Was the Host for the 2022 World Cup a Mistake?

U.S. Department of State from United States, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

People recently have questioned the bidding and acceptance of Qatar since the announcement that it was to host the World Cup in 2022.

“(Qatar) wasn’t ready from an infrastructure perspective to host a major sporting event,” Middle East and North Africa researcher with Amnesty International, May Romanos said in an article for U.S. NEWS. “The country lacked stadiums and hotels equipped to accommodate the games.”

The tradition of playing in the summer has been moved to the late months of 2022 due to Qatar being a middle eastern country that includes their extreme heat to host a World Cup.

FIFA’s own analysis “flagged almost every asset of the Qatari bid as being dangerous,” the founder of Men in Blazers Media, Roger Bennett said in an article for PBS News Hour. “This included the extreme summer temperatures, which would demand the World Cup be moved from its typical summer start to November, and the challenges of building new facilities all located in essentially one city in the country.”

Some people wonder why FIFA chose a nation that has no soccer history rather than choosing another that had a history of playing soccer.

“There are Middle Eastern nations with incredible, rich footballing heritages and traditions: Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, all of them deserve the right more,” former FIFA President, Sepp Blatter said in an article for PBS News Hour. "It was a bad choice. And I was responsible for that as president at the time."

To be prepared for the World Cup, Qatari officials hired migrants to build stadiums, hotels, and more. However, their treatment towards the workers has been bringing claims of human rights abuses against Qatar.

“Sometimes, the company gave us rotten food. The fish would smell disgusting. It used to give us diarrhea,” a migrant worker who came to Qatar, Anish Adhikari said in an article for PBS News Hour. “It got up to 125 degrees Fahrenheit. We didn’t get the water we needed. The water we got was almost 90 percent ice. We asked why they did that and told them it was impossible to drink water like that. They said they froze it because, if they provided normal water, the workers would drink more.”

While the decision for FIFA to allow Qatar to host the World Cup was questionable, it was not the first time FIFA allowed controversial selections like dictatorships to host the World Cup.

“It’s a pattern” the founder of Men in Blazer media, Bennett said. “The first World Cup I remember watching as a tiny kid, 1978, Argentina. The military junta used the World Cup to try and present a modern and attractive face.”

Overall, no matter what people believe or oppose, thousands came to the controversial nation to see the World Cup and support their countries playing.

"I reiterate the message of Qatar being a safe country, a hospitable country and I am confident that anybody that comes to Qatar is going to feel welcome and safe,” CEO of Qatar 22, Nasser al-Khater said in an article for ABC News. "However, when it comes to Qatar, we are talking about a football world cup we are talking about a sporting event… I think that the sporting event should be a sporting event and people should enjoy the sport."