With the conclusion of the month-long saga of the 2022 Football World Cup in Doha, Qatar, controversies as well as concerns of soccer playing nations and those opposed to holding the single sport event in the tiny Arab state have been set at rest.
Since 2010 when the world soccer governing body FIFA awarded the 2022 show to Qatar, geo-political controversies erupted to take away the most popular sporting event of the world from the Muslim country. Concerns also abound to discredit Doha’s efforts to hold a hassle-free event.
This was the first time in the history of soccer world cup that the tournament was held in the Arab world. However, it was not the first time, and is certainly not the last time, that both FIFA and the host country Qatar were caught up in controversies and accusations of bribery in the run-up to the tournament.
The previous tournament held in Russia in 2018 raised questions about FIFA’s relationship with President Vladimir Putin, while the 2014 World Cup in Brazil had sparked an outcry over the forcible eviction of tens of thousands of poor people from their homes to make room for new the sport-related infrastructure.
According to Danyel Reiche, a visiting professor of Qatar’s Georgetown University, who leads a research study on the political and economic legacy of the FIFA World Cup, Qatar is a small state, and for small states, the main objective in international affairs is visibility. “Apart from visibility, it’s also about having some influence in international affairs and being able to punch above (your) weight.” As Danyel Reiche and his co-author Paul Michael Brannagan argue in their new book on the tournament, “(While) Qatar intends to use the 2022 World Cup to promote a positive image of the country abroad, the tournament has, in contrast, come to introduce and educate many global audiences to the state in largely negative terms.”
However, FIFA President Gianni Infantino was all praise for the host country, describing the tournament as an incredible success. In his remarks at the conclusion of the tournament, Mr Infantino, who has been elected unopposed for the second time as FIFA chief, said: “Matches have been played without incidents; it has been a very joyful atmosphere. There is something happening when we talk about football becoming truly global, with an African team (Morocco) reaching the semi-final for the first time. We also had a woman, Stephanie Frappart, referee a match for the first time.”
As put by Mr Infantino in his concluding remarks, “The World Cup has been an incredible success on all fronts. The main one being the fans, the behaviour, the joyful atmosphere, the bringing of people together. The fans meeting the Arab world. It has been very important for the future of all of us.” The Qatar World Cup will go down in the annals of history as an incredible event which brought together nations at a time when political biases, military tensions and geopolitical controversies have gripped the world.
