The World Cup began on November 22 in Qatar with 32 participating teams. The World Cup is an event of extensive magnitude with countries from all over the world coming together in support, camaraderie, and love of a universal sport: soccer. The tournament that typically takes place in the spring and summer was moved to the fall due to the host country’s severe climate. Qatar badly wanted to host the World Cup, first putting in a bid in 2009 for hosting rights. It is the first Arab and Muslin nation to host an event of this size. Given the size of the country, many were surprised that it gained hosting rights in the first place. Qatar spent millions of dollars to gain hosting rights, paid famous athletes, and otherwise garnered support in any way possible. Following the announcement of Qatar becoming the host country, investigations forced FIFA to change the way it designated host countries. An event that typically represents worldwide community, fun, and spirit, is drastically different this year.
The team captains of England, Wales, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands were going to wear OneLove LGBTQ armbands while playing to support and promote diversity and inclusivity at the World Cup event. However, last Monday these teams announced that their captains would no longer wear LGBTQ armbands after FIFA threatened their players with penalizations. While the players were prepared and willing to face fines, the organization threatened to deny them booking or to remove players from the game. The decision by FIFA to penalize players for supporting LGBTQ rights is an unprecedented occurrence, and one causing great backlash from the LGBTQ and allies community.
The OneLove campaign was started by the Dutch Football Association in 2020. By 2022, nine other countries adopted the mission for their soccer matches. The armband symbolizes support for LBGTQ rights. According to the teams mentioned above, the armbands were meant to be a sign of silent protest against human rights violations occurring in the host nation. Qatar is being scrutinized for its human rights violations, not just in relation to the criminalization of homosexuality there, but in relation to concerns about the events leading up to hosting the game.
There have been concerns about the treatment of migrant workers, particularly in regards to the construction for the country to host the World Cup. The migrant workers employed to reconstruct Qatar have been mistreated as early as 2010, when the country gained hosting rights. The largely South Asian workforce has been forced to work in unruly conditions and dozens have died on the job. The substandard living conditions, and failure to reimburse workers have caused Qatar to come under scrutiny for human rights violations as well.
Now, with the backlash against Qatar’s suppression of LGBTQ rights, the country faces further inspection on human rights, particularly by Human Rights Watch. The Human Rights Watch published a guide for reporters addressing the concerns with Qatar. It also addresses FIFA’s human rights policies and calls out the organization for its lack of recognizing the severity of the issue. In particular, FIFA chief Gianni Infantino even expressed empathy with Qatar for the criticism of Western nations’ media coverage of the issues rather than the event itself.
It is clear that there is a large divide regarding social issues and human rights violations in the World Cup host country of Qatar. With a few more weeks of the games, players, countries, and fans alike will have to find a common ground in the name of soccer. It has been such an unprecedented year, roadblocks along the way will need to be mitigated to ensure a satisfactory ending of the quadrennial World Cup Tournament.
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