World Cup 2022 ai??i?? Controversy Surrounds Tournament in Qatar

The FIFA World Cup rolls around every four years, and in addition to being a football extravaganza, it sometimes has controversy surrounding it. Whether it was the infamous Hand of God, Zidane’s headbutt, or the “French Revolution” in 2010, the tournament has had a history of controversial incidents. This time, in an unprecedented sequence of events, controversy has raised its ugly head early this time. Every passing day the controversy over the 2022 World Cup in Qatar deepens as FIFA, UEFA, FIFPro (International Federation of Professional Footballers), and FIFA Member nations are dragged into this quagmire.

The whole furor was kicked off in 2010 when Qatar successfully bid to host World Cup 2022. At that time, FIFA President Sepp Blatter had hinted at a shift of the schedule, from June and July, to winter months, after experiencing the summer heat of the Middle East first hand. This set into motion a chain of events, that saw allegations leveled at members of FIFA’s Executive Committee and the FIFA Member countries, for accepting bribes in return for votes. Qatar faced a lot of heat, while maintaining their innocence in the face of such allegations. And then, in a surprise turn, the whistle blower on this whole controversy retracted her statement, saying losing her job cause her to seek some level of vengence.

The awarding of the World Cup to Qatar has created many problems for various parties, including FIFA, whose backroom operations may start to be exposed — The awarding of the World Cup to Qatar has created many problems for various parties, including FIFA, whose under-the-table operations may start to be exposed by this controversy

The football world, assuming the worst was over, relaxed only for the fires to be fanned again, earlier this year when French Magazine France Football released a 15-page report called ‘Qatargate.’ It resurrected the bribery allegations raised a couple of years ago. Chief among those allegations was information about a private dinner hosted at Nicolas Sarkozy’s residence, where the French president allegedly forced UEFA President Michel Platini to change his vote and cast it in favor of Qatar. Since then, various figures in international football have made public statements on the Qatar World Cup. Recently, FIFPro stated that they would organize a boycott of the tournament, due to the high summer temperatures that would make the games unplayable.

The controversies surrounding Qatar 2022 can be broadly divided into two heads, one being the inhospitable playing conditions. The Middle East is dominated by the Arabian Desert. Lying in the Northern tropical belt, this region has harsh summer conditions, as daytime temperatures can easily touch 50 Ai?? C (about 120 F). Combine this with the dry conditions and the dust storms of the region, and on can see the conditions are far from ideal for an international football match. Given that a large number of internationals play in temperate European countries, most are accustomed to temperatures close to 25-27 Ai?? C (80 F) on hotter days, a far cry from 50Ai?? C. Apart from this, not only is the high day time temperature an issue, but also the diurnal temperature variation. While temperatures can be as high as 50 Ai?? C, nights can see significant dips in temperatures to around 25-27 Ai?? C. This high temperature and high variation can potentially land the player in a situation where he plays a day match at much higher temperature followed by a night game days later at significantly cooler temperatures. Now while the Qatari administration for the 2022 World Cup has assured that stadia would be completely air conditioned, that fails to deal with the ambient conditions of the region.

These temperature conditions will increase the probability of fatigue and fatigue related injuries. And once injured, these injuries would take longer to heal, as well. In addition, there are concerns from sports medicine professionals, as they are not sure how playersai??i?? bodies would cope with these conditions. They have already stated that it is impossible to acclimatize completely to the local conditions.

The proposed stadiums may look amazing, but the Qatari environment could lead to the football being anything but.

Rescheduling the World Cup to a winter schedule carries its own issues, as leagues in many member nations would have to significantly reschedule its season. Broadcasters who have already bought rights to the 2018 and 2022 tournaments would be left stranded high and dry, since a summer tournament is more lucrative than a winter tournament from a telecast point of view.

The other source of controversy has been the allegations of bribery and corruption surrounding the bidding and awarding of the 2022 World Cup, and the consequence of awarding it to Qatar. Giving Qatar special treatment as to when they can host the World Cup, is an obvious shot to the credibility of the bidding process. Bidding nations had prepared their bids on the basis of June and July organization of the tournament, and a switch would mean that they spent millions of dollars promoting their case on a false pretense.

Multiple allegations claim that votes were bought by Qatar, along with pressure being applied by some European countries on other FIFA member nations, to vote in favor of Qatar. Many observers have commented that this could be due to the economic significance of the region to those particular European nations. A tournament on the scale of a Summer Olympics or a FIFA World Cup has major financial incentives involved not only for the host nation(s) but for the local region as well, but only for particular industries. Demand for infrastructure development gets a major boost, allowing contractors to make charge higher prices for their services.Ai?? The high influx of spectators from across the world increases revenues for the tourism and hospitality industries of the region. Combine this, with the fact that the costs of the World Cup are not the burden of those industries, and a World Cup represents a major boon for a few select industries, even if the marginal costs of the World Cup are far greater than the marginal revenue added to the region.

Labor issues (for infrastructure construction) have all entered the limelight. The recent death of 6 “hired” foreign workers at various stadia has only fueled this fire. Worker Rights groups have gone up in arms against the ill treatment of workers onsite and in worker camps.

FIFA and Qatar, among many other bodies and authorities, are currently in the middle of a storm that is gradually gaining momentum. With the impending FIFA presidential elections, the situation is very likely to snowball beyond control and have far reaching repercussions on governments and sporting bodies across the globe.

World Cup 2022 ai??i?? Controversy Surrounds The Tournament In Qatar

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