Qatar World Cup Comes With Human Rights Abuses And Controversy

When Qatar won the bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, all the way back in 2010, it was clear what the tiny nation was trying to achieve. Hosting arguably the biggest sporting event in the world would put them on the map, show off their culture and oiled-fuelled riches, while simultaneously making their authoritarian and repressive regime come off as a model government.

There was nothing novel in this approach. Sportswashing is nothing new for FIFA — Benito Mussolini hosted the 1934 World Cup in an attempt to showcase the merits of Fascist Italy to the world while in 1978, the tournament was a tool to garner legitimacy for the military junta in Argentina. In the same ceremony that gave Qatar the rights to the 2022 event, another autocrat of questionable morality won the rights to the 2018 event for his country. FIFA clearly has no problems getting into bed with authoritarian regimes.

ADVERTISEMENT

However, with just days left for the quadrennial showpiece, there are serious doubts as to the effectiveness of the washing part of Qatar’s sportswashing strategy. If they hoped the World Cup would cast them in a positive light, they could not have been more wrong. Mere hours after their winning bid, the discussion turned to corruption within FIFA and who Qatar had to bribe for the right to host the Cup. Then, as the tournament drew near, attention focussed on Qatar’s questionable human rights record, their treatment of migrant workers and their institutionalization of homophobia. Instead of washing themselves clean, Qatar’s ruling regime was coming off looking dirtier than ever before.

The outrage over these issues intensified in the run-up to the World Cup. Danish apparel makers Hummel announced that they would be featuring a faded logo on the Denmark national team to protest human rights violations in Qatar. Captains of multiple teams, including Harry Kane of England, announced their decision to wear rainbow-coloured armbands to protest the Qatari treatment of the LGBTQ community. A German minister openly questioned whether Qatar should even host the tournament. The Australian football team released a video condemning human rights abuses in the gulf nation. The city of Barcelona announced that there would be no public screenings of World Cup matches. Fans at Borussia Dortmund games held up banners calling for a boycott of the tournament. Every day has seemed to bring a new protest against Qatar’s ruling regime.

The Qataris responded with a poorly thought-out PR drive of their own, attempting to portray the attacks on them as attacks on Arabs as a whole. This did little to take the focus away from their failings.

ADVERTISEMENT

The tragedy however remains that between the superficial protests mounted by governments and teams, and the counter PR drives launched by Qatar, the problems continue to go unaddressed, notably the numerous migrant workers who died constructing World Cup stadiums. A number of international media outlets tracked down the family of these workers from Asia and Africa. In all their stories, there was one overarching theme — no compensation had been paid to these families. While the kind of superficial protests and symbolic gestures do focus attention on the issues, they do little in terms of solving them. The protesters get their brownie points while Qatar’s ruling regime pays their PR agencies a small fortune to deflect criticism. Caught in the middle, the families of the deceased workers suffer in silence.