a few days before the start of the competition, all eyes are on Qatar

The teams involved in the World Cup are starting to arrive in Qatar, the first Arab country to organize the competition which begins on Sunday. Everywhere, the national championships have come to a halt while the best players in the world have joined their selection. This 2022 World Cup will be very scrutinized, especially because of the numerous criticisms it arouses, both in terms of human rights and in terms of the environment
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In order to avoid the unbearable heat that affects this small Gulf state, the competition has been moved to the fall. The opening match between Qatar and Ecuador (Sunday, 5 p.m.) in the Al Bayt stadium, about forty kilometers north of the capital. The host country, with a weak footballing tradition, will know more about its chances of passing the group stage of a competition than the defending champion, France, will start against Australia on November 22
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Football stars expected in Doha

After almost six months of preparation behind closed doors in Europe, the Qatari selection has just returned to the country, where the selections are arriving in dribs and drabs. Many still played this weekend, like the stars of Paris-SG, the Brazilian Neymar, the French Kylian Mbappé or the Argentinian Leo Messi, who was cheered on Monday by thousands of people during training public of his selection in Abu Dhabi, in the neighboring emirate of Qatar.

These headliners of world football will be there. On the other hand, the French world champions, already deprived of their midfielders Paul Pogba and N’Golo Kanté, will have to do without their central defender. Presnel Kimpembe
“insufficiently recovered“from an injury.

First gatherings of supporters

Doha experienced its first significant gathering of supporters for the arrival of a team on Monday evening: hundreds of Tunisian fans, closely watched by police in riot gear, sang the national anthem in front of the hotel of the future opponent of the Blues. The latest lists of selections were announced on Monday, like that of Iran who will play a historic match against the United States. The star Zardar Azmoun, who was injured, critic of the repression of the protest movement in his country, will be on the trip. Any token gestures by the ‘Team Melli’ players who arrived on Monday will be watched closely in their first appearance, against England on the 21st.

Other big names are retained without knowing if they will hold their rank, diminished by injuries, such as Sadio Mané (Senegal), Son Heung-min (South Korea) or Romelu Lukaku (Belgium). And for his final World Cup, what face will the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo show, who lives a way of the cross with Manchester United?

Qatar tries to defuse the controversies

An unblemished organizational debut would be a first victory for the small Gulf gas emirate, which has had to face a lot of criticism since, to everyone’s surprise, Fifa preferred it to the United States in December 2010. This choice required extraordinary investments, estimated by some sources at around 200 billion euros.. After the accusations of corruption, came the attacks on the environmental impact of this event. The Western media insisted on the absurdity of air-conditioned stadiums.

But it is above all the construction of stadiums with 40 to 80,000 seats (seven built entirely, an eighth completely renovated) which will weigh, according to NGOs who do not believe in the stated objective of carbon neutrality. In the home stretch, the most virulent attacks, coming mainly from Western Europe, have focused on human rights in Qatar.

The fate of migrant workers

“Our relations with these countries must be reconsidered after the World Cup. They want us to fail after all the effort and all the money spent“, warned in an interview with the local press the former Minister of Energy and Industry, Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah. The fate of migrant workers, essential cogs in a country where Qataris represent only 10% of the three million inhabitantshas been singled out, with some NGOs putting forward the figure of thousands of deaths on construction sites, a report that Doha vigorously denies.

Qatari authorities and Fifa insist on social progress in record time, with the establishment of a minimum wage (about 270 euros per month), sanctions against employers who do not pay it, and a dismantling of the sponsorship system which forced any foreign employee to obtain the authorization of his employer to resign. On several occasions, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have urged FIFA to pay financial compensation to the workers who built the stadiums.

Do not “give moral lessons”

The treatment of LGBTQ+ people is another concern in a conservative country where homosexuality and sex outside marriage are criminalized, even though authorities have assured that they will be welcomed without discrimination. The captains of eight selections, including France, have announced that they will wear an armband with colored bands against discrimination. Not sure that the initiative pleases the president of Fifa Gianni Infantino, who told the 32 selections not to “give moral lessons“.

He will be reassured by the Australians, who posted a very critical video on social media on October 27. “What we said in that video has been said, what needed to be heard has been heard, and now quite frankly we just deal with football, we don’t really talk about any of that anymore“, immediately evacuated their striker Mitchell Duke on Monday. “I can agree or disagree with their ideas but I have to show respect” in Qatar, said Blues captain Hugo Lloris on Monday, when asked about the inclusive armband.