Download Qatar 2022 world cup and more Essays (university) Journalism in PDF only on Docsity!
Alejandro Ferrero
LENG 112-
Dr. Clark
31/04/
Qatar Is Not the Right Place to Host a World Cup On December 2nd of 2010, Qatar was chosen by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) committee to host the 2022 World Cup. This World Cup will be held in a country where the average temperatures during the summer are above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, which forced FIFA to move the tournament to colder months. So, for the first time in history, this event will be held during the winter. This has caused a quite disturbance in the world of soccer because hundreds of games in countless leagues around the world will have to be rescheduled. This will result in a great loss of money for broadcasters and TV networks. But this is actually just the “tip of the iceberg”; some serious violations of human rights have happened and continue to happen in Qatar. With this being said, I believe that The 2022 World Cup should not be held in Qatar since it will only bring good things to Qatar but as for the rest of the world, it will basically just bring problems.
According to the leagues, having the World Cup played during winter will drastically affect northern-hemisphere league games: “FIFA has confirmed the 2022 World Cup will be held in November and December, a move which will disrupt as many as 700 domestic league and cup games across Europe and the United States” (“Qatar 2022”). The European Club Association (ECA) in conjunction with the European Professional Football
Leagues (EPFL), presented a proposal asking FIFA to push forward the tournament and play it between May 5 and June 4 rather than in the winter. This proposal shows that playing the World Cup between May and June will not put the health of players, supporters and officials at risk:
“In May the average temperature in Qatar as of 6 p.m. local time is between 30 to 35 degrees Celsius [source: Meteosuisse] and the WBGT index would be 'green' [moderate] for most World Cup games. In worst case, games would be played in circumstances similar to some cities in Brazil during the 2014 World Cup [Fortaleza, Manaus] and still better than some games played at the World Cups in Mexico [1986] and the USA [1994]” (qtd. in “Clubs push for May kick-off”).
However, FIFA declined this proposal and therefore the biggest leagues in Europe (Premier League, La Liga, Il Calcio, Bundesliga, Ligue1) as well as most important European competitions such as Champions League and Europa League and Major League Soccer in the United States will have to figure out how to reschedule the affected games. UEFA Competitions, English and French domestic competitions, with 146, 157 and 120 affected games respectively, are among the most extreme cases that will produce this match rescheduling. Everyone, including FIFA, knew before Qatar was chosen to host the World Cup that the temperatures in this country during summer are too hot to play soccer – and probably any sport other than aquatic sports. If FIFA wanted to promote soccer in a country where soccer is not the biggest sport, it could have chosen any of the other countries that received bids for the 2022 FIFA World Cup (United States, South Korea, Japan, Australia), which indeed would have been a much better option to hold this kind of event in terms of weather conditions. This is why it is hard to understand why Qatar was selected to hold this
especially from Nepal, India, Pakistan and Philippines, in order to build stadiums and the necessary infrastructures so they can host such a huge event. Once these people are in Qatar, their rights as workers and also as human beings are taken away from them due to “kafala”, Qatar’s workers’ rights policy. “All of these abuses are possible because of the nation’s kafala employement system, which has been aptly described as modern-day slavery. Trough kafala , employers are allowed to confiscate a migrant’s passport and withhold exit visas, effectively preventing that person from leaving the country” (Stahl). Without any hope of escaping from Qatar, these workers are forced to work under deplorable labor conditions and inhuman living conditions as well. The effects of this woeful situation are continuous diseases among the workers and “Hundreds of worker deaths, many apparently from cardiac arrests” (“Human Rights Groups”). Sharan Burrow, the general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, said that, “at current rates 4,000 people will die to make the 2022 World Cup a reality” (qtd. in “The Qatar World Cup”). Based on an ITUC report, Jeremy Stahl said that, “1,200 migrants have already died in the four years since the tiny, oil-rich Gulf State was awarded the World Cup.” All of this obligated FIFA to ask Qatar’s government and World Cup Committee to stop this sad and intolerable situation. However, very little or nothing has been done since then to change the current situation in Qatar. What it is even more shocking is that FIFA’s President, Sepp Blatter, “does not believe his governing body is responsible for the welfare of migrant workers building World Cup stadiums in Qatar” (“‘FIFA not responsible”). Blatter also clarified any doubt about a possible World Cup hosting switch by saying that, “there is not one single doubt that the World Cup will be organized in Qatar.” (qtd. in The Qatar World Cup Is a Human Rights Catastrophe). Surprisingly, the problems do not end here. The World Cup is supposed to be a worldwide tournament which everyone should feel
free to go to. However, Qatar has very strict laws against homosexuality and supporters, tourists, and even players, are likely to be arrested whether they show their sexual preferences or they admit to be homosexual. FIFA said it was not such a big deal and just advised homosexuals to refrain from sexual intercourse while in Qatar. Yet Robbie Rogers, a former U.S. national team player and the first male athlete in a major U.S. professional team sport to come out as gay, thinks the opposite: “If you look at the next few World Cups they are in places where, if I were to go, I would possibly be imprisoned or beat up. It is pretty ridiculous” (qtd. in “So many things wrong”). So, taking a quick glance at Human Rights violations, Qatar is not only not meeting the minimum requirements to host a World Cup, but it is looking like a country where slavery and homophobia are completely allowed.
In conclusion, a FIFA World Cup is the most global sporting event in the world, along with the Olympic Games, and it should be a reason for players, fans and people in general to be excited, not dreading it to come. Other than the aforementioned problems that it will cause to the leagues, players, broadcasters and stakeholders in general hosting this World Cup in the winter, the most important reason why Qatar should not hold this event is because does not matter whether you are a soccer fan or not, what it matters is that we are all human beings and we should not allow what is happening and will continue to happen in Qatar; Dead workers and the violation of Human Rights are both unacceptable. There are still seven years left for this World Cup to start, which means that another country that already has some stadiums could prepare to host this event. Sadly, based on what FIFA and its President Sepp Blatter have said, it looks like this is not going to happen. So go ahead, FIFA, play the games in the winter. You still won't be able to avoid the heat.
