December 10, 2010 is probably a date that won’t initially stir emotions in any football fan. It should.
For it was the day that the hosting rights for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups were awarded to Russia and Qatar, and the day that football’s dark underbelly could no longer be hidden.
There had been whispers and allegations of corruption surrounding the awarding of hosting rights for previous editions of the tournament. Germany’s successful bid for the 2006 edition was notable for bribes made to Oceania delegate Charlie Dempsey, who eventually abstained from voting allowing Germany to win.
But this was different.
Two countries that were considered outsiders in the race had just won the rights to host the most prestigious sporting event in the world. Russia beat out football-mad countries like England, the Netherlands, and Spain, while Qatar had shocked powerful and emerging football nations like the USA, Japan, and Australia.
Whilst FIFA President at the time Sepp Blatter claimed that the desire to “go to new lands” had inspired the votes, it was clear to many observers that something foul was afoot. And so it turned out to be. Of the 24 people set to vote, two were barred from voting, and 10 were either indicted by authorities or banned from participating in footballing activities due to corruption, including Blatter himself, who was banned for eight years by the FIFA Ethics Committee.
Also of great concern were the motives of Russia and Qatar themselves. Both have been accused of using the sport of football as an insidious attempt at ‘sportswashing’, where a country uses events such as the FIFA World Cup to improve their reputations that had been besmirched by questionable human rights records and a lack of freedoms.
Yet despite all these glaring question marks and murky undertones, nothing changed. FIFA continued to support both tournaments, and the 2018 World Cup went ahead. The opening game between Russia and Saudi Arabia took place in the grand Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow at the same time as 800 kilometres to the south, Russian forces continued to wage war in Eastern Ukraine.
And the sad reality is that in the Russian sunshine, many forgot about Putin’s war, Putin’s autocracy and Putin’s World Cup, and instead marvelled at Croatia’s fairytale run to the final and Kylian Mbappe leading the French to ultimate glory.
Frankly, there are too many reasons as to why the World Cup should not take place in Qatar. From the allegations of the use of slave labour to build the stadiums, hotels and other infrastructure for the tournament, to the potential treatment of LGBTQ+ fans in a country where homosexuality is prohibited under domestic law, to the fact that the entire European football calendar has to be adjusted to accomodate a ‘winter’ World Cup, as it is too hot to play in Qatar in the normal June-July window.
Along with the fact that Qatar is using the World Cup as the centrepiece of its aforementioned sportswashing, it’s enough to make any football fan sick to the stomach.
Much of this is not new information, in fact the stories of the abhorrent conditions faced by those building the stadiums has been documented in outstanding journalism by The Guardian, The Athletic and the BBC to name a few.
Most alarming is the ‘Kafala system’ in place in the country, where migrant workers are ‘sponsored’ by their employer within the country, leaving them with few rights and the risk of being deported without appeal. The Guardian also reported that up to 6,500 migrant workers have died working on infrastructure projects related to the Qatar World Cup.
Officials deny this claim and also state that many changes have been made, including a rise in the minimum wage and the ‘abolition’ of the Kafala system. However, human rights organisations including Amnesty International believe these changes are cosmetic, and that abuse of workers is still ongoing.
Less than a month out from the opening game, players, fans and journalists are going to have to make difficult moral choices on how they view and cover the World Cup.
Whilst some have called for countries to actively boycott the World Cup, it appears that nothing of the sort will happen. The only country participating to actively address the issues is Australia, who recently released a video where some of the players acknowledged the issues of the treatment of workers and the rights of LGBTQ+ fans.
This is a highly positive move and one that should be applauded, but some sections of social media have criticised it for ‘virtue signalling’ and claiming that by going to the World Cup they are simply enabling Qatar’s actions.
This is the moral dilemma that faces the players, for which this tournament may be their last chance to play in or win a World Cup.
The situation is the same for fans and journalists. For fans, should they boycott watching the tournament, even if, like Wales, it is their first time participating for 64 years? Should journalists do the same so the tournament doesn’t get the coverage it craves? Or should they still go and report on it, but make sure they consistently point out the treatment of migrant workers so their sacrifice hasn’t been in vain?
In truth, there is no ‘right’ answer, everyone has a different line in the sand, a different view on how best to support the players whose life’s dream is being realised as well as supporting those who have suffered. As a result, our coping mechanism is simply to try and ignore it the best we can. We instead envelop ourselves in the week-to-week fortunes of our clubs, or despair when our national team coach refuses to cap bright youngsters.
We have been ignoring it because to face the music is to accept and understand that money, power and greed has corrupted the game we hold dear. As much as football is meant to be an escape from the trials and tribulations of life and the world, when a sport is truly global, it is impossible to separate it from the twisted nature of global politics.
Whilst it may be comforting to think that this all started on that fateful December night, it had been festering and growing beneath the soil for years, and that was the day that FIFA couldn’t contain it any longer.
Image Credit: PHILIPPE DESMAZES/AFP via Getty Images
