Corruption, human rights, player workload: Controversies swamp Qatar’s World Cup

The 2022 FIFA World Cup kicks off in Qatar, a small Arab country in the Middle East, on Sunday, Nov. 20. Soccer teams from 32 countries will compete in the tournament, leading up to the final match on Dec. 18.

This year’s World Cup is surrounded by controversies, many of which go far deeper than Qatar’s attention-grabbing decision to ban beer sales around World Cup stadiums, a reversal that came two days before the opening game.

Here are the three biggest controversies for Qatar and FIFA.

What about allegations of corruption in Qatar’s host bid?

Controversy has mired the 2022 World Cup for 12 years — since FIFA executives chose Qatar as host in the country’s 2010 bid, BBC reported. Allegations of corruption, bribery and vote-swaying surfaced after the vote.

Qatar was accused of paying FIFA officials about $3.7 million in bribes to win the bid, but a two-year investigation cleared Qatar, BBC reported.

Vote-swaying accusations also stem from a meeting in Paris that took place the week before FIFA voted on World Cup bids, NPR reported. A FIFA official and the crown prince of Qatar, now the emir, were both in attendance, the outlet reported.

The former president of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, who oversaw the vote, said in an interview on Nov. 8 that choosing Qatar as host was a “mistake,” NPR reported. “It was a bad choice. And I was responsible for that as president at the time,” Blatter said.

No wrongdoing has been proven, but lingering concerns have followed the choice of Qatar as host country.

What about Qatar’s human rights record?

Since being chosen as 2022 World Cup host, Qatar has been repeatedly criticized for its human rights record. The criticism focuses on the conditions experienced by migrant workers who built tournament infrastructure and Qatar’s criminalization of homosexuality.

Qatar’s migrant population accounts for 90% of its labor force, NPR reported. These workers “frequently” experience “exploitative and dangerous” living conditions, the outlet reported.

An investigation by The Guardian in 2021 found that 6,500 migrant workers – primarily from southeast Asia – had died in Qatar since the country won its World Cup bid.

“While death records are not categorized by occupation or place of work, it is likely many workers who have died were employed on these World Cup infrastructure projects,” FairSquare Projects, a labor rights group, told The Guardian at the time.

FIFA and Qatar contest these numbers. According to Qatar’s official records, 37 workers died at World Cup construction sites between 2014 and 2020, but only three deaths are considered “work-related,” BBC reported.

Adding to workers rights criticisms, Human Rights Watch, an international advocacy organization, published a report on Oct. 14 that found LGBT people in Qatar experience “discrimination, ill-treatment in detentions, privacy violations, (and) conversion practices.”

Under Qatar’s penal code, sex outside of marriage, including same-sex relations, is punishable by up to seven years in prison, Human Rights Watch reported.

In a statement to NPR, the Qatari embassy said, “Everybody will be welcome in Qatar for the World Cup … We simply ask all visitors to appreciate and respect our culture, just as they would if they were traveling elsewhere in the region and in other parts of the world.” The embassy also told the outlet that the “safety of all visitors is of the utmost importance.”

What about the soccer players and Qatar’s heat?

The World Cup is usually held in the summer, BBC reported. However, because scorching Qatari summers usually exceed 100 degrees, organizers scheduled the tournament for November when temperatures are around 70 to 80 degrees.

This schedule has placed “unprecedented workload demands” on players, according to a Nov. 15 report from FIFPRO, an international organization representing 65,000 professional soccer players.

On average, World Cup players had seven days of preparation and will have eight days of recovery time, FIFPRO reported. For previous World Cup tournaments, players had about four times longer to prepare and recover, with an average 31 days of preparation and 37 days of recovery.

This schedule is “likely to increase the risk of muscle injuries and mental stress” for overworked players, FIFPRO reported.

Neither FIFA nor Qatar responded to McClatchy News’ Nov. 18 requests to comment on these controversial topics.

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