Facts and changes brought about by the neverending controversies and criticisms of hosting the World Cup in Qatar

World Cup preparation look done and dusted following the end of the international break which is set to the followed by the prestigious competition finals in November.

Preparation as they say has started since the completion of the last edition, where France were crowned Champions following a dominant win over Croatia in a six goal thriller in Russia.

A lot of teams have impressed since then and along with many others will be looking to write their names in the history books in the first edition of the competition to be held in an Arab country.

Teams like France, the defending Champions have added the UEFA Nations League title in 2021 while Portugal had been crowned winners of the maiden edition of the competition in 2019.

Italy, Argentina, Senegal, Qatar and the United States have all emerged as champions in their respective continents since the last World Cup though it was unfortunate that Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup finals.

The world cup, second ever to be held in Asia since it was jointly hosted by Korea and Japan in 2002, has been marred by lots of criticism and controversies as the country, Qatar, does not look like a perfect setting for fans of diversed cultures.

The limitations in human rights and other controversies, which included the climate condition of the middle east and has caused a first ever World Cup events to be played in winter months.

Yes. It is not news that unlike previous World Cup tournaments which are always held in summer months, the 2022 edition as known will be played between November and December due to extreme heat in the summer, which will be very difficult for players to play in.

The competition will also be played in a timeframe of 29 days, shorter than the time taken to complete the games in the previous editions.

The first game will be played on the 20th of November while the final will take place four weeks later on the 18th of December, after the third place match has been played the day before.

Qatar 2022 is a considered a very controversial tournament compared to previous World Cup events because many of the rules have been influenced by the fact that the country is a religious one.

FIFA have in the past conceded that the decision to grant Qatar the right to host the World Cup is a mistake while the body, under Sepp Blatter who made the decision has been criticized for 'selling' the World Cup to Qatar in a corrupt manner.

The rules in Qatar is a threat to human rights but then afterwards, the country allows that the pride flags, a symbol of homosexuality to be used in stadia across the country during the event to respect the right of the LGBT community.

However, it is still unclear if the flags will be allowed after the comments made by a senior security official overseeing the tournament, who stated that there were plans to ban fans from using the pride flags.

He stressed this as a safety measure to protect the LGBT community from altercations with spectators that are anti-LGBT. Also, homosexuals are not very comfortable with the thought of traveling to Qatar for the event even as it nears.

Moreso, alcohol will only be served "in select areas within stadiums" as confirmed by organisers because the consumption of alcohol is prohibited by the Sharia law employed in the country.

To make it a successful competition, Qatar, in their preparation to hosting the World Cup embarked on infrastructure projects which included construction of stadiums, highways, and hotels.

The country has spent a staggering £187 billion on these projects, meaning the Qatar 2022 is set to be the most expensive World Cup tournament in history.

In a bid to adapt to the extreme climate condition, many of the stadiums, which will be used for the World Cup games have had air-conditioned facilities installed in them to make it feasible for spectators.

This also played a part as to the reason the World Cup is the most expensive ever.

Also, the unavailability of enough standard stadiums at the time Qatar won the right to host the tournament meant it was a run to beat time.

Construction of stadiums began and from there, more controversies ensued. In 2013, it was reported that the country denied workers in construction centers food, water and even their payments.

An investigation conducted revealed that migrant workers were made to work forcefully, with their identity papers taken away while the country treated them like slaves.

While around 1200 migrant workers are was reported dead between 2011 to 2013 in infrastructure building as Qatar continues their preparation to host the World Cup, but the BBC told that the said number of dead recorded for migrant workers is not only of those working at World Cup preparation sites but the entire number of migrant workers in Qatar.

In 2015, a crew of four journalists were arrested and held for two days after they attempted to report on the condition of workers in the country, again, highlight bad a decision it was to grant Qatar host of the World Cup.

The country was again accused of building stadiums by abusing human rights in 2016, as workers were living in poor conditions and were forced to work on the infrastructure while FIFA was also accused of corruption for not taking measures to control the reported situations.

In October 2017, the International Trade Union Confederation confirmed that Qatar had signed an agreement to improve the situation of more than 2 million migrant workers in the country.

The agreement also allows that workers can leave the country or change their jobs whenever they want to and would not need their employer's permission to do so.

Adding to the controversy, Hendriks Graszoden, the turf supplier for the 2006 World Cup and for the European Championships in 2008 and 2016, refused to supply Qatar with World Cup turf.

According to company's sources, one reason for the reason was that the country was accused of human rights abuses.

At the 2022 FIFA Congress in Doha, Lise Klaveness, who is the head of the Norwegian Football Federation and a former footballer criticised the organisation for having awarded the World Cup to Qatar, citing the various controversies surrounding the tournament.

She said that, “in 2010, World Cups were awarded by FIFA in unacceptable ways with unacceptable consequences. Human rights, equality, democracy: the core interests of football were not in the starting XI until many years later. These basic rights were pressured onto the field as substitutes by outside voices. FIFA has addressed these issues but there's still a long way to go."

Despite all the odds, Qatar will host the World Cup later this year and with all the controversies and criticisms that has played before this stage, more should be expected when the tournament kick off in November.

Host nation, Qatar are also the only debutant in this edition of the competition, and have been placed in Group A alongside Ecuador, The Netherlands and African Champions, Senegal.

Groups

Group A: Qatar, Ecuador, Senegal, Netherlands

Group B: England, Iran, USA, Wales

Group C: Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Poland

Group D: France, Australia, Denmark, Tunisia

Group E: Spain, Costa Rica, Germany, Japan

Group F: Belgium, Canada, Morocco, Croatia

Group G: Brazil, Serbia, Switzerland, Cameroon

Group H: Portugal, Ghana, Uruguay, South Korea

Stadiums

Eight stadiums which will be used during the tournament are:

Lusail Stadium in Lusail | Capacity: 80,000 seats

Al Bayt Stadium in Al Al Khor | Capacity: 60,000 seats

Al Janoub Stadium in Al Wakrah | Capacity: 40,000 seats

Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium in Al Rayyan | Capacity: 40,000 seats

Khalifa International Stadium in Doha | Capacity: 40,000 seats

Education City Stadium in Doha | Capacity: 40,000 seats 

Stadium 974 in Doha | Capacity: 40,000 seats

Al Thumama Stadium in Doha | Capacity: 40,000 seats

All these except the Khalifa international Stadium in Doha, have been built after Qatar won the right to host the World Cup this year.

Most exciting prospect

Most exciting prospect of the World Cup is that if it happens that both Portugal and Argentina finish top in their respective groups and go all the way, they will only meet each other in the final.

This will mean that both Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, who have won everything there is to win except the World Cup will have a chance for glory, but one at the expense of the other.

The clash will also go a long way to settle the never ending debate of who the greatest of all time is and one will finally win the only title which has eluded them over their nearing the end careers.

Qatar 2022 is also very likely to be the final World Cup for the two soccer greats.

Author: Kehinde Hassan Afolabi

Reference: Wikipedia