The 2022 World Cup in Qatar is without a doubt one of history’s most shameful sports events ever staged. FIFA handed the soccer tournament to Qatar under the shadow of human rights abuses and corruption. Remarkably, the event is taking place despite calls for teams to boycott amidst thousands of alleged deaths.
So today we’ll look at the reasons that make the Qatar World Cup the most shameful sports tournament ever. It’s up there with the very worst including the Russian World Cup and the Berlin Olympics. History won’t be kind to the people that enabled this event because it’s so brazen. This should be a festival of soccer and joy, but there’s a shadow hanging over it.
No Soccer Culture
One of the standout things about Qatar is that the tiny Gulf nation doesn’t have a notable soccer culture. The team barely made an impression on the Asian Cup or World Cup before it won the right to host the event. They did win the former tournament in 2019 after naturalizing several foreign athletes (via The Athletic).
FIFA changed its rules to prevent them from luring several Brazilians into the country. This was even though the South Americans had never been to Qatar before. Other Middle Eastern nations like Saudi Arabia have rich soccer cultures and would have been more suitable to host fans.