FIFA World Cup 2022, Controversies

The state of Qatar says, "It has nothing to apologize for in hosting the men's Football World Cup". Today, we're counting down our picks for the top Qatar World Cup 2022 rumors and controversies explained. For this list, we're looking at some of the biggest scandals that have tainted the 2022 football soccer tournament and threatened to overshadow the World Cup event. 

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First is heat warning. Usually, the World Cup is held in the summer for the Northern Hemisphere often in July when most seasons are finished. The idea of staging the World Cup in the desert has been contentious since its announcements but when Qatar got the tournament that would not have been an option for the city of Doha. The average temperature in July, can reach 42.4 degrees Celsius or 108 Fahrenheit. Average summer temperatures in Qatar can reach the mid 40s. So for the first time the World Cup has been moved to the end of the year. Not great for players to run about for 90 odd minutes as it can be dangerous. So, the World Cup is from November to December when the temperature averages up to 29.7 degrees Celsius or 85 Fahrenheit. Also Qatar has arranged cooling Tech in stadiums to help reduce it. Further there are a lot of sensors, dotted around the stadium to give the air temperature radiation and the amount of humidity that is managed by a big computer room that will look into balancing all these elements. However, the winter switch messes with many professional leagues who have gone on a break to compensate for the World Cup. 

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Secondly, Qatar's football association has naturalized non-Qatari players to give them a leg up on the international scene as they try to qualify for a World Cup which they never have until doing so by becoming hosts. So, Qatar will host the 2022 World Cup, despite never playing in a tournament before. Some former stars that got this treatment include Sebastian Soria originally from Uruguay and Brazil's Emerson Shake. In 2004, the nation attempted to bring Brazilians Dede Leonardo and Ayton to help qualify them for the 2006 World Cup. Even though none of them had played in or had any ties to Qatar. Qatar wanted to naturalize all three of them in 2004. Qatar is usually strict, when it comes to citizenship. FIFA swept in, rejected the moves and changed eligibility rules to make them stricter. 

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Third is paid fans. If you have to offer many incentives to bring over fans to an event. Maybe that should be a warning sign for whether it should go ahead alongside rumors of Qatar bringing in fake fans to boost PR. The group called The Fan leader network has gone further. They offered to pay for the flights and match tickets for some England and Wales fans. All they have to do is attend selected promotional events and stay for at least 14 days. Reportedly, around 40 fans from each Nation have signed up for this offer under the terms and conditions. The fans have to promote the event and tell authorities about social media posts that criticize the World Cup. 

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Fourth is massive costs. Hosting a World Cup is a pricey Endeavor for the 2010 Edition, South Africa spent a whopping 3.5 billion dollars. Qatar needed to spend a lot more to meet FIFA's requirements. Eight stadiums, seven of which are new. Forty five training sites. A new metro, a new airport cruise ships that are going to be housing thousands of fans. After all they needed air-conditioned stadiums, transport, accommodation, training facilities and more. According to estimates, it's believed, the country has spent an eye-watering 220 billion that's more than 16 times what Russia said it spent on the 2018 World Cup. A portion of this was spent to build the new city since we mentioned accommodation. Qatar along with other options, promoted to fans the use of five-star beach camping in the desert. 

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Fifth is alcohol. For many, drinking and football go hand in hand. It so called helps with celebrating Victory or drowning your Sorrows. But since Qatar is a Religious State some Nations and manufacturers have been concerned about the rules on alcohol. Though Qatar allows its consumption in bars, hotels and some other areas, as long as you're 21 or over. However, it's prohibited in public places. It was always going to be one of the biggest talking points, wasn't it? In the lead up to this world cup, was alcohol going to be made available here in an Islamic country? There will be zones at the events such as the FIFA Fan Festival where alcohol is available. But just two days before the tournament, FIFA announced that alcohol wouldn't be sold in stadiums except in corporate areas. But this  is very really late decision, two days before the opening game of the tournament, Qatar's top level talks have led to the decision to ban alcohol completely from being sold to fans. The move was criticized by the football supporters Association as a quote last minute decision. Which speaks to a wider problem, the total lack of communication and clarity from the organizing committee towards supporters. 

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Sixth is worldwide boycotts. While FIFA seems to like to pretend that everything's Okay others around the world not so much. Australia have become the first World Cup Team to release a collective statement. Numerous groups around the globe have called for a boycott of the 2022 tournament. Norwegian Club IL called on their country's football association to snub the event but they refused. Fans in Germany pressured their association as well. Only for the plea to also be ignored but it's clear that the years of criticism particularly on the issue of Migrant workers won't simply melt away. Once the football is underway and indeed some of it will come from the teams themselves with the protests going on. Several cities in France including Paris won't be broadcasting the World Cup as a protest against Qatar's environmental impact of the event. Some cities in Europe do not plan on promoting the match. Most of them are in France. They have decided to not show man matches on big screens or set up exclusive fan zones, during the tournament. 

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Seventh is working conditions. As soon as Qatar began building for the World Cup, the conditions of workers were called into question. These laborers mostly come from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Nepal. Their workplace rights conditions and treatment has been questioned by human rights groups. The nation has a population of two million migrant workers and many thousands are subjected to forced labor and not permitted to leave the country amounting to modern day slavery. Eventually after a lot of pressure Qatar agreed to reforms. Qatar's government agreed to improve working standards, introduce new wages, add its promise to other reforms. 

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FIFA not enjoying the negative association, pleaded with nations to stop highlighting issues and quote focus on the football. Please do not allow football to be dragged into every ideological or political battle that exists at FIFA. We try to respect all opinions and beliefs without handing out moral lessons to the rest of the world. Please let's now focus on the football.

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