Qatar sparks controversy as World Cup host

This November, billions of screens across the globe will flash with images of the bright, ecstatic culture that is the FIFA World Cup. The event is familiar to almost everyone as a cultural phenomenon and soccer tournament that occurs every four years. The 22nd World Cup, hosted later this month in Qatar, is particularly significant this year as it has already drawn much attention for the numerous controversies surrounding it.

Qatar, a country smaller than most U.S. states, is primarily a desolate and sun-baked desert located on the Arabian Peninsula known primarily for its abundance of oil. Qatar battled to host the 2022 World Cup and finally won in 2010. Over the past decade, Qatar has taken the long journey toward readying itself to host the millions of people who will attend the series of soccer matches over several weeks. Within these years, accusations and claims of bribery and modern-day slavery have been proliferating, proving Qatar is unfit to host the World Cup and unacceptable that FIFA is ignoring their numerous transgressions.

In 2020, the United States Department of Justice announced that Qatar had bribed FIFA representatives to gain the right to host the World Cup. Allegations were made that FIFA benefited from a $500 million deal made just 21 days before the final decision.

This is not the first time FIFA has been embroiled in such egregious allegations. 

It is an obvious and continuous problem in FIFA, with the corruption scandal of 2015 led to the indictment of several of its top executives. Allowing Qatar to host the World Cup serves to perpetuate this problem and deem such bribery acceptable.

This is not the only fault Qatar presents, as many of its laws are far outside those of most other nations, such as same-sex relationships, which in Qatar are punishable by death. Although FIFA has demanded certain exceptions to be made for the World Cup, saying in an interview with CBS News that “Qatar as a host country is fully aware of its responsibility to adhere to FIFA’s expectations and requirements on human rights, equality and non-discrimination.”.

FIFA has had over a decade to work and push the Qatari government. These small exceptions FIFA has convinced Qatar to make aren’t telling of any intense effort to cease this extreme hate.  

Qatar’s disregard for human rights is also a prevalent issue that is now intertwined with the World Cup. Since 2010 Qatar has hired over 30,000 foreign laborers to build the soccer stadiums. Among the 30,000, at least 6,500 of the workers have died from the intense labor and terrible conditions in which they are forced to work. The death toll is estimated to be higher. The conditions for these workers raised an alarm for human rights group Amnesty International, which in 2016 accused Qatar of forced labor and directed an accusation toward FIFA for failing to stop the soccer tournament from being built on the abuse of human rights.

The root of the abuse these workers face is Qatar’s kafala system. The kafala system is a sponsorship system that fosters the relationship between foreign workers and their sponsor or employer. It gives companies the ability to employ foreign laborers. But this system gives workers no protection under their country’s labor laws. This creates a loophole that many sponsors exploit. These sponsors are ultimately able to control the workers’ legal status and ability to enter and exit the host country. This level of control constitutes as modern-day slavery. 

Qatar, a peninsula so small, so hot and overwhelmed with controversy, is set to host the World Cup this month while FIFA has ignored the deaths, bribery and human rights violations. In some cases FIFA is complicit. The honor of hosting the World Cup should not go to the highest bidder but rather be a reflection of a country’s morals, ethics and overall ability to ensure a successful World Cup.