The FIFA World Cup will be held in Qatar from 21 November to 18 December 2022 and is the first-ever to be held in the Arab world. One of the most controversial editions of the quadrennial meet and a ball hasn’t even been kicked.
From awarding of the World Cup to the oil-rich state to abuse of migrant workers and radical shifting of the football calendar, the 2022 FIFA WC will be like no other.
BEGINNING WITH CORRUPTION
The awarding of the World Cup was mired by corruption charges as it was alleged that some African officials were paid 1.5 million USD to vote in favour for Qatar. It was later proved that CONCACAF president Jack Warner was paid nearly 2 million USD.
Disgraced former FIFA president Sepp Blatter had later rued that Qatar winning the bid was a combination of a rule-breaking collusion deal and political pressure exerted on former UEFA president Michel Platini (who has also been similarly banned).
Such is the magnanimity of the awarding that Qatar is the smallest nation by area ever to have been awarded a FIFA World Cup and also became only the second country to be awarded hosting right despite having never qualified for a previous edition.
HEAT IS ON
Once the awarding of the FIFA World Cup to Qatar, came to the challenge of moving the tournament to November-December as opposed to the ‘traditional’ June-July, to negate the effect of the harsh summer heat.
With temperatures soaring to high 40s, playing football in the sweltering heat of the deserts of Qatar was surely impossible. The other months at the beginning of the year also clashed with the 2022 Winter Olympics in February, the 2022 Winter Paralympics in March and the holy month of Ramadan in April.
The move will surely upset the domestic football calendar as some of the world’s local league scheduled would be affected and need altering. Premier League in England, has a busy festive period, which sees football action in the lead up to and over the Christmas and New Year week.
This will in turn force players to prolong their season as they are not expected to get any respite with crowding fixtures as the World Cup will be played in the middle of the regular season.
The solution that the organisers came up with is air-conditioned pitches and stadiums.
MIGRANT WOES
The greatest challenge however to hosting the World Cup was having the actual stadiums fit for international standard football.
According to a report in the Guardian earlier last year, which sourced data from embassies and national foreign employment offices, found that over 6,500 migrant workers from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka died in Qatar between 2010 and 2020.
The country though has promised to bring in reforms and conduct internal audits to protect a migrant workforce of about 2 million people.
FUTURE OF FOOTBALL
According to some estimates, the World Cup will cost Qatar in the region of 220 billion USD. Add to the fact that the coronavirus pandemic is still at large with new variants. Controversies or not, the World Cup will surely go down in history as the catalyst for the change of the beautiful game.
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