The World Cup in Qatar is about much more than a celebration of the most popular sport on the planet. It is also about the return of the major events that have eluded us since February 2020. The Olympic Games in Tokyo (2021) and Beijing (2022) took place within rigid sanitary frameworks which discouraged the presence of spectators or simply forbade it. Since November, there has been a feverishness in Doha with these football fans who have come from all over to celebrate.
The skies had clouded considerably in the months leading up to kick-off, however. The media had brought up the nebulous circumstances of the awarding of the event to Qatar, as well as the precarious working conditions of the foreign employees called upon to build the structures necessary for the holding of the World Cup. The images of unfinished work a few hours before the first match also revealed a certain incompetence.
The transformation from an economy based on traditional fishing (and that of pearl oysters) to the exploitation of vast reserves of natural gas has taken place rapidly in Qatar. The fruits of the export of liquefied natural gas financed the infrastructures – in particular numerous football stadiums and a metro – which it acquired in anticipation of the World Cup. These exports, it should be remembered, which help to heat and light up part of Europe while a despot attacks Ukraine.
While some of the criticism was entirely legitimate – notably on the rights of LGBTQ+ communities – others poorly masked Western condescension to an Arab country that had dared to spend a fortune to organize a party around a sport to which it does not excel. To add to it, a country with a very modest population and a territory smaller than the Gaspé Peninsula.
The absence of alcohol in the stadiums had also provoked an avalanche of comments heavy with prejudice. As if a Muslim country had to sideline its morals in the face of alcohol to adapt to practices elsewhere. Having attended the England-Wales match, I am convinced that this measure spared me several unfortunate incidents.
The International Football Federation – like the International Olympic Committee – does not always act transparently. The opacity surrounding the choice of site for a World Cup often fuels the rumor mill. For some, a list of infamous countries should exist to guarantee that they could not take advantage of a showcase to accredit any political regime. But what criteria would we apply to banish them? And who would head up the list of “bad guys”?
I know that several countries would volunteer to act as a policeman. Like the three who will host the next World Cup in 2026. Yet are the United States, Mexico and Canada beyond reproach?
The treatment of visible minorities (especially African-Americans) in the United States continues to shock. Between Rosa Parks and George Floyd can we really talk about progress? And what about all those states that rolled back women’s rights in the wake of the overthrow of Roe v. wade ? The homicide rate per 100,000 inhabitants in Mexico is one of the highest on the planet. Drug traffickers and other criminals operate in a world where, it seems, accountability is optional.
In Canada, we are shamed every time we talk about Indian residential schools. And what lessons can we offer the Qataris about workers’ rights in light of the plight of Chinese immigrants called to build the railway in Canada?
Following the logic of the many “pure” people asking to boycott Qatar, we should no longer set foot in Pompano or Fort Lauderdale, nor in Cancún or Puerto Vallarta. The railway should logically also be on a blacklist – need I specify the repercussions for our economy? Imagine also the impact on Canadian unity if our elders had also played the “pure” game – Jacques Parizeau would never have taken the train to go to Banff in October 1967 and thus never switched to the sovereignist camp!
If topography (and the audacity of a generation of engineers) hadn’t spoiled us so much with renewable energy and instead we were sitting on immeasurable reserves of natural gas, could we say without a shadow of a doubt that we would not also have wanted to hold the World Cup in Quebec and build stadiums in Montreal and Montmagny? The World Cup was held for the first time in the Middle East, which allowed an Arab nation to shine. It had as much right to host the World Cup in 2022 as Montreal the Olympic Games in 1976.