Since the World Cup, the campaign against Qatar has been strong. One of them was the death of 6500 migrant workers during the construction of the World Cup venues. Having survived the allegations, Qatar is making the most of its opportunity
The World Cup continues. As usual Kerala is in football fever. Even the rushers are rushing the status of every game. Huge cutouts of world-class players line the nooks and crannies. Football related tips are offered for just about anything. In recent days I have been in Calicut, where football was the most exciting moment. Therefore, there was no escape from football.
Whether it was at any political meeting, amid questions from reporters, in a welcoming speech in a debate with female college students, or in an interaction with lawyers from the Calicut Bar, the allusions to soccer kept flowing. But at any World Cup, the debate will extend beyond football. No change in the Qatar World Cup. Qatar is being questioned in world politics for many reasons.
Qatar has been vilified for human rights violations, neglect of sexual minorities (homosexuality is illegal in Qatar), treatment of migrant workers, and excessive use of hydrocarbons (Qatar is the world’s largest producer of liquefied natural gas). The Western media onslaught on this sparsely populated country has been there from the start: Since 2010, when they won the race to host the 2022 World Cup, the Western media has been heavily bombarded with a campaign to exclude them.
British newspaper The Guardian said 6,500 foreign migrant workers were killed during the construction of the World Cup venues. The slogan “6500 lives were sacrificed for 6750 minutes of football” was chanted for the moral exclusion of Qatar. The allegations of corruption and illegal money transfers have not been proven. Qatar denies allegations of deaths of 6,500 workers. They point out that this is the number of people who died in various camps over a five-year period. The Qatari government says just 38 people have died accidentally during World Cup-related construction work.
Most neighboring governments blamed the political stance on Qatar, which was given the chance to host the region’s first World Cup venue. The allegations include creating the Al Jazeera channel with a worldwide audience, facilitating the Taliban invasion of Afghanistan (the Taliban’s only international office is in Doha), and financing terrorists (ISIS receives money from the Qatar). The Gulf Cooperation Council has imposed economic and political sanctions on Qatar since 2017. It was withdrawn in 2021 through diplomatic moves.
Many people who oppose the World Cup venue for Qatar are speaking irresponsibly. They were joined by Sepp Blatter, the FIFA president at the time Qatar received its seat. He recently said that Qatar is a small country and football and the World Cup are not in their hands. However, current FIFA president Gianni Infantino mocked the hypocrisy of Western media in a lengthy press conference and supported Qatar. “I don’t need to defend Qatar, they will do it. I speak for football,” he said.
When players were reported to be wearing logos and headbands in support of sexual minorities, FIFA banned all such moves. Infantino wrote to all the teams asking them not to drag the tournament into controversy. “There are various political problems in the world. Football doesn’t exist in a vacuum. ‘Don’t drag football into ideological and political current affairs,’ he asked. Qatar has made a great effort to make the most of the opportunity.
They have spent 22000 crore to pave the way for the football mammoth. Seven gorgeous new stadiums, multi-storey highways, roads, new railway lines, hotels (even ships moored on the shores to provide temporary hotels), even outdoors, with expensive cooling systems for each stadium! After winning their World Cup bid, they bought French club PSG to increase their influence in world football.
Among the superstars, the Brazilian Neymar, the Argentine Lionel Messi and the French Kylian Mbappe have been signed for the club. Football historian David Goldblatt writes that no other country has yet made sport, and especially the World Cup, as central to its foreign diplomacy and economy as Qatar has. However, there is a dispute. Many host countries have used football to enhance their prestige on the world stage.
Uruguay, which hosted the first World Cup in 1930, is a very small country whose only reputation is football. “Other countries have their own history. ‘We have our own football’ is a famous local saying. Fascist Italy, which hosted the next two World Cups, used football for global prestige. Argentina, which was under the military government in 1978, and Russia’s Putin in 2018 did the same.
Eric Hobsbawm, a British historian, once said: What is so special about football about consolidating national sentiment? Hundreds of thousands of strangers together form a team behind football, rather than 11 players with proper names. My son Ishan Tharoor, World Cup commentator for The Washington Post, adds: Soccer is more of a global game than any other sport. A milestone to bring people together. These 11 players embody the nation’s thirst for success and fear of defeat.
tail piece
British betting company BetVictor has built a supercomputer that examines each team’s talent, history and odds and uses an algorithm to predict the winner. His prediction is that the Brazil-Belgium final will come and Brazil will be the champions.
But before we uncork bottles of champagne in Brasilia and raise yellow flags on the coast of Kerala, a word of warning: even supercomputers aren’t entirely flawless. This algorithm could not predict the resounding victory of Saudi Arabia over Argentina! It is from such beautiful uncertainties that true sportsmanship is born. No supercomputer can be created to predict this.
English summary: Qatar hosts the World Cup amid various controversies and criticisms
