The world cup: time for a shake-up at fifa and the ioc | thearticle

When the World Cup gets under way on 20 November, it will be interesting to see how the TV and radio pundits handle the political and ethical issues surrounding the choice of Qatar. As Ros

Atkins pointed out, in an excellent short film for the BBC News Channel on how Qatar came to be chosen, Qatar has never qualified for the World Cup before, for good reason. The climate is

brutal for footballers, not to mention migrant workers, who have been treated appallingly. According to The Guardian on 23 February 2021, “More than 6,500 migrant workers from India,

Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have died in Qatar since it won the right to host the World Cup 10 years ago.’” Then there’s the question of human rights. Homosexuality is illegal

in Qatar, as is now well-known. That’s not all. According to Human Rights Watch, “Qatar’s penal code criminalises criticising the emir, insulting Qatar’s flag, defaming religion, including

blasphemy, and inciting anyone “to overthrow the regime.” Qatar does not recognise the state of Israel. Wikipedia provides a long and disturbing list of corruption controversies surrounding,

and political and cultural issues concerning, the choice of Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup here. So it is hardly surprising that the President of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, urged the

presidents of the football associations of the 32 countries taking part to “focus on football”, not politics. He wrote, “Please do not allow football to be dragged into every ideological or

political battle that exists. At FIFA, we try to respect all opinions and beliefs, without handing out moral lessons to the rest of the world. One of the great strengths of the world is

indeed its very diversity, and if inclusion means anything, it means having respect for that diversity. No one people or culture or nation is ‘better’ than any other.” This is the same

Infantino who in 2019 accepted the Order of Friendship medal given to him by Vladimir Putin, following the 2018 World Cup.   None of this is new to FIFA. It has a disgraceful history. In

1934 Mussolini ’ s Italy hosted the second World Cup. In 1978 it was the turn of Argentina, ruled by a vicious (and antisemitic ) military junta : it is estimated that between 10,000 and

30,000 people were killed or ‘ disappeared ’ under this dictatorship. Then in 2018, four years after the invasion of Crimea, it was the turn of Putin ’ s Russia to host the World Cup. It’s

not just FIFA which has such a history of friendly relations with dictators. The Olympics are just as bad. Nazi Germany famously hosted the 1936 Summer Olympics, Japan was due to host the

1940 Olympics just over two years after the Nanjing Massacre, Moscow hosted the 1980 Olympics, and in recent years, China was chosen to host the 2008 Olympics, Putin ’ s Russia hosted the

Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014 and earlier this year Beijing hosted the 2022 Winter Olympics — despite calls for an international boycott. Of course, it is difficult to find cities or

countries which will host these hugely expensive international sporting events. According to one source, “ Qatar’s new stadiums have been reported to cost in the range of $6.5 billion – $10

billion, while a metro system that serves five of eight venues cost another $36 billion. Altogether, the event is expected to cost   $220 billion , with Qatar only anticipating $17 billion

in economic impact from the tournament. ” And according to insider.com, “ Beijing says the cost of hosting the 2022 Winter Games is among the cheapest ever at $3.9 billion. But the real cost

might be more than $38.5 billion, 10 times the reported amount. ” Wikipedia quotes The Oxford Olympics Study from 2016 , which “ found that, since 1960, sports-related costs for the Summer

Games were on average US$ 5.2   billion and for the Winter Games $3.1   billion. These figures do not include wider infrastructure costs like roads, urban rail, and airports, which often

cost as much or more than the sports-related costs. The most expensive Summer Games were Beijing 2008 at US$40 – 44   billion, and the most expensive Winter Games were Sochi 2014 at US$51  

billion. ” These costs exclude most countries , which is why the Olympics keep going back to America (Lake Placid 1980, LA 1984, Atlanta 1996, Salt Lake City 2002, LA 2028) and increasingly

to Putin ’ s Russia and Xi ’ s China . This is also why FIFA seem happy to choose countries like Argentina, Russia and Qatar. And that ’ s before we get to the vexed question of corruption,

widely documented elsewhere. A number of rich countries crave the prestige and recognition that hosting such huge events offers. As Henry Zeffman of The Times points out , this may have

rebounded for Qatar. Was the bad publicity, especially in the West, really worth all that money? But some countries crave this kind of prestige more than others and these are exactly the

kinds of countries who can afford the astronomic costs of hosting such events. What is to be done? Of course, there will be much entirely justified criticism about the choice of Qatar to

host the 2022 World Cup. It is also reasonable, however, for FIFA to think about widening the reach of the World Cup to include host countries from the Middle East or North Africa and the

decision-makers who chose Qatar might have thought Egypt — who have qualified for the   FIFA World Cup   on three occasions, in   1934 ,   1990   and   2018 — or Algeria, who have appeared

in the finals of the   FIFA World Cup   on four occasions , in 1982, 1986, 2010 and 2014 — would not be able to afford the cost. In addition, human rights issues are never too far away from

much of the post-colonial world. On the other hand, FIFA and the IOC have a worrying record when it comes to choosing host countries. Those concerned with human rights have a straightforward

choice: either use these tournaments to try to reform offensive countries, suck it up and enjoy the football, or start to clean out FIFA and the IOC and reform them from the top down. It

will be interesting to see which of these the media pundits will go for. Or will they keep their heads down and just take the money? Whatever the players themselves do, multi-coloured

armbands or flying to Qatar on a Gay Pride jet just won’t cut it. By agreeing to play Iran in Qatar they have already made their choice.   A MESSAGE FROM THEARTICLE _We are the only

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