The 8 Craziest Stories From the 2022 World Cup (So Far)
There are still three weeks to go!
The 2022 World Cup in Qatar is a human rights disaster, just like everyone has known it was going to be for years now.
That’s not hyperbole. As far back as 2013, there were reports that as many as 1,200 workers had already died building the infrastructure for the games. At the time, the prediction was that another 4,000 would die before the tournament actually started. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a little short. According to a 2021 report by The Guardian, the death count has climbed to more than 6,500, and that’s as of almost a year ago.
Considering all of the people they killed getting things ready, you’d think the organizers of the 2022 World Cup would at least have gone the extra mile to make sure everything else about the event runs smoothly.
They did not. Here are some of the other controversies that are already plaguing the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Migrant Workers Deported For Complaining About Lack of Pay
The controversies actually started rolling in well before the World Cup started, and no, I’m not referring to all of the dead people. I’m referring to a bunch of people who probably would’ve died if Qatar didn’t deport them for complaining about working as slaves.
Back in August, the Washington Post reported that Qatar detained and deported at least 60 workers for participating in a protest outside the offices of Al Bandary International Group.
Public demonstrations of this nature are as risky as they are rare in a country with a human rights track record like Qatar’s, so these people had to be working under especially harsh conditions to warrant this protest. Indeed, some of the people protesting had not been paid for seven months before they decided to complain.
Unsurprisingly, the protest did not go well. Qatari authorities rounded up all involved parties and deported them back to whatever country they were tricked into leaving in the first place, still unpaid. However, a government official did claim all back salaries will be paid through the Ministry of Labour.
That’s probably a lie. Also they spelled “labor” wrong.
Mexican World Cup Worker Sentenced to 100 Lashes After Reporting Rape
Speaking of horror stories that happened before the World Cup even got started, this next one is a doozy.
It seems to have somehow flown completely under the American news media radar that, back in April, Paola Schietekat Sedas, a Mexican woman who was working on the World Cup organizing committee as a senior economics advisor, had to flee the country to avoid the punishment of 100 lashings that she was sentenced to by a criminal court.
Her crime? Reporting that she’d been raped by a colleague who snuck into her room while she was sleeping.
“Hours later, I had bruises all over my left arm, shoulder and back. I kept a cool head. I told my mum, a colleague from work and I documented everything with photos, so that my memory, in an attempt to protect itself, would not minimise the events or completely erase part of them.”
After reporting the incident to local Qatari law enforcement, she was called back to the station a few hours later. The man she’d accused told police that the two were in a romantic relationship together and, just like that, she was accused of engaging in an extramarital affair, which is a crime in Qatar.
“It was three hours of interrogation in Arabic and, at a certain point, they demanded a virginity test.”
Things were so dire that her own lawyer told her the best course of action would be to marry her attacker.
Fortunately, Sedas managed to flee the country with the help of the Mexican consulate and the World Cup Organizing Committee.
After returning home to Mexico, she learned that the man she accused had already been cleared by authorities and that her case was going to be heard in a criminal court soon. She was later found guilty and sentenced to 100 lashes and seven years in prison.
Or, put another way, she was sentenced to having a good reason to never visit Qatar again.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino Feels Gay
As the start of the World Cup drew nearer, the reporting about how it was a terrible idea on several fronts started picking up stream.
In response, FIFA President Gianni Infantino went on a 57 minute rant at a press conference about how western nations are in no position to get mad at Qatar for human rights abuses.
“We have been told many, many lessons from some Europeans, from the western world. I think for what we Europeans have been doing the last 3,000 years we should be apologizing for the next 3,000 years before starting to give moral lessons to people.”
If we’re talking abuses on the world stage throughout history, that’s a perfectly reasonable point. We’re not, though. We’re talking about a sporting event that has been hosted by 18 different countries. Only one of those countries required the deaths of 6,000 plus people to make it happen.
Also, the speech gets weirder.
“Today I feel Qatari. Today I feel Arabic. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel like a migrant worker. Of course I am not Qatari, I am not an Arab, I am not African, I am not gay, I am not disabled. But I feel like it, because I know what it means to be discriminated against, to be bullied, as a foreigner in a foreign country. As a child I was bullied – because I had red hair and freckles, plus I was Italian, so imagine.”
Ah yes, imagine indeed. Having red hair and freckles is JUST LIKE being one of the 6,500 people who died so the United States and England could play to a scoreless draw to the delight of no one.
He also took exception to another “rumor” that claimed people were paid to show up at the World Cup and pretend to be fans.
“Can someone who looks maybe like an Indian not cheer for England, or for Spain or Germany? You know what this is? This is racism. This is pure racism. And we can stop that.”
Right. About that…
Fans Paid to Attend World Cup Have Daily Allowance Cancelled
There are absolutely paid “fans” at the 2022 World Cup.
The Qatari agency responsible for running the World Cup, the excellently named Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, launched a program called the Fan Leader Network. That program recruited supporters from around the globe and offered them travel, accommodation, and a spot at the World Cup opening round in exchange for positive and upbeat social media posts.
However, being paid to attend is still no insurance against getting fucked over by Qatar at the last possible minute. In the case of Fan Leader Network attendees, they were informed a few short days before departing for their human-rights-abuser-funded journey that a per diem payment meant to cover food and drinks was cancelled.
The Guardian viewed the message sent to attendees, which said this:
“Due to the recent developments in the media, we are keen to protect our visiting fans from the erroneous misinformed statements regarding ‘fans receiving payment for the trip’. Accordingly, the daily allowance will unfortunately no longer be issued. The allowance was intended as a small uplift on your own personal funds to assist with refreshments during your stay.”
Translation: “People are saying we paid you to attend, so we must now pay you a little less to attend.”
On the bright side, it’s not like there was gonna be anything cool to spend that food and drink money on. Because…
World Cup Beer Sales Banned at the Last Possible Minute
Qatar operates under their own particular brand of Sharia law. That means, among a whole lot of other things, that drinking alcohol in public is strictly forbidden.
Many potential World Cup attendees found this concerning, likely because soccer is a terminally boring sport that can only be enjoyed when one is at their absolute drunkest.
No worries, though! The Qatari government swore they’d allow beer sales around the perimeter of the stadiums and that fans could take those beers inside the stadium during matches. As the start of the tournament approached, they even put up red Budweiser kiosks outside all of the venues.
Then, around 48 hours or so before things were due to kickoff, FIFA announced that there would be no alcohol sales at the 2022 World Cup. The decision was made “following discussions between host country authorities” according to a tweet from FIFA.
That had to be a huge a bummer for Budweiser, the company that was tapped (ha) to supply the beer for the event. They had a $75 million advertising deal in place with FIFA. Their quirky corporate response was just a tweet that said “Well, this is awkward.”
They’ve since deleted the tweet and have vowed to send all of the leftover beer to whatever country wins the World Cup.
As funny as it would be, that country will not be Qatar. They made the record books by becoming the host country to get eliminated from competition the fastest in World Cup history.
That is also very funny.
The ‘One Love’ Armband
Alcohol isn’t the only matter Qatar has reversed course on between being awarded the World Cup and the start of the tournament. There was also a point in history when the notoriously anti-LGBTQ+ nation swore fans would be able to waive rainbow flags and do whatever else they wanted in support of their beliefs and equality and things of the like.
That was also a lie. The captains of seven different European teams were planning to wear rainbow armbands with the words “One Love” on them as a show of support for inclusion and equality, but on the eve of the opening rounds, that stance changed.
After threats of sanctions from FIFA, representatives from those seven countries issued a joint statement:
“As national federations we can’t let our players face sporting sanctions including bookings, so we have asked our captains not to wear the armbands in FIFA World Cup games.”
In place of the rainbow armbands, FIFA announced its own initiative where players could wear armbands with different slogans like “football unites the world” and “share the meal” and “bring the moves” because that is all exactly the same as taking a stance against a group of notorious human rights abusers.
It doesn’t end with the armband controversy either. In one incident, a BBC reporter claimed her cameraman was initially turned away from the England vs USA match because he was wearing a rainbow colored watch band.
They were both eventually allowed to enter the stadium after calling a hotline set up specifically for this situation.
If your country needs that hotline at all, you shouldn’t be hosting the World Cup.
Also abolish the World Cup.
A Reporter Was Robbed Live On Air (and Other Media Struggles)
The 2022 World Cup has been bad times for reporters as well.
Case in point, a Danish reporter named Rasmus Tantholdt was doing a live broadcast where he was, you know, reporting on the World Cup, when he was approached by a security team driving a golf cart.
In the video, for reasons unknown, they threaten to break his camera before the situation is seemingly defused when the reporter shows them his media credentials.
In a much wilder incident, an Argentine journalist named Dominique Metzger was robbed while reporting live on the air. As extreme as that sounds, the story gets even crazier once the police get involved (if you can believe that).
Here’s a quote:
“I went to the station and that was when the cultural differences began. The policewoman said to me: ‘We have high tech cameras everywhere and we are going to locate him with face detection. What do you want the justice system to do when we find him? What justice do you want? Want sentence do you want us to give him? Do you want him to be sentenced to five years in prison? Do you want him to be deported?”
Honestly, those are all kind of valid questions. If this happened in the United States the cops also would not do shit. I guess we should just be happy she wasn’t accused of a sex crime and sentenced to 100 lashings for reporting this incident to the authorities.
The Housing Conditions
Prospective World Cup attendees with an eye on the news were probably quite concerned when, a couple of short days prior to the start of the tournament, pictures of the “fan village” started making the rounds online.
The concern centered around how it looked like an asylum-seeker detention center that was still a few months away from being fit to accept asylum seekers. All for the low low price of just $200 per night!
Things didn’t improve much when people actually arrived. Not only were the shipping containers still shipping containers, but also the food was this:
That image led to immediate comparisons to the notorious Fyre Festival and that viral image of a cheese sandwich and salad with no dressing.
As similar as those pictures may be, I think the comparison is unfair. The Fyre Fest didn’t kill 6,500 people.
It’s great that the picture of the salad got 26k likes. It’s like, “Hey man, that salad(ish) looks really, REALLY pretty good. Who’d you have to blow to get that? No, wait, marry. No wait, get a press pass. No wait... hey, how come the Mexican woman got to leave? In Qatar is that considered honeymooning?”
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