Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter has acknowledged his regret over allowing Qatar to host the FIFA World Cup in 2022.
“The choice of Qatar was a mistake,” the 86-year-old said in an interview with Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger.
“At the time, we actually agreed in the executive committee that Russia should get the 2018 World Cup and the USA that of 2022. It would have been a gesture of peace if the two long-standing political opponents had hosted the World Cup one after the other.”
“It’s too small a country. Football and the World Cup are too big for that.”
It comes after fresh concerns have reignited an international debate regarding the treatment of LGBTQ+ individuals and workers in the Gulf state, just two weeks before the tournament begins.
In Qatar, same-sex relationships and the promotion of them are criminalised, with punishments ranging from fines to the death penalty.
Qatar World Cup ambassador Khalid Salman recently said that homosexuality is “damage in the mind”.
There are also concerns about the treatment of the country’s workers leading up to the World Cup, with Amnesty International reporting that workers have been subjected to terrible living conditions, delayed salaries and threats and blackmail by their employers.
Are we really surprised?
Once again, football’s darker side has come to light, making for the realisation of uncomfortable facts and truths, and whether or not fans of certain clubs should think twice before taking the moral high ground.
Like most things in life, everything has a price. Qatar has the third-largest natural gas reserves in the world, putting them in a position of leverage over Western countries.
This isn’t the first time that football’s relationship with morals has been called into question.
Similar concerns have been raised over the treatment of certain demographics by Gulf and Middle Eastern states over the past decade.
Many of them own clubs in an obvious attempt to sportswash their image; namely Paris St. Germain, Manchester City and more recently, Newcastle United.
Airlines such as Emirates – that sponsor clubs such as Real Madrid, Arsenal and AC Milan – are often associated with the United Arab Emirates, with many human rights groups regarding them as substandard when it comes to human rights.
Multinational bank Standard Chartered – which sponsors Liverpool – own a coal mine in north Columbia called Cerrejòn, which is causing irreparable damage to the local indigenous Columbian community.
Liverpool forward Luis Diaz is from this community.
Whilst most agree that this World Cup in particular is a testament to corruption being an open secret, many should acknowledge the skeletons in their own closets before passing judgment.
Are Western countries really as morally superior to the Qatari state as they would like to think?
Many would argue that allowing Middle Eastern and Gulf states into football in the first place makes football organisations and communities complicit in their alleged crimes.
Is the average Manchester City fan concerned about human rights violations in the UAE? Probably not, because the club regularly win Premier League titles.
From a moral standpoint, if the average person wishes to boycott this tournament then they should also boycott all other organisations, countries and clubs that are involved.
A person cannot be selective in their outrage. Either they boycott everything, or they boycott nothing.
What happens next?
The tournament kicks off on Sunday 20th November, with the host nation taking on Ecuador.
Despite being formally forbidden by FIFA, England captain Harry Kane plans to wear a ‘One Love’ armband in games, in support of the LGBT community.
Former Manchester United full-back Gary Neville, who now works as a pundit, has been called out for agreeing to work for the Qatari state broadcaster during the tournament.
