QATAR 2022
BY NAHUEL FEFER
In 2005, in the throes of a five-year civil war, the Ivory Coast qualified for the World Cup. On national television the players fell to its knees and pleaded with their nation to lay down its arms. The peace that resulted has not been permanent, but the situation has improved. The nation’s most famous player, Didier Drogba, has emerged as a powerful voice for the common people, somehow above politics, and capable of uniting a fractured country.
The ability of soccer to bring people together was on display during the South African World Cup in 2010. The World Cup was a source of pride for Africa, a cathartic experience for South Africa in particular, and brought cultures together. It didn’t hurt that the tournament was also well run, exhilarating, and averaged over 1 billion viewers a day over the course of the month.
A couple of months after the South African World Cup, FIFA selected Qatar to host the World Cup in 2022. The Qatari bid argued that the first Arab World Cup would both unify the Arab people, and bring the Arab and Western worlds together.
The FIFA committee had significant practical apprehensions, chief among them the temperature, which averages 110 degrees in June. But the committee argued that these issues could be resolved over the next 12 years through air conditioned stadiums, by playing the games at night, or even by holding the tournament in the winter. In retrospect these options seem unrealistic: air conditioned stadiums appear unfeasible, playing the games at night would impair the players’ circadian rhythms, and thus, performance, and holding the tournament in winter would interfere with national league schedules, although none of these issues are insurmountable. The 2022 World Cup is nine years away, and Qatar may yet find a way to hold an athletically optimal World Cup. Unfortunately, Qatar will not be able to hold an Arabic World Cup, or for that matter a Qatari one.
Barring a significant deviation from the historical norm, Qatar can expect around half a million visitors in 2022. While most countries can absorb the influx, Qatar has a population of only 1.7 million. Worse, 1.2 million of these are migrant laborers who live in poor conditions, have few rights, and will have minimal interaction with visitors. Ultimately, visitors will outnumber the 225,000 full Qatari citizens 2:1, making it difficult for the country to put its unique stamp on the Cup.
Clearly, however, this is not the country’s aim. Lusail Stadium, the venue at which the opening and final games of the 2022 World Cup will be played, has not been built. Scratch that, Lusail, the city in which Lusail Stadium will be housed, does not exist. Qatar does not seem to be preparing a celebration of its national or Arab identity, instead it seems intent on creating a blank slate: a venue in which it can house the World Cup.
An Arab World Cup might have been a revelation, and if it was truly FIFA’s goal it could have turned to Egypt in 2014, after assessing its long term stability, or alternately to Turkey for a more generally Muslim World Cup. Instead it has chosen Qatar. Although the FIFA executive committee’s rash neglect of heat concerns could be considered a calculated risk, and its belief that Qatar could host an Arab World Cup could be put down to naive incompetence, this, unfortunately does not appear to be the case. Instead, there is mounting evidence of bribery in the bidding process.
International soccer is no stranger to corruption: two members of FIFA’s executive committee were caught attempting to sell their votes to undercover reporters and were suspended only a few months before the vote. Ultimately the 22 remaining members selected Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup over the United States by 14 votes to 8, and of these 22, the BBC claims to have evidence that 3 were successfully bribed. In a leaked e-mail, the General Secretary of FIFA himself states the following regarding Mohammed bin Hammam, the man who put together Qatar’s world cup bid: “He thought you can buy FIFA as they bought the World Cup.”
In the face of popular pressure, FIFA has indicated that if Qatar asks to hold the World Cup in the winter they may have to resubmit their bid, but there is little hope for an unprecedented change of heart. Most likely, the world will simply have to live with a disappointing World Cup in 2022, and show Qatar that while it may buy its governing body, it cannot buy the allegiance of an entire sport.