FIFA + Qatar = A marriage made in hell


FIFA, the controlling body of international football, has long been known to be utterly corrupt. The nation of Qatar has an appalling record on human rights including ,the criminalizing of homosexuality, brutal treatment of its migrant labor force, and violations of free speech rights among others. So when in 2010 FIFA selected Qatar as the host nation for the 2022 tournament despite its manifest unsuitability (for starters, the temperatures can rise to very high levels in the summers), there were immediate suspicions that bribery had been involved, with the Qatari rulers seeking to get good publicity by hosting this major international sporting event.

This article goes into great depth on the sordid history of FIFA and Qatar.

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. 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.

But that is not all. In order to host the tournament, Qatar has created many new stadiums in an entirely new city in a little over a decade. Doing that required the bringing in tens of thousands of migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka to toil in sometimes 50C (122F) temperatures while being very poorly paid and forced to live in the most appalling conditions.

In last Sunday’s episode of his show Last Week Tonight, John Oliver exposes all these problems with FIFA and Qatar. He shows clips from an investigative report by journalists who visited the places where the migrant workers live and it was utterly shocking, even for me who was expecting things to be bad. Qatar was willing to spend a reported $220 billion to create the facilities for the World Cup but could not spare even a tiny fraction of that to provide the minimal living standards for the people who made it possible.

Sadly, as Oliver predicted, once the tournament starts, people will forget all the horrors behind the scenes and only look at the football matches. As the above article states:

Ultimately, though, the primary obstacle to overhauling FIFA remains the World Cup’s unparalleled popularity.

“FIFA knows that no matter how badly it behaves and no matter how disgusted people are with the organization, every four years, everything’s forgotten,” said Bensinger. “It’s like the Catholic church: You can do whatever you want all week as long as you go to confession on Sunday. The World Cup functions that way for FIFA.”

Sadly, that is what seems to be happening yet again, as the world media shifts all its attention from the atrocities to football.

Comments

  1. mnb0 says

    Yes. I boycot it. I am almost disappointed that you write about it. Almost. Winning the cup will be a disgrace.

  2. txpiper says

    “migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka to toil in sometimes 50C (122F) temperatures while being very poorly paid and forced to live in the most appalling conditions.”
    .
    Which is an unintentional commentary about how awful life is for them in those places.

  3. Mano Singham says

    tripper @#2,

    Yes, it is a commentary but not necessarily that they are better off than they were back in their home countries. Many of those workers were lured by promises of good wages and living conditions but on arrival had their passports taken away and made into indentured labor with nowhere to go and thus forced to accept the appalling conditions.

    The more pertinent commentary is about the existence of human trafficking that unscrupulously exploits people simply looking for a better life.

  4. lanir says

    The corruption at FIFA seems to be on a level that is far too deep to fix quickly. This is one of those things where if you believe in it, you’ll have to fight for a good long time. Winning that battle in Qatar was never going to happen.

    There are some interesting things to learn from how things are going down, however. For one, they’re willing to disrupt the game for their shitty politics*. That is NOT a good look in a pro sports league. Think about it. The games are the ONLY reason anyone has for paying attention to them at all. And they want to disrupt it? For politics? Yeah, no. That was a gamble. And while it mostly paid off, they didn’t entirely get their way**. And remember, for these athletes this is both their livelihood and like being in the Olympics all at once. It’s really hard for them to take risks and some of them are doing it anyway. And more are seriously thinking about it.

    FIFA thinks they’re winning and right now that’s true. They are. But I don’t think they realize how badly the long game seems to be going for them. Maybe I’m just being optimistic but I think they’re going to start seeing more and more opposition. They’ll still be corrupt and there will still be a lot of money going around where it shouldn’t be. But I think they’ll start to find they can’t have everything their way.

    * European team captains at the World Cup won’t wear armbands promoting diversity

    ** German players cover their mouths at the World Cup to protest FIFA

  5. KG says

    My view (which I don’t expect to result in any significant change in my lifetime) is that professional sport is inevitably a hive of financial corruption, cheating, child abuse, toxic nationalism and masculinity, and PR opportunities for vile tyrannies. Sport should be for fun and exercise.

  6. jrkrideau says

    So the World Cup in Qatar has brought a few abuses to light to the Western world. Good, but I have no sympathy for this sudden surge of indignation. Maybe someone should have noticed before? All this posturing is silly.

    I think it is rude to accept an invitation and then slang the host. If a country or team was upset then it should have withdrawn before the tournament. Arm-bands are virtue signally.

    I spend a couple of years in Saudi Arabia in the late 1980’s. The Kafala System was in effect, and may still be, human rights were dicey to none existent , labour law was poorly enforced (though it, apparently, was not that corrupt if you could actually get to court), women’s rights were strictly interpreted under the Wahabi interpretation of Sharia[1]— a woman could not even drive a car— and goodly proportion of the non-Saudi labour force was mistreated.

    We had a residential compound riot over the food served to our Muslim staff for the first meal after dark during Ramadan and while we were not great we were far from the worst company in the Kingdom.

    I cannot remember anything about LGBTQ issues but since half our NA/EU- staff were gay, such behaviour was probably highly illegal but tolerated as long as one was discrete.

    1. Wahhabi interpretation of Shari is analogous to a really crazed US fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible.

  7. jrkrideau says

    @ Mano
    but on arrival had their passports taken away

    This is/was standard under the kafala system. In Saudi, at least, it applied to the illiterate street sweeper from Bangladesh and to the chemical engineer from California.

    A more immediate problem is that Qatar is not enforcing its own law against recruitment agencies charging applicants fees. IIRC, it is illegal under Qatari and Saudi law. This is a gross violation of the law and a gross exploitation of workers.

  8. Rob Grigjanis says

    jrkrideau @6:

    I have no sympathy for this sudden surge of indignation. Maybe someone should have noticed before?

    There’s nothing sudden about it. These problems have been known, and reported, for years. How have you not noticed?

    I think it is rude to accept an invitation and then slang the host.

    FIFA accepted Qatar’s bid to host. A corrupt institution chose a corrupt country, by means which were undoubtedly corrupt. FIFA and Qatar both deserve all the slanging they get, and more.

  9. lanir says

    @jkrideau: You may have a different belief than I do but there are things that are simply more important than host/guest rights and courtesies. Generally I would assume any credible accusation of slavery to be sufficient grounds to ignore a guest/host relationship entirely. Human rights issues are simply too important.

    I suppose you could compare it solely to sports and say a stance on human rights is more important than sports. Which is true. However, I don’t think that EU teams have the leverage to impact FIFA by staying home. Or at least they do not currently think they do. And either way, there is a reasonable debate to be had over whether going and speaking up or boycotting entirely is the more effective means of protest.

    I guess I’m just confused why being rude to slavers sounds like the primary issue? Maybe I simply misread what you meant.

  10. Dunc says

    And either way, there is a reasonable debate to be had over whether going and speaking up or boycotting entirely is the more effective means of protest.

    I think that particular argument was resolved fairly conclusively back in the 80s with the boycott of apartheid-era South Africa. Asking nicely achieved precisely nothing, whereas the boycott is widely regarded as being a significant factor in the eventual downfall of the apartheid regime.

  11. jrkrideau says

    @8 Rob Grigjanis
    How have you not noticed?
    I think you misread my intent. I have noticed. I lived in in Saudi. Many of the complaints are the same though Saudi may be worse.

    I am annoyed that no one else seems to have.
    I think it is rude to accept an invitation and then slang the host.

    I should have been clearer. If a national team is that upset it should have boycotted the competition. Don’t do silly rude gestures like armbands.

  12. Rob Grigjanis says

    jrkrideau: I’m sure your bleating about ‘rudeness’ has nothing to do with similar concerns raised about the 2014 Winter Games in Russia.

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