When the soccer match between Qatar and Ecuador gets underway on Sunday afternoon, it marks the beginning of a championship that was never meant to take place in the desert country. We know later
the lion’s share of the 24 older men
who awarded the championship to Qatar way back in 2010, have been jailed or suspended in various contexts for corruption.
Qatar has been awarded the world’s biggest sporting event after widespread corruption.
Photo: Nina Hansen
In the wake of this scandalous award, human rights organizations and international media such as the British
The Guardian discovered human rights violations, exploitation of migrant workers, dead
broken promises and even more corruption in Qatar.
Some of our readers have called for a boycott of the championship. That they don’t want to see TV broadcasts from Qatar, or that a boycott is the way to go. These are legitimate opinions.
These are also the opinions of all those who are now eager to see the best footballers in the world compete for the title of best in the world. Or those who believe that the mention of the dark sides of Qatar has contributed to the improvement and will continue to contribute to the improvement of the conditions of women, homosexuals, migrant workers and other minorities in the country.
Dagbladet aims to cover all aspects of this league, as we have done extensively since 2015.
Seven years ago, Dagbladet was among the very first in the world to visit the victims of the construction scandals in Qatar.
We visited families in Nepal who had lost their fathers and husbands in work accidents
And
we documented the exploitation of these migrant workers
at the toilets from which we will now watch football.
The ‘Football Scandal’ series of articles has shocked Norway and led, among other things, to requests from then football president Yngve Hallèn Qatar would lose the championship if things didn’t change.
There is little indication that these changes have occurred. However, both the Dagbladet and the critical journalism of others have put enormous pressure on both the Qatari authorities and the international football federation, FIFA.
Never before has a football World Cup been exposed to more critical journalism than now. And we at Dagbladet will continue like this throughout the championship.
A soccer World Cup is an international mega-event in itself. We can’t pretend it’s not happening and we can’t give up on the sporting side of the championship.
Dagbladet will cover WC in Qatar in the usual way in all Dagbladet surfaces and channels. We will have a world cup studio on dbtv, live coverage during all matches, match questions, reactions, yes everything that usually goes with a soccer world cup.
And then we’ll have the other stories. The story of how Qatar spent an infinite amount of money to buy this league but also significant influence in international football through ownership of Paris Saint-Germain and big sponsorship deals with other top European clubs.
We will be telling the stories of many of the World Cup survivors and victims and asking the critical questions of FIFA on the ground in Qatar. In short, we will give you more journalism about and around a World Cup than ever before.
You can read all of Dagbladet’s Qatar WC stories here.
