Qatar World Cup 2022

Qatar World Cup 2022: sportswear, safety and football

E60 Qatar World Cup In 2014, E60 traveled to Qatar to report on the difficult situation of migrant workers there. 

This spring they went back to see what has and hasn't changed in the last eight years. 

Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter took a podium position in Zurich, Switzerland, preparing the assembled dignitaries for the announcement of the evening's second World Cup host. 

Moments earlier, Russia had been awarded the 2018 World Cup and Platter hailed it as something that "would do a lot of good for [this] part of the world". 

Then he turned his attention to the year 2022. 

Blatter listed the candidates - Australia, Japan, South Korea, Qatar and the United States of America - before delivering the line that had been repeated endlessly for more than a decade: 

"The winner to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup is Qatar.

" The decision later became more widely understood when the US Department of Justice said FIFA officials had accepted bribes to secure rights housing in both Russia and Qatar. 

But it was impressive at the time The world's favorite sporting event went to a small Persian Gulf state that lacked a dominant football culture, and with sweltering summer heat, 

minimal infrastructure and concerns about the country's human rights record that ostensibly should have served as an immediate disqualification 

/P&G;Qatar, a peninsula jutting out into the Persian Gulf from the east coast of Saudi Arabia, takes about the g flat area like Connecticut. 

The population of approximately 2.5 million people is comparable to that of Chicago. 

"We're going to new countries," Platter said, smiling at the crowd. 

"The Middle East has been waiting, and I would say the Arab world has been waiting for the World Cup for a long time. Now you have it."

- Stream the E60 documentary "The Qatar World Cup" on ESPN+. 

Outside its region, Qatar's cultural importance was virtually non-existent compared to other countries in the Middle East, and even with the World Cup kicking off on November 19, there is a compelling case that this is still the case. 

For Qatar, next month is all about changing that. 

It's the big opportunity within a decades-long strategy for the oil-rich nation to establish itself on the world stage, acquire soft power and kick-start the process of diversifying its economy. 

So what's this all about for Qatar? 

The hosting of the World Cup stems from what is known as “sports laundry,” 

that blanket expression that applies to any country or regime with questionable human rights records or autocratic rulers who use their financial power to acquire roles and prestigious stakes in the sport. 

Or are there more subtle and complex reasons to host?

Qatar's myriad sports investments

Europe is the nerve center of world football, the continent that is home to the world's most prestigious clubs and competitions. 

In the Football Money League 2022 by Deloitte, the table of the 20 highest-grossing clubs in the game, all teams come from Europe. 

Only one club in the top 6, Manchester United, has not benefited from significant financial support from the Arabian Peninsula.

Qatar Sports Investments 

(QSI), a Doha-based private equity organization active in the Sport of Qatar reinvested. 

and entertainment industry, owns France's biggest club, Paris Saint-Germain, and recently acquired a 22 percent minority stake in Portuguese club SC Braga. 

Qatar's sponsorship deals span the world in football and other sports.

- World Cup 2022: packed 32-team squad

Their Gulf neighbor Abu Dhabi took control of Manchester City in 2008, a move Amnesty International described as "sports washing". 

while the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia, chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is the majority owner of Newcastle United, another entity that has raised the issue of sports laundry. 

The PIF also sponsors LIV Golf, the recently launched tour that has created a lot of controversy about the sport by convincing many of the world's top golfers to leave the PGA Tour and make a fortune by running the new competition play.

Whether or not you see these examples as an attempt to divert attention from human rights abuses and lack of freedom, the reality is that their ties to sport have had the opposite effect, drawing attention to these issues throughout the world strengthened region.

Qatar has arguably had the maximum uncomfortable ride. 

Unlike Saudi Arabia, whose human rights troubles have lengthy been established -- and different famous international locations like Russia and China which have hosted the Olympic Games -- Qatar had no international picture to launder. 

The awarding of the World Cup 12 years in the past changed into, in essence, the nation's global introduction. 

Without the World Cup, the United States's troubles with human rights, the remedy of migrant workers 

(a problem that existed with inside the United States earlier than the World Cup),

 the rights of girls and the remedy of the LGBTQIA+ network would possibly have long past unchecked.

Same-intercourse members of the family are illegal, and guys convicted of getting them can face seven years in prison, whilst different legal guidelines ban single sexual members of the family, impartial of orientation. 

According to the U.S. State Department's 2021 Country Report on Human Rights, unwed girls chance prosecution in the event that they document pregnancies and "there have been instances of hospitals reporting unwed moms to authorities."

- World Cup conversations: Workers, sports activities figures and fanatics speak candidly approximately Qatar 2022

Securing the proper to host the World Cup changed into in no way approximately casting a veil over the ones factors of Qatar's society. 

Instead, it changed into a calculated selection to show itself to Western scrutiny to make profits elsewhere. 

For more or less 3 decades, Qatar has been operating on a direction towards wherein it's far now, 

in line with Chris Doyle, a director on the London-primarily based totally Council for Arab-British Understanding, 

a nonprofit organization that promotes human rights, warfare decision and civil society with inside the Arab world.

"It changed into extraordinarily conservative and hadn't visible the explosion of creation that we have got visible now.

"It changed into very closed to the outdoor world, one of the greater conservative states with inside the Arabian Peninsula, and he tried to extrude this in some of the ways. 

Al Jazeera [the 24-hour English news channel owned by Qatar] changed into part of that, starting up the media space, additionally having the American [military] base at Al Died, however possibly greater essential on this admire changed into the large adjustments in education, bringing in western campuses to Qatar."

- World Cup organizers flow beer income at venues

Al Thani changed into set on starting Qatar to the relaxation of the world, and web website hosting wearing activities changed into a first-rate a part of that strategy. 

It had fundamental purposes: to assist diversify the economic system with extended tourism and result in greater global collaboration.

"The emir desired to ... convey in trade, tourism, influence," Doyle said. 

"Also a part of this power changed into Qatar Airways and growing the worldwide hub at Hamad International Airport. 

In different words, he desired to have Qatar as a rival to Dubai however additionally to convey human beings to Qatar.

"Very essential on this admire changed into the capacity to promote alcohol with inside the hotels, which wasn't accepted earlier than. 

So you noticed a kind of plan, albeit carried out once in a while with steps ahead and one step again."