The World Cup is held every four years, and it is an event that arouses pride and emotion in all the invited countries. The world’s attention is now focused on a tournament that monopolizes sports covers and social networks. But the ethical and political problems surrounding this World Cup have dampened some of that enthusiasm. While many prefer to believe that sport is immune to social, political and cultural problems (and simply see it as an escape from routine), in reality it is not. And we are seeing it in Qatar.
This World Cup was supposed to announce the arrival of Qatar, already an economic powerhouse, to the Western world as a legitimate cultural and political partner. But the opposite has happened. In a colossal failure, all it has done is focus attention on the country’s abusive treatment of migrant workers and the crackdown on LGBTQ+ people. The culture shock that exists these days in the tournament is impossible to deny.
First of all, why Qatar? It’s been 12 years since Qatar won the rights to host the competition, something that seemed impossible at the time. First, because of the country’s limited soccer history. Second, because of the high cost and the hot climate. And third, because of his dubious human rights record. But money talks and, as a consequence, the FIFA president resigned. Since then, several governors have admitted that awarding them the tournament was a blunder.
They had to lose from the beginning. From the beginning, tensions arose around LGBTQ+ rights. FIFA has adopted the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which require that it “avoid infringing on the human rights of others.” However, in the Qatari constitution based on the shariaHomosexuality is a crime punishable by imprisonment. According to a Human Rights Watch report, the country’s security services detain and beat members of the LGBTQ+ community and subject them to compulsory “conversion therapy” treatments.
Qatar promised a “World Cup for all”, but then we could see a major ambassador of the tournament saying that homosexuality is “mental damage”, so the advertised inclusivity seemed like a hoax. That is why we have been seeing a widespread boycott for weeks by many celebrities and associations who have refused to go to the World Cup this year or promote it.
Alex Scott, a BBC reporter, is broadcasting from Qatar wearing the LGBT armband that FIFA has banned the England team from wearing. pic.twitter.com/iuQIZCVdrz
— PabloMM (@pablom_m) November 21, 2022
Doubts about its construction. The treatment of foreign workers who migrated to Qatar to build the World Cup infrastructure remains a source of doubt. Last year, The Guardian published a report explaining that between 2010 and 2020, an average of 12 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka died each week while working on tournament-related projects in Qatar. The country maintains that the majority of deaths were from natural causes, but the curious thing is that these were all relatively healthy young men, and the deaths included falls from scaffolding and not heat stroke.
Farewell to the rainbow flag. The country’s tough stance on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ+) is on everyone’s lips. The Constitution of Qatar designates Islam as the state religion and Islamic law as the main source of legislation. That is why same-sex sexual activity is prohibited by the Qatar Penal Code and carries up to seven years in prison. As a result, journalists, players and fans have been embroiled in a series of incidents over his rainbow-colored clothing.
Seven team captains had planned to wear the OneLove bracelets. However, a FIFA verdict threatened yellow cards if they used them. In a statement, the seven football associations said they would not sacrifice success on the pitch for the initiative and would not use them. FIFA also rejected the Belgian team’s request to wear a jersey with a “Love” tag combined with a rainbow color. And Grant Wahl, a journalist, was denied entry to the opening party because he was wearing an LGBTQ+ flag T-shirt.
Some Welsh fans were refused entry into the stadium tonight until they gave up their rainbow colored bucket hat. 🏳️🌈 pic.twitter.com/vgxQMyhFmb
— World Cup Updates (@wc22updates) November 21, 2022
The silence of the Iran team. So political has the competition become that even the Iran team refused to sing their national anthem before the opening game in a show of support for the mass protests in their country after many fans accused the team of siding with the competition. side of violent state repression in the riots. Protests, demanding the overthrow of the ruling Shi’ite Muslim theocracy, have gripped Iran since the September death of a young woman named Mahsa Amini after her arrest for violating a strict Islamic dress code.
#BREAKING: Iran national team players choose not to sing national anthem at World Cup match; some of the Iranian crowed booing their own national anthem pic.twitter.com/RYPvgHMNUi
— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) November 21, 2022
Japanese cleaning stadiums. Perhaps funnier was seeing the fans Japanese cleaning a stadium after a game in which their team didn’t even compete. After Qatar-Ecuador, dressed in the national colors of Japan, they stayed behind to collect the bottles and rubbish left on the seats. His act of goodwill was recorded by Bahraini influencer Omar Al-Farooq. When he asked them what led them to clean up the field, they replied, “We are Japanese, we don’t leave trash behind, and we respect the place.”
without a drop of beer. But the icing on the cake is all the fuss about alcohol, which is becoming a real problem in Qatar. As we have commented on Magnet during these days, is the first competition of such magnitude held in a country with a Muslim majority, where alcohol is prohibited for citizens, as is its consumption in the streets. Even though it was thought that fans and visitors were going to be able to do it in remote places, the country has decided that the sale of beer will be banned at the points it had designated, increasing tensions between the sponsors, FIFA and Qatar.