World Cup column: Don’t allow your eyes to be distracted by the prize
When Qatar and Ecuador get the ball rolling in Sunday’s opening match at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, some in the host nation will be hoping the issues surrounding the tournament will be put to one side. Others will see the start of the football itself as a distraction. An alarming number of people are no longer with us to be able to care either way.
The Guardian suggest that more than 6,500 migrant workers have died in Qatar since the Gulf State was awarded the right to host the World Cup in 2010. There has however been next to no intimation that the tournament would be moved elsewhere. Further concerns about the rights of the LGBTQ+ community and women have been ignored by those capable of enforcing change, allowing Qatar to use sport’s most popular competition as a means of enhancing its global image.
The fact that the Qatari government only recognises three of these tragic wastes of human life as officially connected to World Cup-related construction projects speaks not only to an unsuitability to host the tournament but also of a wider policy of telling us we are seeing something other than what our eyes are having to work so hard to comprehend.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s incoherent rambling on the eve of the tournament added further weight to the idea that everyone involved in making sure this World Cup takes place in Qatar is desperate to dilute and conveniently re-package criticism rather than address it.
Qatar undeniably has ample wealth to modernise and reform its labour system. Some will point to the outlawing of the restrictive Kafala system in 2020 as progress, yet migrants are continuing to be forced to work inhumane hours in inhumane conditions. An inability to agree to a compensatory fund to support bereaved families shows the state has as little respect for these workers in death as they did in life.
The host nation has done little to change, external governments have shown minimal appetite to hold them accountable, and FIFA, unsurprisingly, see no benefit in challenging anti-LGBTQ+ legislation or labour laws that equate to indentured servitude for fear of it disrupting their showcase event. Yet Infantino and Qatari officials continue to declare that all is well.
It is of course those individuals who have made a conscious decision to become involved in the lucrative yet opaque business of international football governance that should be held responsible, yet it has fallen upon fans to decide for themselves just how much of this tournament they can stomach.
Making them arbiters of where the line is between this tournament being a political tool and a football tournament is cruel. The football World Cup is perhaps the best example of sport as escapism; there are constant matches in full-to-the-brim stadiums glowing with colour, creating countless moments that you dare not miss. This conception of the World Cup has been used for political means before, but never has it been so painfully obvious.
It will likely be a grim winter in the UK with the cost of living continuing to rise and little hope of respite to cling to. Even introducing the idea that a brief source of relief like a World Cup is linked to something less imbued with fantasy and more closely related to the uncomfortable reality of geo-politics is enough for some to try and create an imaginary distance between the two.
The mode of the build-up to this World Cup has been one of intolerance and exploitation. When the first whistle of the first game blows, there will be a tantalising excuse to allow at least an eye to drift from this. But for all of Harry Kane’s attempts to end the years of hurt, Lionel Messi’s last hope of a triumphant finale and Cristiano Ronaldo’s willingness to destabilise a second group of team-mates within the space of a month, the reality of life in Qatar will not change for most.
Despite having so long to pontificate about the best ways in which to hold Qatar accountable for its maltreatment of minority groups, its inability to realise the rights of women and the LGBTQ+ community, and its role in the death of migrant workers, these issues seem no closer to being resolved or canonised within a strategy of resolution.
Players speaking out and rainbow armbands being worn represent the first twitch of a muscle fibre in the toe of a step in the right direction, but it is impossible to escape the feeling that not enough has yet been done and there is now not enough time to do something meaningful.
Supporters, individuals who had no say in where this tournament would be held or any responsibility for ensuring the host nation treated vulnerable people within it with just a morsel of dignity, are not the ones responsible for making change happen.
But pretending all is well because the football provides an escape from one’s own circumstances would be an injustice to those who were forced to toil to ensure this World Cup would have even a basic level of infrastructure to allow it to take place.
It is possible to both enjoy the football on show and appreciate it is taking place somewhere that it never should. Looking away and boycotting will be possible for some but an inconvenience others see no benefit in abiding by; there is no uniform way to best interact with this tournament.
The dark stain it will leave on the game’s soul is Sepp Blatter’s fault for overseeing a system of governance that effectively encouraged corruption. The fault of the FIFA exco members who were ever so willing to take bribes in exchange for votes. The fault of a state that actively abuses the human rights of those it should have a duty of care to protect.
The importance of appreciating sport’s relationship with forces more impactful than itself has never been greater. No amount of football can get in the way of that.
