian leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the 2014 World Cup in Brazil sparked an international outcry over the forced removal of tens of thousands of poor and working-class Brazilians to make room for new tournament-related infrastructure. Global tensions around the competition have been further inflamed by FIFA’s controversial decision to move it to the northern hemisphere’s winter to avoid Qatar’s infernal summer heat, a move that critics have seized on as proof that FIFA is bending over backward to accommodate an already-troublesome host.Īnd this isn’t the first time a World Cup has been caught up in geopolitical controversies. ![]() According to an analysis by the Guardian, at least 6,500 migrant laborers have died in Qatar since the tournament was awarded to the country in 2010. That web includes everything from allegations of corruption and bribery during the bidding process to host the tournament, to accusations that Qatar is using the event to “sportswash” its record of human rights abuses. Since FIFA, the governing body for international soccer, awarded the 2022 World Cup to Qatar in 2010, the tournament has been ensnared in a tangled web of scandals. But even if you’re not a die-hard soccer fan, you’ve probably heard something about the many controversies swirling around this year’s edition of the most famous sporting event in the world. "What can FIFA say if its president is in the same boat as Qatar?" Blatter said of Infantino choosing to live in Doha.The 2022 FIFA World Cup is set to kick off in Qatar on November 20, stirring excitement and anticipation in soccer fans around the world. ![]() Qatar's government has resisted the calls and described them as a "publicity stunt." ![]() and England, to create a compensation fund for families of workers who died or were injured. However, he did question why his successor as FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, has moved to live in Qatar for at least the past year.īlatter noted growing calls, by rights groups and several FIFA member federations including the U.S. He acknowledged that he "might have told" American officials that he would be voting for their 2022 bid.īlatter did not specifically refer to criticism of Qatar on labor and human rights issues since 2010. "Sarkozy never asked me to vote for Qatar, but I knew what would be good," Platini told an AP reporter in Zurich seven years ago. In comments to the Associated Press in 2015, Platini broadly confirmed the significance of that meeting in Paris. It's the truth," Blatter said of the 14-8 voting result. "Thanks to the four votes of Platini and his (UEFA) team, the World Cup went to Qatar rather than the United States. ![]()
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