On Sunday the 20th of November, Emir Tamim Bin Al Thani spoke at the opening of the World Cup, hailing the diversity. “What a beauty to bring together all these differences, all this diversity to bring everyone together here,” said Qatar’s top and, literally, “absolute” leader.
By: Wilson Honorio da Silva
It would be a “beauty,” indeed, if the speech were not a shameless expression of the purest hypocrisy and part of the smokescreen that the government of the host country of the Cup and the International Football Federation (FIFA) have tried to use to cover up the many serious problems surrounding this edition of the tournament.
These problems are by no means limited to the ban on beer consumption around the stadiums, announced on the eve of the event. While World Cup is being held in the Middle East, in a Muslim country, as the most daring try to point out, these countries have the same issues of countries in the West such as corruption, exploitation of workers, and, in this case, sexist, LGTBIphobic, xenophobic and racist oppression.
These issues have taken on absurd proportions due to the dictatorial, fundamentalist, and absolutist nature of the Qatari government combined with the criminal and irresponsible way in which FIFA has dealt with it all, since the country’s selection in 2010, as the host of the games.
The games have generated protests in the last ten years, and, contrary to plan, protesters stormed the fields the day after the opening with demonstrations in favor of the LGBTQIA+ community and the struggle of women (from Iran and all over the world) which, by the way, were made even more evident due to the censorship imposed on them.
And, precisely because the problems are many, we will address them in two articles. In this one, we will consider some general issues, such as the allegations of corruption and bribery that involved the election of Qatar and the overexploitation that caused the death of at least 6,500 immigrants during the construction of the infrastructure for the World Cup. We will then focus on issues related to machismo and LGTBIphobia.
Ah, if only it were just the beer!!!! A lot of dirt swept under the carpet
On Friday, November 18, news agencies and portals, television programs and radio stations highlighted the Qatari government’s sudden decision to ban the sale of beer around stadiums, breaking a previously signed agreement with FIFA and, at the same time, with the multinational beverage company AB Inbev (maker of Budweiser).
Evidently, the “Dry Law” did not take long to become one of the hot topics in discussion circles and social networks. A fanfare that might even make sense, considering the festive and relaxed atmosphere that usually characterizes a World Cup, already restricted by bans on various types of clothing and public displays of affection.
However, any outrage at what was termed an “authoritarian” and “unsportsmanlike” move sounded particularly hypocritical in the face of the complicit silence or, at best, the timid murmur that has surrounded truly scandalous and unacceptable issues surrounding the Qatar World Cup, starting with the character of the local regime and, in particular, the deplorable treatment of women, LGBTQIA+ people, and immigrants in the country.
Incidentally, the mere fact that the beer ban has gained more media coverage than the many barbarities rampant in Qatar speaks volumes about the world we live in and, inevitably, is reflected in everything surrounding an event like the Cup.
Clearly, the “Dry Law” caused a lot of discontent among the nearly 1.2 million fans who traveled to Qatar, an impressive figure considering the country has just over 3 million inhabitants. But it wasn’t even that that caused the outcry. The reason is the same as always: loss of profits.
The manufacturer of Budweiser has monopolized the sale of beverages at FIFA events for 36 years (in an agreement that yields $75 million, per year) and counted on high profits, especially knowing the price stipulated by the government (which controls the distribution): approximately $10 per pint. Profits that would be multiplied by the sponsorship of media companies and other actions that, now, have become more complicated.
But, as is also typical in this system, “dry mouth” will not be a problem for everyone. We know that following the Cup “in situ” is not for everyone, especially in Qatar, but, even among the very rich, there are those who are considered VIPs and they will still have access to alcoholic beverages in special tents and even in areas inside the World Cup arenas.
Moreover, any declaration of surprise at the unilateral and authoritarian decision of the Supreme Committee formed to organize the World Cup in the Middle Eastern country is ridiculous. Everyone knows very well who they are dealing with. And since long before 2010.
After all, people in Qatar live under the dictatorship of a hereditary absolutist emirate (under the rule of the same family, the Al Thani dynasty, since 1825) and under a rigid theocratic regime, i.e. where laws are based on religious precepts derived from the extreme, intolerant and fundamentalist interpretation of the Islamic “sharia”.
This is a country where the last elections took place in 1970 and where political parties are purely and simply forbidden. And, of course, where opulence, wealth and “modernity” (which have been the target of successive television reports) only reflect the situation of the local elite, since the vast majority of the population (82% of which is made up of non-Arabs, as we will see below) literally lives on the margins of society.
For these and many other reasons, we can only agree with the columnist of the UOL portal, Chico Alves, who on the 18th of November highlighted that, until now, “in the name of the biggest soccer event, the World Cup, and the multi-million dollar business generated by it, Qatar has received a kind of planetary immunity.”
A position adopted even by the media, as the journalist also pointed out, since, “for months now, the space dedicated to the country in the international news has been mostly taken up with the construction of stadiums, preparation of the event and tourist attractions in the territory”, completely disregarding the multitude of barbaric human rights violations that are rampant in the country and that have been “treated only in passing, in a protocol manner, a kind of footnote that accompanies the sports information.”
“Sportwashing”: the pitch used to cover up a variety of rots
This passing of the buck has, in fact, been going on since Qatar’s nomination. At the time, there were widespread protests, mainly after Amnesty International revealed that, in addition to numerous examples of male violence and discrimination, between January and December 2009 alone at least 18 people, mostly foreigners, had been sentenced to between 40 and 100 lashes, mainly for offenses related to “illicit sexual relations” or alcohol consumption.
The protests, not without reason, cited Qatar’s insistence on hosting the event as an example of the practice of “sportwashing,” i.e., the attempt to use sport as a form of “public relations” to simultaneously cover up high levels of exploitation and oppression and enhance a country’s international image.
Objectives that were not even disguised by the emirate, which included the Cup as part of a mega-project of ‘modernization’, transforming the tournament into the centerpiece of architectural, infrastructure, transportation and services projects. This also helps to explain why this is the most expensive Cup in history, with a cost of $220 billion, almost 19 times more than Russia (2018), and 14 times that of Brazil (2014).
These are expenditures that also aim to increase tourism as an alternative for an economy in which oil and gas represent more than 50% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), around 85% of exports and 70% of government revenues, but whose reserves, according to estimates, will be able to maintain current production levels for only 40 years.
And, as is well known, there are strong indications that part of the government’s “efforts” to win the bid included corruption and bribery. Suffice it to recall that, at the time, a former advisor to Qatar’s own pro-Cup Committee alleged that at least three African leaders of the FIFA Executive Committee had sold their votes. Each of them for $1.5 million.
In addition, there were also suspicions of vote-selling by representatives of Brazil, France and the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football. As always, these suspicions amounted to nothing and all went back to normal.
Beyond the Cup: “modernization” built on the sweat and blood of immigrants
To understand something about Qatar, it is necessary to know some characteristics of the local population, how they were affected by the “Cup project” and also how overexploitation and oppression are related to all this.
The project involved not only the construction of seven new stadiums, but also a new airport, roads, transportation systems, hotels and even an entire city to host the championship final. All of this was built exclusively by immigrant workers, something that has to do with the particularity of the country’s population composition.
To begin with, it is no coincidence that the population has increased since 2010. At the time, Qatar had about 1.8 million inhabitants. In 2020, it was 2.8 million. And now, just over 3 million. However, what makes Qatar an exceptional case is the composition of this population.
According to the last Census (2020), the country had only 12% (313,000) Qatari citizens and 82% (2.3 million) foreign migrants from India (the majority, with 545,000), Nepal (341,000), Philippines (185,000), Bangladesh (137,000), Sri Lanka (100,000) and Pakistan (90,000), among many other nationalities, several of them African, such as Kenya.
Clearly, these figures are directly related to the World Cup and to understand their impact on oppressions, particularly xenophobia, racism and sexism, it is necessary to know that the vast majority of migrants are not Arabs (although they are subject to Sharia-based legislation) and, in addition, the rapid influx of male workers means that women now represent less than 25% of the population (concentrated in large numbers among those considered local “citizens”).
The fact is that everything related to the migrant population borders on barbarism, as was particularly evident in a report published by the British newspaper The Guardian in February 2021, which found that almost seven thousand migrant workers had died in Qatar between 2010 and last year, all of them in situations directly related to the constructions for the Cup and, at the very least, irregular and suspicious.
Data collected from local embassies and together with the International Labor Organization (ILO) found 5,927 such cases in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, and another 824 in Pakistan alone. This means that every week an average of 12 migrant workers from these five South Asian countries died.
These figures could be much higher, as they do not include countries such as the Philippines and Kenya, nor do they cover the last two years, characterized by the acceleration of construction, which obviously implied higher levels of exploitation and even more strenuous work under an average temperature of 50 degrees Celsius.
The formalization of modern slavery
The government’s lack of interest in this situation begins with the fact that, officially, only 37 workers have been recognized as having died in these 12 years. This gives no reason to comment (just remember the number of cases registered in Brazil). Furthermore, the report found that autopsies were not performed on most of the dead (as required by international law).
And, according to Amnesty International, the government issued thousands of death certificates without indicating the cause of death or with vague or literally fraudulent information, such as “natural cause” or “heart failure.” Something strange, especially considering that the average age of the dead workers was 30 years old.
This system of labor to which immigrants are subjected is absurd. The name is “kafala” (which means “sponsor” in Arabic), but it could easily be translated as analogous to “slavery,” since it basically consists of tying a foreign worker’s visa to his employer, preventing, among other things, him from changing jobs, becoming completely dependent on the employer.
In addition, most had to pay a “recruitment fee” of around $2,000, which, as is common in modern slavery, generates a debt that in practice is never repaid; their passports were retained by the companies; and they ended up performing functions completely different from those for which they were hired, receiving starvation wages.
And, as if that were not enough, in 2016, a report published by Amnesty International, based on interviews with 132 workers employed in stadium construction, revealed that absolutely all of them “suffered systematic abuse, in some cases involving forced labor,” in addition to some kind of threat.
All these issues were already public knowledge even before the nomination of Qatar to host the World Cup. But not even the numerous complaints made during the last decade made FIFA make real efforts to bring about changes (in a very different attitude from the imperial powers it assumed in previous World Cups, by the way).
FIFA has been silent in the face of Qatar’s equally criminal stance towards women and LGBTQIA+ people. In fact, more than that: it has been a more than active accomplice, as we will see in the next article.
Originally published at www.pstu.org.br, 11/22/2022
Translated by: John Joseph
