Ruminations: Doha, Qatar and The World Cup of Soccer

Fans watch a drone display and fireworks over Doha on Saturday. (Jon Gambrell/The Associated Press)

"Today I have strong feelings. Today I feel Qatari, I feel Arab, I feel African, I feel gay, I feel disabled, I feel a migrant worker."

"We have been taught many lessons from Europeans and the Western world. I am European. For what we have been doing for 3,000 years around the world, we should be apologizing for the next 3,000 years before giving moral lessons. If Europe really care[s] about the destiny of these people, they can create legal channels - like Qatar did - where a number of these workers can come to Europe to work. Give them some future, some hope."

"[I have] difficulties understanding the criticism [around the treatment and deaths of migrant workers]. We have to invest in helping these people, in education and to give them a better future and more hope. We should all educate ourselves. Many things are not perfect but reform and change takes time."

"This one-sided moral lesson is just hypocrisy. I wonder why no-one recognizes the progress made here since 2016. It is not easy to take the critics of a decision that was made 12 years ago. Qatar is ready. It will be the best World Cup ever."

"[While I am not] Qatari, Arab, African, gay, disabled or a migrant worker, [I am] like them because I know what it means to be discriminated and bullied as a foreigner in a foreign country. [I was bullied as a child for my] red hair and freckles."
FIFA president Gianni Infantino

FIFA President, Gianni Infantino speaks during a press conference ahead of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 tournament on Nov. 19, 2022 in Doha, Qatar. (Photo by Maryam Majd ATPImages/Getty images)

Oh no, the poor man, bullied as a child. A trauma that has informed his life ever since. The world is a cruel and hostile place for children with red hair and freckles. According to a report from the Guardian, to place matters in a vestige of perspective, during construction over the past ten years in preparation for the tournament, 6,500 foreign workers who laboured to build the sites died on the job. For years there have been reports of the misery of foreign workers in Qatar, people who streamed to the oil-rich country to be able to work and send money back home.

These were the poor, anxious to find employment where there was none for them in their native Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and the Philippines. Once in Qatar there was no agency to ensure their welfare, to make certain they had decent places to stay, were paid for their work, were not overworked or placed in danger, had access to medical care. Qatar's population is all of three million people, a tiny and wealthy country, out to show the world what it was capable of producing. It spent a whopping $200 billion to build the infrastructure needed to host the games. Fair pay for construction workers and attention to human rights was not one of their concerns.

And FIFA has declared it is not up to them to dictate to an independent nation how its labour laws should be conducted, and that the nation's rulers needed a conscience in dealing with foreign workers obviously considered dispensable. FIFA was busy with other distractions like the practicality of selecting a desert country to run games that require athletes to extend themselves beyond normal physical endurance in the energy-depleting heat of a Middle East summer. A breezy assurance from Qatar that the usual June-July event would be fine, no one would suffer from heat, did the trick, evidently.

Until second thoughts moved the timing to the winter season when Qatar would only be hot, not sizzling. The soccer leagues might not have been thrilled, forced to tight schedules and coping with the injuries that ensued. But the decision was made and on it went. In a country where adherence to Islamic codes of conduct prevail, homosexuality is illegal and scantily dressed females are unwelcome, the royal family decided that alcohol in any shape or form would, at the last minute, be forbidden. Was that a gigantic universal groan resounding across the world?

There have been some silent rebukes. Denmark has muted the national crest on its team jerseys. A video was released of the Australian team with players criticizing construction worker treatment, offering support as well for LGBT rights. Captains of several nations will be wearing rainbow armbands. A rainbow version of the U.S. team crest was painted on its training facility. Qatar is on record as having stated it was prepared to accept Western norms. Alcohol consumption at games is a Western norm. Will female fans who bare their arms in the heat be confronted by morality police?

There are (surely malicious, erroneous, embarrassing) reports that Qatar organizers paid for hundreds of worldwide fans to attend the tournament, and while there exuberantly praise the games, the extravaganza put on by Qatar, and above all the wonderful venue Qatar built to brand itself the temporary sport capital of the world.

Police stand by on horseback as other security officials try to control a crowd at a FIFA fan zone on Saturday. (Srdjan Nedeljkovic/The Associated Press)

"History will not judge this moment kindly. Infantino’s speech was an insult to the thousands of hard-working women and men who have made the World Cup possible."
"He had a perfect opportunity to acknowledge that thousands of women and men from the poorest countries came to the richest only to face deception, exploitation and discrimination."
"Every day workers are contacting Equidem about unpaid wages, abuse and being terrified about speaking out for fear of retaliation from employers."
Mustafa Qadri, chief executive, international human rights organization Equidem