The tournament of controversies | The Journal of Montreal

DOHA, Qatar | The World Cup in Qatar is now over. What conclusions can we draw from an event born in controversy twelve years earlier?

Because it’s a fact, the tournament was preceded by years of criticism and controversy and it continued even after the players started kicking the ball around.

We cannot ignore the way in which this project came out of the ground, starting with the allegations of bribes which would have allowed the small emirate of barely three million inhabitants to obtain the tournament.

And it’s just the first milestone in a long line of controversies that have plagued the dozen years leading up to the tournament since it was announced to be awarded to Qatar in 2010.

Human rights

From a sporting point of view, the tournament was successful, but at what cost? At the cost of thousands of human lives since more than 6,500 migrant workers would have died in Qatar while the construction sites for the stadiums, the metro and the infrastructures continued.

It is therefore difficult to dissociate the sporting and the human in this context even if the emirate has reviewed its policies on workers’ rights along the way. Despite everything, there were deaths during the tournament. A worker died from a fall at a training site and a security officer suffered the same fate at the Lusail stadium.

In the city of Lusail, a mural had been erected in tribute to the workers, but it strangely disappeared before the start of the tournament. Why ?

Even before it started, the tournament was tainted and other events contributed to the controversy in the days leading up to its start and during the first week.

Budgate

A few days before the start of the tournament came what can be called the Budgate. It had been determined that no alcoholic beverages would be sold in stadiums.

It was clear, known and known and it respected the more conservative principles of Qatar.

It was determined that there would be spaces around the stadiums where fans could whistle a Budweiser or two before and after games, Bud was the official sponsor of the event.

However, a few days before kick-off, the supreme organizing committee decided that it was no. That said, it seems the media were bothered more than the supporters.

One Love

Then came the controversy over the OneLove armband that the captains of a few European teams had to wear.

It is an armband on which we find a heart, a rainbow and the words OneLove. This was adopted in support of people in the LGBTQ+ community.

Even though Qatar had said they were ready to welcome everyone and differences, they obviously lobbied FIFA not to wear the armband during matches.

The federation even threatened recalcitrant captains with sporting sanctions, namely yellow cards, if they dared to defy the ban.

The late American journalist Grant Wahl, who sadly died during the tournament, was even briefly detained for showing up to a match wearing a rainbow t-shirt.

fans and villages

Then there was this rumor of supporters coming from Southeast Asia and being paid to be “fans” in exchange for accommodation, tickets and food.

Having met a very large number of these young people, all men, in the metro and in the various stadiums, we tend to think that the rumor was true, especially when we are talking to a supporter of Canada who does not speak or English or French, or to a supporter of England who does not understand a word of English. But it seems that India has been one of the most present countries among visitors so we will now give them the benefit of the doubt.

To this we add the famous villages for the fans, these small temporary installations made of tents or containers and which experienced failures in the first weeks.

We could also talk about the environmental balance that the air conditioning of eight stadiums in the middle of the desert can represent. At least these stadiums which will mostly be partially demolished will be used for other purposes rather than becoming white elephants.