Can the spell turn against the sorcerer? When Qatar demonstrably bought enough votes in FIFA a dozen years ago to be able to organize the World Cupdid so in the conviction that, in 2022, take advantage of the media impact of competition to be able to show itself to the rest of the world as a modern and attractive nation. A multimillion public relations strategy it may, however, not have the result so dreamed of. This is because, almost certainly, in the coming weeks – until the ball starts rolling on the pitches of the air-conditioned stadiums in the desert – what will stand out in world public opinion about Qatar will be the emirate’s sad history in terms of human rights. .
The handover of the Football World Cup to Qatar was decided by FIFA, December 2, 2010in the same vote in which he also delivered the 2018 World Cup to Russia, by Vladimir Putin – and there are no coincidences in these votes, as it turned out later.
However, at that time, how many people knew exactly what it was that happened in Qatar? How many people knew the way the Are migrants treated there almost like slaves? How many people were aware of the limitations imposed on the women’s rights or restrictions on freedom of expression? How many people have stopped for two minutes to think about what it means, in that country, to still criminalization of homosexuality?
Let us not be naive: for years, despite all this being denounced by a multitude of international organizations, which has always more public conversations and discussions it was something much less serious, but which most considered to be more “urgent”. And that boiled down to two questions: How can you play football with so hot? What are the implications for the national competitions of the World Cup to be played in winter? Priorities…
hidden deaths
the noise of ball business almost always prevailed over the screams of those who denounced the oppressive situation in the emirate. A noise that, moreover, was being fed by the number discrepancy about the number of deaths that occurred at the construction sites for the tournament, as the Sydney Morning Herald noted: “The Guardian [que noticiou as primeiras denúncias] estimated that around 6,500 workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have died in Qatar since 2010 – but the tournament’s organizing committee says only three people have died in the construction of stadiums. The International Labor Organization independently found that 50 workers lost their lives in 2020 and more than 500 were seriously injured.”
A Bloombergin recent days, also recalls that, in 2019, the United Nations condemned Qatar for racial discrimination, stating that, in the emirate, “a worker’s nationality played an ‘overwhelming role’ in the way in which he was treated”.
Now the moment of truth has arrived. And the conjuncture, it must be recognized, is no longer favorable to the arguments of those who claimed that the holding the World Cup would force Qatar to change its human rights policy. The reality is devastating: the previous World Cup was in Russia and we all saw how Vladimir Putin “changed” afterwards…
Reasons for the protest
Now start to growing interest in public opinion for what is really happening in Qatar. And, as the sports calendar is clearly turned inside out, everything is different from what used to happen in the weeks immediately prior to the start of the tournament: this time, there is almost no football “fever” usual, but it grows, in the opposite direction, the stupefaction by reality do Qatar.
“The decision to host the biggest sporting event on the planet in a country with a notoriously poor human rights record is causing unprecedented unease among competing nations,” Britain’s The Guardian wrote in an editorial. taken by the selection of Denmark to perform with a completely black outfit, in memory of the migrant workers who died during the construction of the stadiumsas well as the announcement that some captains intend to wear “One Love” rainbow armbands, in defense of LGBT+ rights, in a country where homosexuality is punishable by imprisonment.
The contestation begins, therefore, to take shape. “A recent global poll carried out by Amnesty International revealed that 84% of fans planning to attend at least one World Cup game believe that FIFA should compensate workers who died during the construction of infrastructure for the tournament,” he writes. to Nikkei Asia.
But there is also other problems, less spoken, but equally important. This is the case with the promise made by Qatar that the 2022 World Cup would be the first environmentally responsible. “The emirate of gas promised, in 2010, that its World Cup would be the first carbon neutral”, recalls the Belgian Le Soir. “Now, Qatar is accused of concealment, of so-called greenwashing, by various international bodies,” he adds.
Yes and no in France?
In France, as Le Monde writes, “most major cities – including Paris, Lyon, Lille, Marseille, Toulouse, Strasbourg and Reims – have decided not to broadcast the games in public on the usual giant screens”.
And several voices have been raised against the tournament: “On Twitter, the mayor of Lille, Martine Aubry, considered that the event is ‘absurd in terms of human rights, environment and sport’. Former President François Hollande – who praised Qatar’s ‘credibility’ in 2015, when France sold 24 Rafale fighter jets to the emirate – even declaring that if he were in Emmanuel Macron’s place, he would not attend the opening ceremony.”
However, despite these reactions, something strange continues to occur in France – a country where the Qatar is the owner of the main club, the millionaire Paris Saint Germainin addition to continuing to sponsor large companies and renowned intellectuals – as an exhaustive and timely article in L’Obs says: “In a country that is often quick to become indignant about human rights violations, no great intellectual or artistic figure has spoken out , for now on the subject.”
In the United Kingdom, in an opinion piece particularly violent to the Qatari regime and even more about the hypocrisy that is experienced in many European capitalsthe assistant director of The Spectator magazine, Rod Liddle, even made a point of warning that he “will not see any game of the World”.
the first alert
Despite this kind of unanimity that begins to form, although still only in the domain of words and not of deedsthe truth is had to wait a decade to begin to give due importance to the situation of the migrant workers not Qatari.
It all started, it must be remembered, with an investigation by the newspaper The Guardian, when cases were already growing about how the emirate bought votes in FIFA, involving many millions of euros. In September 2013, under the title “The Slaves of the Football World Cup”the British newspaper issued the warning: “Dozens of Nepalese migrant workers have died in Qatar in recent weeks and thousands more are suffering terrible labor abuses.”
The investigation revealed the existence of forced labourmuch of it unpaidin which many workers were left with the withheld passports and to live in inhumane conditionsto the point of even being denied free drinking water, despite the heat in the desert. “The revelations suggest that there is a chain of exploitation that runs from poor villages in Nepal to leaders in Qatar. This is a portrait of one of the richest nations in the world exploiting one of the poorest in preparation for the most popular sporting tournament of the world”, concluded The Guardian.
Since then, as Bloomberg mentions, it is recognized that the Qatar changed some of its labor legislation and abolished the slave system known as kafala, in which workers are forced asking the employer to change job, return home or even open a bank account.
Will there be boycotts?
However, according to Amnesty International and other humanitarian organizations, much remains to be done on the ground.
The huge global audience for the World Cup – which will reach five billion, according to FIFA – will be used to put pressure about Qatar. And that possibility, prohibited by FIFA regulations and the country’s laws, is starting to create headaches to the organizers.
The kick-off was given in Australia, a country that, unlike many Europeans and Africans, does not have significant trade links with Qatar and is even very far from its area of influence. “Australia’s national football team, known as the Socceroos, has become the first World Cup team to issue a collective statement protesting Qatar’s record of human rights abuses, calling for “effective solutions” for migrant workers and the decriminalization of women. same-sex relationships,” wrote Vince Rugari in the Sydney Morning Herald.
More significant is the fact that the 16-player video message was supported by a wider group and by Australia’s own football federation, which broke its silence on the matter by issuing a separate statement stating that the “suffering” felt by workers and their families “cannot be ignored”.
Stay in History?
It is not yet known what will happen, but starts to be more and more predictable that some athletes and fans take advantage of the event’s global audience to publicly manifest in favor of human rights. And, in that climate, it may even happen that, as Nikkei Asia writes, “players or leaders of the Iranian team can take the opportunity to declare their support for the demonstrations for gender rights, which are taking place in Iran”.
Also quoted by Nikkei Asia, a FIFA representative, who asked to not be identifiedconfirmed that the organization has received requests from some federations to request authorization to demonstrate their support for human rights, during the tournament. However, this kind of messages, like those made against racism or in favor of fair play, need to be authorized by FIFA. And, according to the regulations, if they are made without authorizationcan lead FIFA delegates to take drastic measures: “At the limit, the game can be canceled if the measures are not in accordance with FIFA directives”, warns Nikkei Asia.
This way, the World Cup in Qatar may even go down in history, in a never-before-seen way: be the first where a game is canceled or stopped, for political reasons. There are many reasons for this.
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