CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
With less than a month to go until the world cup, Australia’s Socceroos have released a video calling on the world cup host nation of Qatar to address their less than impressive record on human rights. They are the first team to do so.
This comes after the oil-rich Arab nation managed to build 5 world class stadiums, capable of seating up to 80,000 people each, in the twelve years since successfully winning the bid to host the tournament.
In December 2010, twenty-two member FIFA Executive Committee convened in Zürich to decide that it made more sense to host the 2022 World Cup in Qatar – a shock announcement, given the amount of assurances the Australian delegate had been given that they would be the winners.
Two FIFA executive committee members were suspended before the vote in relation to allegations of corruption regarding their votes. The decision to host the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which was graded as having “high operational risk”, was immediately criticised by many as being part of the FIFA corruption scandals.
However, like all forms of sporting corruption, the skepticism around the ethics of this tournament were immediately forgotten about as commentators urged critics ‘to keep politics out of sport’.
The disgrace then turned into excitement when the artist’s impressions of the air-conditioned mega-stadiums started filtering into the news cycle – with parallels being drawn to the Pyramids of Giza.
The hype surrounding this world cup may be one of the most blatant examples of cognitive dissonace, considering it is no secret that this country’s amazing world cup facelift was solely dependent on the human rights violations of indentured migrant workers from the subcontinent.
Due to Qatar’s intense summer heat, this World Cup will be held from late-November to mid-December, making it the first tournament to take place in the northern autumn so that it isn’t too hot for the atheltes. Of course this luxury was not extended to the slaves building these stadiums over the last decade, with thousands of deaths recorded from worksite accidents and extreme overheating.
However, all murky human rights violations aside. The World Cup is going to be very fun for all of those involved in the post-construction stages of this historic event! Unless you’re a gay spectator who gets caught holding hands with your partner in the streets of Al Khor!
