Alberto Lati is a Mexican journalist and writer, author of five books. He works for the Fox Sports and Claro Sports networks. He is a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador.
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The Latin American soccer teams arrive at their worst moment in history at a World Cup that will be played in a country that is trying to have a certain level of opening for the November tournament.
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Sportswashing It is the term that best allows us to understand the cleansing or makeup of the restrictive policies of a regime through sport.
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Very comfortable under the apolitical flag that flies or stops waving as it suits it, the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) has sailed without committing itself to primordial causes. A mega sporting event can unleash changes like the 1988 Seoul Olympics —medullary to end the dictatorship in South Korea—, but at the same time they legitimize what cannot be legitimized.
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In this context, 32 teams will play for a glory that throughout almost 100 years of World Cup history has only conquered an elite made up of eight teams.
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Until before the current streak of four consecutive tournaments won by Europeans, the worst for Latin America had been two editions in a row without a South American champion between 1934 and 1938.
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Argentina is presented as the greatest winning candidate in the hemisphere, with a great chemistry converging around Lionel Messi and with the relief that being crowned in the last Copa América represented.
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Not too far away should be placed a Brazil recharged by new values such as the Real Madrid players Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo Goes, plus the pending consecration of Neymar. Behind comes the Uruguayan team with a generational change, led by Federico Valverde and Darwin Núñez.
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But in the next ranking Mexico emerges with its national team and the obsession of a fifth game that could not be, but also the anguish of not even reaching the round of 16 (it is the only team, next to Brazil, that has always reached to that round since 1994).
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Ecuador should not be underestimated, who were able to qualify serenely in a difficult area like South America; nor to Costa Rica, which came back splendidly from its poor qualifying start.
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This World Cup is being played in a volatile region in which, just by referring to its main point of exchange and connection, the Persian Gulf or Arab Gulf, we are already on the precipice of a declaration of war.
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In the West we have become accustomed to calling it the Persian Gulf —a term that comes from the ancient Persians, led by kings such as Darius or Cyrus the Great— but it is a name rejected by most Arabic-speaking countries (Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia , Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates), since only Iran is Persian.
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This story was already seen in 2009 when the Islamic Solidarity Games, which would take place in Iran, were canceled because several delegations opposed the reference to the Persian Gulf in the documents and speeches of the contest. Tremendous paradox: the event that athletically claimed solidarity among all Muslims, was aborted due to the impossibility of even admitting that each one call that portion of salt water whatever they want.
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So during Qatar 2022 we will get tired of hearing allusions to the Arab Gulf… unless Qatar decides to risk a new blockade from its neighbors, like the one it had in 2017, in part because of its proximity to the only Persian and Shia Muslim country in the region. , Iran.
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At that time, Saudi Arabia, the highest Sunni power and always on the warpath against the Iranians, even threatened to open a canal to the east of its territory to transform the Qatar peninsula into an island and this crisis influenced the World Cup. since FIFA’s intention was to increase the capacity of the competition from 32 to 48 participating teams without waiting until 2026.
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In the mind of Gianni Infantino, president of the organization, the idea that Qatar gave games to the emirates of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, some even to the Saudi capital, Riyadh, bounced. Impossible in the face of such a crisis.
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If FIFA does not change anything, apart from its willingness to sacrifice everything at the cost of raising income, it is in its reluctance to read a little about geopolitics.
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This insatiable thirst for money has made FIFA, both before with Joseph Blatter and now with Infantino, lobby for the possibility of organizing a World Cup every two years. Or tripling its participants in less than half a century (even in Argentina in 1978 they qualified 16 and by 2026 there will be 48): quantity to the detriment of quality. In case it was missing, the venues are already awarded almost by auction to the highest bidder and not necessarily to the best candidate.
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On the other hand, it is worth mentioning that Qatar, with everything pending that it may have in terms of human rights, women’s rights, labor rights and guarantees for the LGBTQ+ community, is attempting a certain level of openness at this juncture.
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The employment system Kefalawhich allowed for outright mistreatment of immigrants and a ban on their changing jobs or leaving the country whenever they wanted, has been relaxed (in the Bin Jelmood museum, which deals with slavery in the emirate, I was surprised to find a section admitting the ills propitiated by that scheme).
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Women are increasingly playing a more active role in their society, spearheaded above all by efforts promoted by the current emir’s mother, Sheikh Moza bint Nasser. There is tolerance towards other faiths, whether they are different branches of Islam or completely different religions.
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The most worrying point continues to be in relation to the LGBTQ+ group. Months ago, Abdulaziz al-Ansari, the Qatari interior minister, assured that people shawaz in his country. Shawaz It is a very pejorative term, translatable as “abnormal” or “rare”, which again raised concern. The politician complemented by saying that Qatar will not change for a World Cup or for 28 days.
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Some level of democracy arrived in 2021 with the first election in the country for the Assembly o Shurawhich does not mean either that Qatar is going to stop being an absolute monarchy or that the emir is going to assume a symbolic role like that of the English queen.
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Going up and down, as if we were moving between dunes overlooking the Gulf with a controversial name, we are approaching the no less controversial World Cup.
