FIFA or the Federation Internationale de Football Association is a non-profit organization that acts as the governing body of professional football. If you ask anybody who is knowledgeable in the field of soccer or football they will tell you that FIFA is extremely corrupt. From accepting bribes to voting unethically, FIFA has engaged in numerous corrupt acts with the biggest acts coming in their decision of Qatar as the 2022 World Cup host. How was a country with a population of just under 3 million able to garner more votes than the likes of Japan, Australia, and the United States? In fact, former President Barack Obama called it the “wrong decision”. Qatar will be the smallest-ever host country for the World Cup.
Many have stated that part of the reason Qatar won was because of the location and the finances in the middle east. Many prominent families are willing to build the necessary infrastructure to accommodate the games. Their willingness has raised eyebrows as some think that they would be willing to bribe FIFA who is known for accepting these kinds of things. Three FIFA committee members were accused of receiving payments from Qatar. A former member of the U.S. national team, Eric Wynalda commented on the situation, “basically, oil and natural gas won today.” The biggest issue that I personally have with Qatar hosting the 2022 World Cup are the human rights violations that have occurred and have been ignored. The labor force tasked with building the infrastructure for the stadiums is made up of a migrant force of roughly 2 million people which account for 95% of the country’s working population - a staggering number. Many of these migrant workers are bussed in from Bangladesh, Nepal, India, and other countries to work on these stadiums. Temperatures regularly reach between 90-100 degrees and the transportation to these stadiums takes a long time. Many have died building the stadium with a U.N. agency stating that 50 migrant workers died in work-related accidents in one year. Not to mention, there were 38,000 work-related injuries. Roughly 6,500 migrant workers have died since Qatar won the bid to host the world cup. There are still a large number of deaths and injuries that have not been properly reported. These unsafe working conditions are hazardous for the labor force and are a violation of human rights. The Qatari authorities have failed to investigate the migrant deaths until recently. Many national teams have donned shirts promoting human rights slogans and denouncing Qatar’s treatment of their workers. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/23/revealed-migrant-worker-deaths-qatar-fifa-world-cup-2022 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-21/why-qatar-is-a-controversial-venue-for-2022-world-cup-quicktake
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