Qatar World Cup: An Embarrassment To The World

FIFA has never been the most morally upright institution in the world. The organization has always been synonymous with corruption, but this year’s iteration of the world cup is a mockery of everything international sporting events claim to stand for.

The controversy of Qatar hosting the World Cup started before the kickoff of the first game. The effort to prepare for the games was one giant human rights violation. Qatar is a slave state. They draw workers primarily from South Asian countries with the promise of good wages. However, to get there you need to take out a loan from the Qataris. This puts the workers into indentured servitude.

Official estimates of deaths from the migrant workers (slaves) are around 6500 to build all these stadiums. This number does not include all the workers who died shortly after returning to their home countries suffering from internal organ damage due to the terrible working conditions in extreme heat.

The fact that Qatar is a modern Slave state is by far the worst thing about the country, however, FIFA is no stranger to rewarding bad actors. The last World Cup was in Russia even though they had invaded Ukraine 4 years earlier. The difference is that the Russians understood the bargain of corruption that is FIFA. They bribe a few officials to get the games and the world’s attention and in return, they are on their best behaviour for a few weeks so the organization can whitewash your country’s crimes.

This is not so for the Qataris, their games have failed on every level.

Prior to the games, it was reported that due to a lack of attendance from the international community they were hiring “fans” for each country from Pakistan to fill out the stadiums and avoid criticizing the government. An embarassing development for all sides.

Qatar is very big on “respecting religion” and has used that as an excuse to justify all of its cultural idiosyncrasies (euphemisms for killing gay people). However, their respect for religion seems to only extend to Islam as they quickly moved to ban Kosher food and Jewish prayers inside the country.

One of the funnier displays of their radical Islamist ideology was bringing in extremist preacher Zakir Niak to teach people about Islam at the games. One small problem, aside from the history of supporting terrorism, Zakir Niak is on record saying that being a professional soccer player is Haram. Oh well, I guess Qatar is in violation of Islamic law according to their own expert.

What might end up being the greatest violation of all in the eyes of FIFA is their refusal to sell beer. It is not that they just refused to sell beer (only to the commoners), but they had taken a 75 million dollar sponsorship from Budweiser and then reneged on their promise. Practice slavery, invading a neighbouring country, genociding a minority group all of those actions are completely fine with the FIFA brass but violate a contract with a multimillion-dollar sponsor? That is trouble. 

These were all the problems that existed before the first ball was kicked, and it took just 3 minutes after that for another controversy. Ecuador took on the host nation and jumped out to an early lead scoring a goal in the 3rd minute that was called back on the most ridiculous offside call showing the world that if Qatar was going to win, it would be based on their blood money and not skill. Luckily the team was so bad that Ecuador was still able to win 2-0, but there is a serious shadow cast over the legitimacy of the referees going forward. 

Qatar might be engaged in what could colloquially be referred to as “clownery”, but there is a dark and nefarious side to their behaviour that can not be ignored. Their support for the Islamic Republic at a time when they are massacring the people of Iran in multiple cities and provinces is abhorrent.  

A brave Iranian woman decided to display the true flag of Iran with the lion and sun. She was later arrested by the Qatari police. Again it is not for their “non-political” stance as you can see another person in the section waving the flag of the non-existent country of Palestine in the same video.

The vapid virtue signaling that major sports leagues, FIFA included, have always allowed is now punishable in Qatar. That might be fine if there was any hope that this would be the new standard going forward, but no one should be naive enough to believe that. 

The reason I support vapid virtue signaling in Qatar specifically is that they have spent billions of dollars over the years inculcating these ideologies in the West. Their state media, Al Jazeera, is hyper-Islamist in Arabic but it promotes establishment-level moral relativism in its English publication and their AJ+ outlet pushes some of the most insane hyper-progressive social justice propaganda out there. Not to mention the money they have put into US universities to do the same. 

Qatar is a horrible country, and a bastion for slavers, terrorist financiers, and human rights abuses. The only good thing about these games is that more people will start to see the country for what it really is.