Qatar Won, Human Rights Lost
Today I feel angry. I feel agitated, I feel upset, I feel let down. I feel a deep sense of loss.
The FIFA World Cup final was apparently a nail-biting match. I wouldn’t know. I didn’t watch it. Otherwise an avid soccer fan, for the first time in my life, I didn’t watch a single moment of the tournament. I couldn’t make myself up to it. To begin with, it was annoyance. And then the sheer absurdity of it all turned the annoyance into anger, which just kept growing. So much so that FIFA has perhaps killed my love for soccer for all times to come.
As Lionel Messi lifted the trophy, amid all the celebrations, let’s not forget the stadiums are standing on dead bodies. Literally. Dead bodies of thousands of poor, hapless construction workers — buried in a strange country, thousands of miles away from home. Many are unreported and untraceable because they worked in labor camps, their passports taken away by the contractors, who naturally had little interest in reporting every death.
Anything between 6,500 to 15,000 are believed to have died in Qatar since 2010 when it won the bid to host the World Cup and started a massive infrastructure overhaul to prepare for the mega event. Nepal alone has reported that over 2,000 people are missing or reported dead. Thousands more remain unpaid after toiling in dangerous and inhuman working conditions, in what can’t be called anything but systematic, legitimized modern-day slavery.
Now, this successful hosting of the “best World Cup of all times” — as described by FIFA boss Gianni Infantino — has legitimized everything hideous that Qatar stands for.
And no, this has nothing to do with the “clash of cultures” as Infantino tried to argue, which, as expected, had immediately been followed with a cacophony around the demands for “respect and understanding of local cultures and values”. Along with of course appeals of not to mix sports and politics.
Infantino’s speech on the eve of the kickoff to the World Cup was crass, cringeworthy, almost WTH: “Today I have strong feelings. Today I feel Qatari, I feel Arab, I feel African, I feel gay, I feel disabled, I feel a migrant worker.”
In trying to express solidarity with everyone, he ended up insulting those thousands of dead and suffering migrant workers, the persecuted LGBT people, and half of Qatar’s population — the women.
It would be comic, had the background not been so somber.
“For what we Europeans have been doing around the world in the last 3,000 years we should be apologizing for the next 3,000 years before starting to give moral lessons.”
That’s dangerous whataboutry. Dangerous because it belittled the gravity of the issues. What about the thousands missing/dead/unpaid workers from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and many African countries? And did he just say that LGBT or women’s rights are issues that only Europeans care for? Can he get more absurd and presumptuous and insulting?
That the head of the world’s richest sports body could use such flippant language to dismiss such grave issues only shows how FIFA has gone from being corrupt to toxic to almost a criminal organization, only symbolizing greed and power.
Let’s get something straight — there can be no two arguments when it comes to dignity of labour or people’s individual rights and freedom. These are basic human rights. Period. And we don’t have to “respect” any country or community’s “culture” or “beliefs” to stand up for those basic universal human rights.
As for mixing sports and politics, when have they not been mixed? Starting from the 1936 Olympics hosted by Hitler’s Germany to the bitter rivalry between the West and the Soviet block during the Cold War era, modern sports have always been about politics. And as long as teams continue to play under a national flag and banner, sports will always be about national pride and politics.
Qatar’s bid to host the World Cup was an equally political move, to “sportswash” its terrible record on human rights and arrive on the international stage as a modern nation.
Infantino’s speech too was a nothing but political. And an absurd, desperate attempt to salvage Qatar’s image.
In fact, this is the worst part. Qatar is what it is, but FIFA had a choice. A simple Google search would have revealed to FIFA Qatar’s record on human rights — be it the human trafficking and slave labor camps that are openly run in those parts of the world, or the persecution of LGBT people, or denial of basic rights to women.
Even after the initial bribery scandal that broke in 2015, FIFA still had a choice. It could have used these seven years to nudge Qatar to move towards some reforms. Even the World Cup opening speech was a perfect opportunity for Infantino to at least acknowledge those poorest people coming to one of the richest nations on Earth, only to face unimaginable exploitation, inhuman living conditions and, in many cases, untimely deaths.
Instead, the global soccer authority appeared to have lost all its authority, turning more and more into a pathetic mouthpiece for Qatar. While the building up to the tournament saw it casually dismissing the reports about the migrant issue, by the time of the event, FIFA seemed to have become totally toothless.
Just days before the first match, Qatar banned alcohol from all stadiums. This, despite Budweiser being one of FIFA’s major sponsors. FIFA capitulated, forcing the helpless beer company to reinvent a marketing strategy on the fly.
Compare this to FIFA’s stand against the 2014 host — Brazil — which was forced to withdraw the alcohol ban in stadiums it had earlier imposed because of post-match rioting by fans.
“Alcoholic drinks are part of the FIFA World Cup, so we’re going to have them. Excuse me if I sound a bit arrogant but that’s something we won’t negotiate,” then FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke had thundered.
What’s good for the goose is not good for the gander, of course!
As Tariq Panja, renowned investigative sports journalist, noted: “Qatar’s about-face on alcohol signaled that FIFA, soccer’s governing body, may no longer be in full control of its showcase championship.”
Gauging by what followed, that very much sounds like the truth.
The event kicked off with reports of harassment and crackdown on vocal supporters of women and LGBT rights. Suddenly fans couldn’t even sport simple rainbow T-shirts or accessories.
Next to be targeted were the eight European teams whose captains were planning to sport the “One Love” armbands to show solidarity for “equality and diversity”.
The teams had informed FIFA of their plans way back in September.
There was no mention of LGBT issue, but the rainbow colors on the band were enough to trigger the Qatari authorities. This prompted FIFA into action — first came a simple warning. The teams thought they would go ahead by risking a simple financial penalty. Overnight, the warning turned into a complete ban — players who disobeyed now faced yellow cards.
Naturally, the teams backed out. One could argue the players could have protested regardless — after all what’s a yellow card compared to fight for human rights!
But players are contracted by their national soccer associations and cannot put up individual stance in this case. The national soccer associations, on their part, only made the noise but didn’t follow up with any action. Like FIFA, all these countries — England, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Norway, Wales, Switzerland, France had a choice — to boycott the World Cup. In fact, a large percentage of their fans and businesses such as bars and pubs boycotted the tournament themselves and believed their countries should have done so.
A solid bunch of 7–8 top soccer nations boycotting the tournament should have sent the message to FIFA and the global community that human rights and lives are not so cheap.
Sadly, it was all noise and no action.
It’s indeed ironic that the World Cup final was played on Dec 18, the International Migrants Day, which coincidentally is Qatar’s National Day too!
Again, it was a perfect opportunity for both FIFA and Qatar to show some support for the criminal injustice suffered by the migrant workers — Infantino had after all promised to set up a legacy fund for them after the event. But instead, it was all pomp and glamor and celebration time as Messi lifted the cup — his traditional white and blue Argentine jersey covered by the black “bisht” placed on him by the Emir of Qatar.
This was the ultimate marketing stroke by Qatar — stamping that while it was Messi’s World Cup by all means, but it was Qatar’s too — the black “bisht” in the photos will ensure that even years down the line.
Qatar 2022 was the greatest marketing success. The best sportswashing ever — even beating the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
Money can buy anything. Even human rights and lives.
