By: Ryann Rodney
The World Cup is an event sports fans worldwide anticipate internally. Each quad brings new players and the ending of legends' careers. While generally celebrated and carefree, this year's world cup has been littered with political controversy.
Before the World Cup even began, a controversy came to light, the treatment of migrant workers. When Qatar was assigned the 2022 World Cup in 2010, the country lacked the infrastructure; because of this, Qatar spent 220 billion dollars over twelve years to build 7 new stadiums, highways, and a metro system. Qatar relied on its labor force to create this infrastructure, primarily migrant workers. Migrant workers make up 90% of the workforce in Qatar, but most are not citizens. To put it into perspective, three million people live in Qatar, but only 300,000 are Qatari citizens. Over the twelve years, there have been numerous reports of inhumane conditions for workers, such as $200-$300 a month wages, 18-hour shifts, poor living and working conditions, and controlling workers' immigration status. These conditions have reportedly caused the death of 6,500 migrant workers. Reports on the subject from European media calling out the human rights violations caused the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, to say, "What we Europeans have been doing for the past 3,000 years, we should be apologizing for the next 3,000 years before we start giving moral lessons to people," This statement while effective, has not stopped the criticism regarding the apparent violation of human rights.
On November 23rd, 2022, the World Cup began as usual with its opening ceremony. While broadcasted in other countries, the United Kingdom opped out on showing the ceremony, replacing it with lectures about carbon emissions and a Chelsea vs. Tottenham game. While the reason has not been publicized, many think it's because of Qatar's human rights violations and the reading of the Quran. This opened discussion on the internet about how when the 2018 World Cup was in Russia, they had already annexed Crimea and occupied eastern Ukraine. At the time, there was zero criticism from the BBC, and the opening ceremony was shown in full. Clearly, instead of not performing human rights violations, the question has become who can perform them and not face criticism.
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