Qatar Hosting The FIFA Men’s World Cup Comes With Controversy For Sponsors, Players And Fans

After the Olympic games there is no bigger global sporting event than the quadrennial FIFA Men’s World Cup. The four-week 64-game soccer tournament kicks off on Sunday November 20 from Qatar. FIFA, the governing body of the World Cup, estimates that globally five billion people will tune in. Compared to the estimated 3.5 billion that tuned into the 2018 games with 1.1 billion watching the final match between France and Croatia. In the United States Fox will provide live English language coverage and Telemundo will provide live coverage in Spanish.

Similar to the 2022 Winter Olympics from China, Qatar hosting the World Cup comes with controversy. Starting with the selection as host nation. Also, there are concerns about human rights abuses in building the infrastructure to host the World Cup. Additionally, there are strict laws prohibiting homosexuality. As with the Beijing Olympics, sponsors will be walking a fine line around these controversies.

The selection of Qatar raised eyebrows. The nation is smaller in area than Connecticut with a population of under three million, making it the smallest nation to host the World Cup. Also, Qatar is not a soccer powerhouse having never fielded a World Cup team in the 21 previous tournaments (as host nation they qualify for the 2022 tournament). Another issue was the climate, typically the World Cup is played in the summer however, Qatar, a desert nation, has an average high temperature of a humid 108 degrees Fahrenheit in July. As a result, FIFA, in a first, moved the tournament to the late fall when the average high in Qatar is 85 degrees. Qatar is also the first Middle East nation to host either the World Cup or Olympics.

In December 2010 FIFA selected Russia and Qatar as hosts of the Men’s World Cup for 2018 and 2022 respectively. It had long been suspected representatives of both nations had bribed FIFA voting members. Russia was selected over bids from England and joint bids from Netherlands-Belgium and Spain-Portugal. In a runoff vote Qatar was picked over the United States with Australia, Japan and South Korea also entering bids.

In 2014 with accusations of corruption swirling around FIFA, an investigation opened into possible fraud and money laundering. The investigation was strongly endorsed by several global FIFA sponsors including Sony, Adidas, Coca-ColaKO
, Visa, Hyundai and BP. At the time a spokesperson for long-time sponsor Adidas said, “The negative tenor of the public debate around FIFA at the moment is neither good for football nor for FIFA and its partners.” Also, a spokesperson from Coca-Cola said, “We are confident that FIFA is taking these allegations very seriously and is investigating them thoroughly through the Investigatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee.”

The investigation led to several indictments as senior FIFA members admitted to accepting bribes. Since then, well over half of FIFA’s executive management have been replaced. Sepp Blatter, then the President of FIFA, who had overseen the bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup, was banned from soccer for life along with other senior FIFA executives.

With little infrastructure to host the 32 soccer teams and over one million visitors expected over the four weeks; Qatar has invested $220 billion in building seven new stadiums (all no more than 50 miles apart), 100 new hotels, roads, a new metro system linking the stadiums, a new airport to handle the expected 1,300 daily flights, hospitality centers and shopping malls among other facilities. In contrast, Russia shelled out $11.6 billion to host the 2018 World Cup.

To build the infrastructure, Qatar employed a reported 30,000 laborers with most coming from such South Asian countries as Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and the Philippines. The controversy became the treatment the migrant laborers received. This came to the attention of several prominent human rights organizations.

In 2016 Amnesty International claimed migrant workers were having their salaries withheld, forced to pay recruitment fees, had their passports taken away and lived in filthy conditions. In response Qatar in 2017 issued laws to protect migrants from working in oppressive heat, they cut back on the number of hours working and improved living conditions.

In 2021 the Human Rights Watch said migrant workers were still having their wages withheld or reduced and were still working long and grueling hours. Other human rights organizations including the UN’s International Labor Organization (ILO) as well as media companies and trade unions also brought attention to squalid conditions of migrant workers.

In July 2020 several human rights organizations approached 14 FIFA sponsors and asked them to pressure FIFA to improve the working conditions of laborers. Four of them responded; AB InBev/Budweiser, Adidas, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s.

In a statement AB InBev/Budweiser said, “We support access to procedures that can achieve fair remedies to migrant workers who have been negatively affected.” A McDonald’s statement read, “We will continue working with FIFA, human rights experts, and the other sponsors to help spur positive change on human rights, including supporting processes that facilitate access to remedy, both around the tournament and the communities we serve.”

In February 2021 The Guardian reported that 6.500 migrant workers had died since Qatar was awarded the World Cup. It is a figure Qatar disputes. The Qatari government has issued further labor reform laws and a spokesperson noted hosting the World Cup has sped up reforms.

Last month Amnesty International released the findings of a YouGov survey which found nearly three-quarters of respondents believe FIFA should allocate some of the World Cup revenue to pay the migrant workers. Support was higher among World Cup viewers (84%). The poll was conducted among 17,000 respondents across 15 nations.

Qatar regards homosexuality as illicit behavior which could result in up to three years in jail, although the host nation says, “all visitors will be welcome”. Qatar though warned against any public displays of affection. Chairman of Qatar’s National Committee General Al Ansari stated rainbow flags may be prohibited during the World Cup. Joyce Cook, a FIFA Officer, told the Associated Press that “rainbow flags, T-shirts will be welcome in the stadium.”

There are other restrictions including public drinking, there will be designated drinking areas for World Cup ticket holders before and after (but not during) each game. Also, skin revealing such as thighs and shoulders are illegal.

Several soccer squads playing the World Cup including Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark have been wearing warm-up jerseys advocating for changes in Qatar’s human rights policies. The message worn by the Danes and Dutch was “football supports change”.

Before failing to qualify the Norwegian squad had been debating whether they should boycott the World Cup. In addition, players on the German soccer team in their qualifying match with Iceland spelled out “human rights” on their shirts. On the topic of human rights England’s head coach Gareth Southgate said, “It would be horrible to think some of our fans feel they can’t go because they feel threatened or worried about their safety.”

Nonetheless while sponsors are wary about Qatar hosting the World Cup, there are marketing positives. In the U.S. the fan base is young, passionate and diverse. Soccer is also growing in popularity, the MLS just set a new attendance record. After failing to qualify in 2018, the U.S. will be among the 32 nations competing helping to spike viewer interest. Also, this year, the World Cup falls in the middle of the busiest shopping season. The games coincide with Black Friday (the U.S. plays England on that day), Cyber Monday with the championship game scheduled for December 18.

A survey from Morning Consult released earlier this year found, 41% of U.S. soccer fans support companies sponsoring the World Cup compared to 19% that don’t. Despite sponsor support however, most soccer fans said they would support advertisers that pulled out over all the controversies.