Written By: Ashiyana Ahamed
Edited by: Julianna Margolin
The 2022 FIFA, or Fédération Internationale de Football Association, Men’s World Cup has faced scrutiny regarding whether its host country, Qatar, was the best fit for this year’s tournament. The treatment of migrant workers from various South Asian countries and Qatar’s stance on women’s rights & LGBTQ+ rights have been called into question, along with FIFA’s selection process of Qatar. FIFA itself had a significant corruption scandal in 2015 and seems still inundated with corruption. As the tournament is set to continue well into December, it is worth exploring the controversies surrounding this year’s World Cup & FIFA as an organization.
Qatar was deemed the host of the 2022 World Cup in 2010 and faced many challenges. FIFA originally stated that Qatar was unfit to host the World Cup due to the “lack of existing infrastructure” and the heat potentially being hazardous to players. The reports from FIFA labeled Qatar’s bid as “‘high risk,’” but Qatar could still win the bid with 14 votes. Qatar was the first country in the Middle East to be selected to host the tournament back in 2010, and then-FIFA President Sepp Blatter was excited about the World Cup “going to ‘new lands.’” However, Blatter has since stated that choosing Qatar was a mistake. Since 2012, FIFA has supposedly amended the selection process to consider human rights and other “‘social considerations.’”
Along with Qatar’s dubious fitness to be selected from FIFA’s perspective, there have also been allegations of corruption leading to the positive vote in the first place. In March 2020, the US Department of Justice alleged that in electing Russia and Qatar to hold the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, top officials were bribed to vote in favor of those chosen countries. However, both Russian & Qatari officials have repeatedly denied these claims. Still, in 2019, it was uncovered that officials who were bribed for votes were listed openly in an official FIFA document. It is also important to note that more than half of the voters in the 2010 election were later “accused of, or charged with, corruption,” including those that received bribes.
Corruption has shadowed much of the 2022 World Cup, but the maltreatment of migrant workers has also been taking center stage. Back in 2010, Qatar only had one major stadium in the only major city in the country, Doha. Over the last 12 years, Qatar has significantly sized up its stadium capacity, with seven new stadiums built before the tournament and other infrastructure projects. 95% of Qatar’s workforce is made up of migrant workers predominantly from the Philippines, India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh, who have had to deal with insufficient wages, forced labor, and long hours. These workers are also not allowed to leave the country due to Qatar’s sponsorship system known as kafala. The kafala is designed to create cheap labor but comes with significant concerns about the condition of migrant workers. This system allows individuals or employers to employ workers from abroad. The sponsor would then be responsible for providing housing and covering travel expenses. Some sponsors also use private agencies to hire workers, and the country’s labor laws do not regulate this system. As a result, there is significant vulnerability for these foreign workers, primarily because employers have complete control over the workers’ visas, creating an unfair power imbalance. Regarding the World Cup, this system’s unethical practices have only been exacerbated by Qatar. A report by Amnesty International stated that nearly 70% of migrant worker deaths were “classified imprecisely” and declared natural deaths when the working conditions clearly played a significant role. Qatar has attempted to mitigate the issue by introducing labor reform laws, but they have proven inadequate in addressing more significant systemic problems.
Qatar’s questionable actions should not come as a surprise since FIFA has been embroiled in several scandals long before the 2022 tournament. The organization's design is built on “a culture of corruption.” A small body of 24 officials, referred to as the Executive Committee, or ExCo, decides who gets to host the tournament. Originally it was a vote by all member countries, but this was changed in 1964. Each country can strengthen its bid to host the World Cup by building new stadiums, improving infrastructure, and developing state-of-the-art hotels. However, along with these and other public marketing methods, many countries also engage in bribery with ExCo to secure their bid as the host country. In 2010, the announcement of Russia as the 2018 host country and Qatar as 2022’s led to an uproar and reports of certain officials being bribed by both countries to secure their bids. In 2015, an investigation was launched into the corruption of these officials that resulted in nine FIFA officials being indicted.
While the 2022 World Cup may be shadowed by controversy and corruption, it is essential to remember that many of these issues have been long-standing and present in FIFA as an organization for decades. Qatar has played its part by continuing its kafala policy, severely limiting the rights of migrant workers and allowing for rampant abuse. However, unless FIFA itself amends its structure and decision-making processes, widespread corruption will continue to plague the World Cup.
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