A day before Qatar opened its home World Cup against Ecuador, FIFA president Gianni Infantino sounded angry, bullish, and erratic.
Speaking at a press conference, Infantino launched into a wide-ranging and often idiosyncratic address in defense of the tournament, which has attracted constant criticism since FIFA controversially handed back the hosting rights in 2010.
Those complaints have become more numerous and sensitive in recent weeks, and Infantino has decided to fight back in front of the world’s media.
“Today I feel Qatari. Today I feel Arabic. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel like a migrant worker,” he began.
“Of course, I’m not Qatari, I’m not Arab, I’m not African, I’m not gay, I’m not disabled. But I feel this way because I know what it means to be discriminated against. Bullied, as a foreigner in a foreign country.
“As a child, I was bullied – because I had red hair and lashes, plus I was Italian, so imagine. Then what do you do? You try to engage and make friends. Don’t start accusing, arguing, or insulting, You. Start getting involved. And that’s what we have to do.”
To understand why the head of world football’s governing body decided to make such statements on the eve of a tournament he would normally be expected to see as a crowning achievement – aside from the ever-present motivation of self-preservation – we must examine how. We have received consistent complaints and concerns raised against various aspects of the Qatari regime here.
Allegations of corruption surrounding the 2022 World Cup
Qatar won a surprise victory in a December 2010 vote in Zurich to be awarded the right to host the 2022 World Cup, beating out bids from Australia, Japan, South Korea, and the United States.
Russia won the 2018 World Cup in the same session of the FIFA Executive Committee, the first time since then-president Sepp Blatter changed the rules in 2008 that the two tournament hosts were decided at the same meeting. Strong hand in negotiations with broadcasters and sponsors
A total of 22 votes were cast, with Qatar taking 14 votes in the final round to defeat the US, which claimed eight delegates.
There was a slightly smaller pool of ExCo members to vote for, as Amos Adamu and Reynald Temari were suspended on corruption charges the previous month. This proved to be only the tip of the iceberg for FIFA.
Of the 22 men who voted for the tournament, 16 have since been implicated in some form of alleged corruption or malpractice. Most notable among them is Blatter himself, who was initially sacked and banned from football for eight years in 2015.
That was reduced to six years on appeal but, in 2021, he was handed a further six-year ban by FIFA’s ethics committee for multiple breaches of its code of conduct and “accepting and receiving extravagant bonuses amounting to CHF 23 million ($24). m/£20.25m ).”
In a statement issued through his spokesman, Blatter said: “Currently the ethics committee has nothing to do with an independent body – it is an extension of the FIFA president [Infantino] and no more than a ‘parallel Justice.”
Fraud, corruption, conspiracy. As FIFA looks to move beyond its troubled past, this documentary tells the story of a sport at the centre of a storm.
— Netflix UK & Ireland (@NetflixUK) November 9, 2022
FIFA Uncovered is streaming now on Netflix. pic.twitter.com/v723x6EFbr
In the build-up to Qatar 2022, Blatter told the Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger that awarding the World Cup to the Middle Eastern state was a “mistake” and a “bad choice”.
Blatter claimed former UEFA president Michel Platini was pressured by then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy to support Qatar as a key factor in the decision. Platini, who was banned from football following Blatter’s fall, admitted to meeting Sarkozy but denied being influenced. Sarkozy has long refused to comment on the Qatar 2022 allegations.
Why has Qatar World Cup 2022 moved to winter?
As claims and counterclaims of alleged shady dealings swirled in late 2010 and the years since one thing was clear: Qatar is hot. Really, really hot. Especially in June, when temperatures exceed 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).
In September 2013, nearly three years after the Zurich vote, Blatter acknowledged this reality. “After much discussion, deliberation, and a critical review of the whole matter, I have come to the conclusion that it is not responsible to play the World Cup in the summer in Qatar,” he told Inside World Football.
In February 2015, a FIFA task force proposed a November–December staging of the European domestic football season in 2022. It’s a decision that has already been unpopular in football’s leading nations, with the subsequent coronavirus pandemic further complicating knock-on tensions in the calendar.
However, while the well-being of elite soccer players and officials roughshod over the fan experience is no small matter, there are far greater human concerns in the game when it comes to Qatar 2022.
🗣️ “Having this schedule, crazy World Cup. The players one eye is on the World Cup.”
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) November 9, 2022
Pep Guardiola has slammed the timing of the FIFA World Cup as players already have one eye on it during the domestic season. 😡 pic.twitter.com/Yx2C1qfSGW
Human rights in Qatar
A frequent argument in favor of awarding the World Cup to Qatar is now a global event of this scale could lead to greater openness and liberalization.
The fact similar missives were made around Russia, where Infantino concluded the 2018 tournament by being presented with a medal by Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, means they are justified in treating them with suspicion.
“Despite government reforms, migrant workers continue to face labor abuses and struggle to freely change jobs,” Amnesty International said in its report on Qatar last year.
The report added: “Women continued to face discrimination in law and practice. Under the guardianship system, women were bound to their male guardians, usually their fathers, brothers, grandfathers, or uncles, or to their husbands for married women.
“Women need their parents’ permission for major life decisions such as marrying, studying abroad on government scholarships, working in many government jobs, traveling abroad up to a certain age, and receiving certain types of reproductive health care.”
Qatar also retains the death penalty. In his pre-tournament press conference, Infantino reined in the notion of Western values that were apparently being used as a stick to beat his hosts.
“We have been told many lessons from many Europeans, from the Western world,” he told the assembled world press. “I think we Europeans have to apologize for the next 3,000 years before we start lecturing people for what we’ve been doing for the last 3,000 years.”
Such receptivity is unlikely to divert attention away from two key areas of concern and protest around Qatar 2022: migrant worker deaths and working conditions, and the rights of LGBTQ+ people.
Migrant worker dies in Qatar ahead of 2022 World Cup
Winning the World Cup for such a small nation with a vast lack of football infrastructure meant a massive stadium-building program. The means by which it has been achieved and its perceived cost have cast the darkest shadow over the World Cup.
According to Qatari government statistics, 37 workers died at the World Cup stadium construction site from 2014 to 2020. Only three of them were classified as construction-related. Infantino reported this figure to the European Parliament in January, although the official state line has been widely disputed.
However, a February 2021 Guardian report, citing records from national embassies, claimed that more than 6,500 workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka had died in Qatar by the time the Gulf nation was honored. World Cup hosting rights in 2010.
Other sources have suggested that the number of foreign worker deaths in Qatar is actually much higher, as that number includes only India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka – not countries like the Philippines and Kenya, which also have large numbers of workers. Migrant workers in the country.
Those deaths cannot be officially attributed to a specific project or sector of the Qatari construction industry, but they have occurred since the country won World Cup rights in 2010 and began a number of infrastructure projects to host the tournament – including stadiums, roads, hotels, a. A new airport and public transport system.
According to a report by the Guardian, many migrant workers died of stress such as heart attacks and strokes due to high temperatures throughout the year in Qatar.
There have also reportedly been many suicides, with some suggesting that difficult working conditions may be a factor in that toll. Of course, we will never know for sure. All of these causes of death are recorded as ‘natural causes, according to Amnesty International, which disputes the extent to which government reforms have been implemented to reduce abusive employment practices.
Qatar itself insists that reforms have been made to address such concerns, with officials stressing that the death toll of migrant workers is proportionate for a country of Qatar’s size.
“Mortality rates in these communities are within the expected range for the population size and demographics,” a Qatari government spokesman said in a statement. “However, every life lost is a tragedy, and our country will spare no effort to try to prevent every death.”
LGBTQ+ Rights in Qatar
According to Article 285 of the Penal Code of Qatar, consensual sexual intercourse between men aged 16 and above is punishable by imprisonment for up to seven years.
In October 2022, Human Rights Watch published an investigation into the Qatar Preventive Security Department, which operates under the Ministry of Interior.
The report claims the arrest of six Qatari LGBTQ+ individuals who were subjected to beatings, sexual harassment and other abuse while in custody. As part of the conditions of their release, transgender female detainees were, according to the report, required to attend conversion therapy sessions by government security forces.
A month later, as the build-up to the World Cup ramped up, Qatar World Cup ambassador Khalid Salman described homosexuality as “psychological damage” in an interview with German TV channel ZDF, before being gay was “haram”. As “forbidden” in Arabic.
Salman’s comments undermined the tournament chiefs’ efforts to present a picture of openness.
“We have a conservative country, but we are a welcoming country,” 2022 World Cup chief Nasser al-Khater said in 2020. “We’re going to be open and welcoming, hospitable. We understand the differences in people’s cultures. We understand the differences. People’s beliefs and so I think, again, everyone will be welcomed and everyone will be treated with respect.
“Just as our culture is the culture of this world, we also expect people to respect our culture. I think there is a balance and a sense that people will respect people from all over.”
One analysis of Infantino’s queer identity declarations is that his status and privilege allow him the luxury of being able to say, “Today, I feel gay” without fear of repercussions. Findings from Human Rights Watch and Qatar’s own penal code suggest such freedoms were not widespread at the most controversial World Cup in modern history.