Qatar - The World Cup of shame: Sports washing as a threat to sports

(Credits to teh artist for the cartoon / sketch)

Sportswashing is not a new term. In fact, instances of it date back decades ago. The most famous case, is that the Summer Olympics held in 1936 by Nazi Germany.

Collins dictionary describes sportswashing as "the sponsorship or promotion of sporting events in order to enhance a tarnished reputation or distract attention from a controversial activity". This is all too relevant with the football World Cup held in Qatar that starts tomorrow.

From the decision making process within FIFA that awarded the World Cup to Qatar till the games kick of tomorrow a plethora of events have taken place that should have put the international football body and the host country to shame have taken place.

First the selection of Qatar as hosts of the 2022 World Cup by FIFA's executive committee was proved to be riled with corruption. Out of all the members of the executive committee that served in 2009, when the WC was awarded to Qatar no one holds the same post anymore as a dozen of them were arrested by the FBI for taking millions of dollars in bribes, while others were barred from football activities. Even Sep Blatter, the head of FIFA and Michel Platini the head of UEFA were ousted from the football organization body due to corruption charges. Fans were exposed to what many nowadays call "FIFA Mafia".

Qatar was a small desert country with no stadiums, no accomodations, and football culture, and no infrastructure to host such an event. But it was unfathomably rich. This made it easy to pour inconceivable resources to create that infrastructure in what was deemed a nation building project costing $ 220 billion that would revamp the country

The stadiums and the infrastructure were built with the blood of poor migrant workers from Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Pakistan mainly. More than 6500 workers died in the process from exhaustion and the heat as reported by different human rights organizations including Amnesty and the UN Human Rights Watch that describe the working conditions of modern day slavery.

The World Cup was moved to November - December instead of June because the desert climate and temperatures up to 50 degrees Celsius made it impossible to play during the June - July time window that most national leagues are in recess. Yet, the workers were forced to work in those temperatures and Qatar continues do deny the deaths and any wrongdoing.

Football is supposed to be inclusive and for all. Yet being an LGBT+ person in Qatar is illegal and can result in a person ending up in jail, or worse. Human rights, including those of women are suppressed everyday. How do we reconcile with this? Should we allow illiberal regimes run by autocrat oil rich sheikhs who would silence or buy out everyone who gets in their way go unopposed?

Qatar promised that everything will be ready and no rights will be infringed. Nevertheless, two days before the first whistle for the opening game between the host country and Ecuador in announced that some new prohibitions were set in place such as a ban on alcohol in stadiums (apart from VIP designated zones for some hours), a ban on LGBT+ people (although when the competition was awarded to Qatar it promised to tolerate and respect their rights), no public affection, s strict Islamic abiding dress code, and etc.

The fans have been lukewarm in the idea of going to Qatar for the World Cup forcing the local authorities to hire underpaid migrant workers (which make 85% of the population) and parade them in the streets with the football jerseys of different national teams. The fake Brasil, Argentina, Germany were ridiculed online.

The accommodation isn't any better. Some of the accommodation in the fan zone is literal tents in public squares where people who have paid thousands of dollars to watch the games will be forced to stay. This gives a bit vibes of the infamous Fyre Festival. Since the hotels were not built in time other fans (the luckiest) will be staying in cruise ships that are being rented as accommodation units and anchored at the country's ports. If not that lucky, they are asked to seek accommodation in one of the nearby countries and fly to Doha for the games.

In a global interconnected world where information is readily available and easily accessible a lot of fans have made the conscious decision to boycott this World Cup. Football players, artists, celebrities, FIFA and the elites will all be there celebrating a sham built on the back of underpaid slave laborers who paid with their lives.

We support football because it unites us. We support the football that is played in squares, playground, and pitches by all ages with passion and smile. A romantic football.