- Nov 17, 2022
- 8 min read

Should you attend the Qatar FIFA 2022 World cup?

The Football world cup is the largest sporting event in the world. Football is a national sport in many countries, and it has become a huge industry that generates billions of dollars for the participating countries and hosting countries. FIFA, or Federation Internationale de Football Association, is an organization that runs the World Cup. FIFA has been criticized for its poor labor practices. And adding to that already present violation, FIFA is now hosted in a country where the human rights are non-existent.

In this article, we explore the controversy regarding the upcoming 2022 FIFA Qatar World cup. This topic is discussed in this website because it falls under the category of Blood Money.

The Goal of FIFA

The intention of FIFA is to internationalise football as a global sport. It does so by hosting the event in different countries and attracting the local population to the sport. (That is what they say.)

For some countries, hosting the FIFA world cup is considered prestigious. As a host of such an event, it put their country in a global spotlight. During the event, countries get to showcase their culture, heritage and their lifestyle. This inturn positively affects their tourism, trade, development, opportunities and their global recognition.

But for the past decade, FIFA has been severely subjected to scandal and corruption accusations.

Cost of hosting Qatar FIFA World Cup 2022

Securing a bid to host the World cup is a decade-long process. It involves many formalities and requirements that are to be fulfilled by the country that are willing to host the World Cup. For example, the stadiums hosting the opening ceremony and the finals must have a capacity of at least 80,000; while stadiums hosting the semifinals and quarter-finals must have a capacity of 60,000 and 40,000. Along with that, there must be a considerable investment from the host country's government on local infrastructure to support the sporting event. These are just some requirements.

Qatar spent over $229 Billion on FIFA 2022; $229 Billion is 4 times greater than the combined budget of all the FIFA World cup held since 1990. Thereby making it the most expensive FIFA Event ever to be held in the history of FIFA. This cost includes stadiums, renovations, transportation, accommodation arrangements and all the other necessary requirements for the event and for the reputation of Qatar.

Most countries that host events like these usually go bankrupt or may have a negative impact on the finance of the citizens of that country in the long term. If we look at the stadiums built in Brazil for FIFA 2014, it is currently being used as bus parking lots at night. The financial growth of Brazil was significantly impacted negatively when they hosted FIFA 2014 and Olympics 2016 within just 2 years. These nations overwhelmingly depend on the taxation of public, import/export taxes, and foreign investments.

The Real Cost of hosting Qatar FIFA World Cup 2022

The Middle-East as a whole is notorious for having poor human right records. This usually only applies to poor migrant workers, journalists, political dissidents and other "undesirable people belonging to a different community or religion".

The many famous organizations have red flagged Qatar multiple times for its violations; but with no remorse, Qatar still continues its human rights violations even today. Many migrant workers have lost their lives due to poor working environments, debts incurred due to salary backlogs, torture, and accidents. Most of the migrant workers travel to Qatar and other middle-eastern countries by paying their travel agents up to $4000 (By selling their farmlands and other ancestral properties).

The sad part of abuse is the Kafala System. The Kafala system is a labor system in Qatar. It is a sponsorship system that binds migrant workers to the employer who sponsored them. The system was introduced in the 1960s to control the flow of migrant workers and regulate their employment conditions. The kafala system has been criticized for not giving enough protection to migrant workers, especially those who are subject to exploitation by employers.

Moreover, if we look at the Middle East as a whole, from an Indian perspective, 10 Indians died every day in the last 6 years in the Middle East; and Qatar is one of those countries. If we look at it from a Financial perspective; for every $1 Billion remitted by migrant workers, 117 migrants workers die. Some reports even suggest 6,500 (to approximately 15,000) migrant workers have died in Qatar during the period of construction of the stadium. No one will ever never know the actual number of deaths that are directly associated with the construction of the stadiums and other amenities for FIFA 2022, due to the authoritative nature of the Qatar Government. This estimate is pre-pandemic. With the delay in the construction due to lockdowns and travel restriction, the new estimate on deaths maybe higher. Only time will tell. This is just the sad part of the entire story.

Now, if we look at the worst part; On June 5th, 2017, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorism. This accusation is largely based on Qatar’s ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas’s leader, Khaled Mashal. The Gulf States also accuse Qatar of funding terrorist groups in Syria and the Islamic State.

Expected Revenue

Qatar is expected to rake in billions of dollars from potential investors and creditors during the World cup; which is highly doubtful considering the lack of investor security in the Middle East and its biased court systems.

Hosting the FIFA world cup can also be considered as an attempt to transition Qatari Economy away from petroleum revenue. Qatar is desperately trying to mimic the growth of Dubai. Because, as the world is transitioning to sustainable fuel sources, the relevance and income of Qatar (and other middle eastern countries) will decrease.

1.1 Billion people watched the Brazil FIFA 2014 on their television screens. Therefore, the host countries can have the attention of a significant part of the human population for a just a few weeks. But the real success of the hosting nation depends on its ability to transform the attention of the viewers from the sports, after the event, into investing in their country.

Qatar is expected to generate a revenue of $17 billion. While, FIFA is expected to generate a revenue of $7 Billion. But the actual revenue may only be known after the World cup. This includes revenue generated from the tourism sector, transportation, etc.

The Reaction

Due to the discrepancies in the selection procedure of Qatar as the host for FIFA 2022 and the human right violations, many reactions can be seen on the social media. But the most noticeable ones are those reactions from the teams participating in the FIFA World cup.

The Danish football team, participating in FIFA 2022, is protesting against Qatar's human right violations by wearing black uniforms. They will also not bring any family members to minimize the potential profits for Qatar. Similarly, many teams and spectators are expected to wear rainbow colored wrist-bands in protest to the Qatar's judicial outlook to LGBTQ community.

This move is highly appreciated by the international community, as it does not hamper with the football players' once in a lifetime chance to portray their talent to the international audience; and, most importantly, to represent their home country.

The Reaction to the Reaction

The Qatari officials refuted all the accusations above as non-existent for a very long time. But since, as the proofs to the accusation began to surface, in 2013, Qatar announced plans to replace the kafala system with a new “free-visa” law that would allow laborers greater freedom of movement and access to legal protections. However, this new proposal has yet to be implemented, and many migrants still live under exploitative conditions.

Expecting protests in some part of the country and especially in the stadiums, Qatar has requested the Pakistan army for security support; and they have already arrived in Qatar.

With the respect to boycott from the international community and celebrities, Qatar has turned to influencers to promote Qatar FIFA 2022. This move has been seen as a desperation by the Qatari Government; it is sad and sickening to see a nation's Government desperately using TikTok influencers to advertise one of the world's largest sporting event and to whitewash Qatar's global image. This may be due to the fact that major news agencies and media corporations may have refused to advertise; due to the fears of repercussions from the public and human rights organization. Furthermore, these types of business practices are not new in the middle east. During property expo and other mega events that are held to attract investors, often paid actors and actresses are employed in large numbers to create fake interest in their projects in front of other people. (Psychological Manipulation)

The Great Grand Stupidity

Since the Qatar FIFA 2022 has not yet started, it will be unwise to predict the outcome. But the current situation of Qatar threatens its global outlook; which they had been trying to build silently for decades. With the world still trying to come out of the pandemic and a war raging in Europe, now may not be the time for games (for some people). Combined with the accusations of human rights violation and terror funding, it needs to be seen if Qatar is ever going to recover their investment.

Considering Qatar, their revenues comes mainly from the export of petroleum products. Therefore, this $229 Billion will just be a bad investment if it falls, but will serve as a reminder to take human lives seriously and mend their future actions. Anyway, the people who lost their lives will not be compensated. Meanwhile, we must also value the talent of the innocent football players that are participating. Therefore, most people, like always, will watch FIFA World cup 2022 via television or the internet.

If the Qatar FIFA 2022 becomes a flop, then it will be considered as a great grand stupidity of the Qatar government. Spending billions on an event only to get boycotted at the end; and only to tarnish the nation's global image at the expense of the citizens.

And also, it will be a great success for the people who take human rights seriously and a justice to the migrant workers who lost their lives in Qatar. It will also decrease the alleged terror financing.

If the opposite happens and Qatar FIFA 2022 becomes a grand success, then we have to accept the sad fact that greed and entertainment has taken precedence over human lives.

Should you attend the FIFA 2022 World Cup in Qatar? - If you are planning to attend (in-person) then you may be indirectly funding terror, human rights violation, and other horrendous crimes against humanity. But if you plan to attend FIFA online, then you can support your team at the comfort of your home.

The choice of whether to attend the Qatar FIFA 2022 is totally up to you. No one else can decide that for you.

Here, on this website, we do not keep a bias on any matter. Therefore, we cannot suggest or recommend any action to the readers. But always remember, whatever decision you make, you will have to live with its result for the rest of your lives.

NOTE: This article does not intend to malign or disrespect any person on gender, orientation, color, profession, or nationality. This article does not intend to cause fear or anxiety to its readers. Any personal resemblances are purely coincidental. All the information presented are supported by sources that you can find and verify. All pictures and GIFs shown are for illustration purpose only.

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