Mansoor’s Musings: Qatar World Cup post-mortem

By MANSOOR LADHA on February 9, 2023.

The 2022 FIFA World Cup, the largest soccer gathering in the world started amid controversy, but thankfully has ended well. There was fierce debate and accusations regarding multiple violations of human rights, treatment of migrant workers and women, and the country’s position on LGBTQ issues against the tiny Middle Eastern country.

Homosexual acts are illegal in Qatar because they are considered immoral under Islamic Sharia law and offenders are punished with fines, prison sentences of up to seven years.

An estimated 30,000 workers from countries such as India, Bangladesh, Nepa and the Philippines built facilities for the World Cup finals, which included new stadiums, hotels and roads. In February 2021, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported 6,500 workers had died in Qatar since it won its World Cup bid. It is estimated that 50 foreign labourers died, and more than 500 others were seriously injured in Qatar in 2021 alone, and another 37,600 suffered mild to moderate injuries.

As every soccer fan knows, during every sporting event, especially soccer, beer goes hand in hand, but in Qatar, alcohol was restricted. Two days before the tournament, Qatar announced it would not allow sales of beer at World Cup stadiums. Alcohol sales were, however, allowed only in designated fan zones and the bars of luxury hotels, costing between £10 and £12 a can, or pint.

Several celebrities which included some soccer players and sports commentators either boycotted the games or decided not to watch the games in sympathy. BBC ignored the World Cup opening ceremony in favour of a broadcast criticizing the treatment of migrant workers, highlighting corruption at FIFA, and discussing the ban on homosexuality in Qatar.

Qatar clinched the rights to the World Cup in 2010 after beating bids from the U.S., South Korea, Japan and Australia, and made history by being the first Arab nation to host the tournament. One wonders why all these critics came out of the woodwork when the games were being played? Where were they all along? Qatar’s illustrious record has long been known to the world. What’s the use of all the uproar being created when the games had already begun?

FIFA, soccer’s governing body, is to be blamed in the first place for awarding the games to Qatar which was accused of bribing FIFA officials $3.7 million to secure their backing. Ironically, FIFA’s then-chairman, Sepp Blatter, who supported the bid, admitted it was a “mistake” to award the World Cup to Qatar. In response to FIFA’s present president Gianni Infantino, who has accused critics of hypocrisy, Steve Cockburn, of Amnesty International is reported to have responded that in brushing aside legitimate human rights criticisms, Infantino was dismissing the enormous price paid by migrant workers to make his flagship tournament possible – as well as FIFA’s responsibility for it.

“Demands for equality, dignity and compensation cannot be treated as some sort of culture war – they are universal human rights that FIFA has committed to respect in its own statutes. If there is one tiny glimmer of hope, it is that Infantino announced that FIFA would establish a legacy fund after the World Cup. This cannot be mere window dressing, however. If FIFA is to salvage anything from this tournament, it must announce that it will invest a significant part of the $6 billion the organization will make from this tournament and make sure this fund is used to compensate workers and their families directly.”

For those of you who are still wondering why the tiny desert state of Qatar got the honour to host the 2022 World Cup, the simple answer is money, which, as they say, is the root of all evils. The power of money was supplemented by political influence, gift-giving and outright corruption. And FIFA, one of the more powerful and revenue-generating outfits in the world, appears to have succumbed to the Qatar pressures.

Qatar is obviously expecting to capitalize on tourism potential that the World Cup has generated, but it is to be hoped that its seven stadiums which were built for the tournament, remain empty in future. It is doubtful whether any tourist with a conscience will ever patronize some 100 new hotels, a new metro system, new roads, and an extension to Hamad airport. The world must teach Qatar a lesson by boycotting it in its entirety and reaffirm human rights principles.

Sports and politics have always been intertwined. Olympic Games have always been marred by political drama, resulting in cancellations, bans and boycotts due to apartheid, racism, invasions, colonialism, and numerous other political and social issues. The Qatar World Cup is no exception. Let these new infrastructure monuments remain as evidence, as “museums” of torture and hatred.

Hopefully, experience of FIFA 2022 will be forgotten by the time the 2026 edition of the World Cup will be held in the Canada, United States and Mexico, marking the first time the tournament will be shared by three different countries. Hopefully, Canadian players would have had enough practice by then to show better performance than FIFA 2022.

Mansoor Ladha is a Calgary-based writer and author of Memoirs of a Muhindi: Fleeing East Africa for the West, Off the Cuff and A Portrait in Pluralism: Aga Khan’s Shia Ismaili Muslims

14
-13