(Doha) The national championships have been on hiatus since this weekend, the stars will fly to Qatar where the trophy has arrived: next Sunday begins the first World Cup of football in the Arab world, the first also to arouse as many critical, environmental or human rights.
Posted at 10:53 p.m.
Organized in the fall – another first – to avoid the unbearable heat of this desert region, the 2022 World Cup will open with an unprecedented Qatar-Ecuador match in the Al Bayt stadium, the furthest from Doha, 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 that defending champions France will start against Australia two days later, on the 22nd.
Players arrive in dribs and drabs in this country of less than 12,000 km², or about a third of Belgium or Switzerland.
Many played this weekend, like the stars of Paris-SG, the Brazilian Neymar, the Argentinian Leo Messi or the Frenchman Kylian Mbappé. Their partner Sergio Ramos, however, will not participate in his fifth World Cup in a rejuvenated Spain. These four selections appear as favorites in a competition from which Italy will be absent for the second consecutive time.
Other stars are retained without knowing if they will be able to hold their rank, diminished by injuries, such as Sadio Mané (Senegal), Son Heung-min (South Korea) or Romelu Lukaku (Belgium). The selections must be announced before Monday evening. And for his final World Cup, what face will the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo show, who lives a way of the cross with Manchester United?
Pharaonic investments
A smooth debut would be a first victory for the small gas emirate in the Gulf, which has faced a lot of criticism since FIFA surprisingly favored it over the United States in December 2010.
This choice, which was “a mistake” according to the ousted boss of world football Sepp Blatter, required extraordinary investments, estimated by some sources at around 274 billion CAN dollars, including around 48 billion for the metro and 8.9 billion for stadiums.
It was first of all the suspicions of corruption that had to be confronted, with Swiss, American and French judicial investigations. Then came the attacks on the environmental impact of this event, at a time of global warming and climatic disasters. The Western media insisted on the absurdity of air-conditioned stadiums or the many planes of supporters arriving daily from neighboring countries for the matches.
But it is above all the construction of stadiums with 40 to 80,000 seats (seven entirely built, an eighth entirely renovated) which will weigh on the environmental balance sheet, according to NGOs who do not believe in the stated objective of carbon neutrality.
human rights
In the home stretch, however, the most virulent attacks, coming mainly from Western Europe, have focused on respect for human rights in Qatar, which cries out for “racism” and “double standards”.
The fate of migrant workers, essential cogs in a country where Qataris represent only 10% of a population of three million inhabitants, has been pointed out, some NGOs putting forward the figure of thousands of deaths on construction sites, record that Doha vehemently denies.
The Qatari authorities and FIFA emphasize the progress made in social legislation in record time, with the establishment of a monthly minimum wage (approximately CAN$370), sanctions against employers who do not pay it and the dismantling of the “kafala”, the sponsorship system which obliged all foreign employees to obtain authorization from their 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.
Another subject of concern in a conservative country where homosexuality and sexual relations outside marriage are criminalized, the fate reserved for LGBTQ + people, even if the authorities have assured that they will be welcomed without discrimination. The captains of eight selections, such as England, France and Germany, have announced that they will wear an armband with colored stripes against discrimination.
Not sure that the initiative pleases FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who told the 32 selections to “focus on football” and no longer “give moral lessons”. FIFA has banned Denmark from training in shirts bearing the message ‘Human Rights for All’.