By: Khadija Nadeem, Gr 11
From November 20th to December 18th, 2022, Qatar will be holding the FIFA World Cup. For many football enthusiasts, the FIFA World Cup is considered the height of competition in the sport. The event brings together the best international teams in the game once every 4 years to compete and determine the world champion. Each time, the event creates an opportunity for both players and teams to immortalize themselves in the eyes of fans all around the world. The very first World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1930 and it has been held in the utmost reverence ever since. The evolution has been evident, going from 24 teams to 32, and recently decided in 2017, the 2026 season stands to include 48 competing countries in the World Cup. This year, the excitement has been nothing less than grand, 4 years of anticipation building but certain complaints have slowly been brought into the public eye. Now, the world is unsure of their support of the 2022 Qatar FIFA World Cup and the years of migrant labor rights abuses it has allowed. Some media outlets have gone as far as to dub it the “Qatarstrophe” but the public should question; how ethical this year’s event is and whether it is one we, as viewers and media, should be giving positive attention to.
From the very beginning, in 2010, fans wondered why Qatar was even chosen as the event host when it clearly did not have the infrastructure a World Cup host requires. Qatar needs 8 new stadiums, an airport expansion, a new metro, multiple hotels, and other key establishments all coming at an estimated cost of 220 billion US dollars. It was quickly established that millions of migrant workers would be needed to build and service the event and FIFA would be responsible for those working in the stadiums and during tournament preparation. This is including transport and accommodations, security, cleaning, and landscaping. FIFA has the responsibility to identify and remedy any abuses in accordance with the United Nations Guiding Principles of Business and Human Rights but despite repeated warnings from workers and civil society groups, they failed to impose strong conditions to protect workers. Many migrants are stuck in multi-year-long contracts they’re unable to escape, their passports have been confiscated and they are completely isolated in a in a new, exploitive environment. “5,000 dead for 5,760 minutes of football. Shame on you!” read a message repeated across Germany, a reference to varying estimates of laborer fatalities during the course of Qatar’s construction projects. ..
Unfortunately, both FIFA and Qatar became complacent to the widespread abuse countless workers suffered. This included illegal recruitment fees where migrants had to pay $500-4,000 US dollars to obtain their jobs, appalling living conditions that are housing 8 or more people in cramped, dirty, and unsafe accommodations, and false or delayed salaries in which workers were promised more than they received or weren’t paid for several months which can have detrimental effects on their families’ livelihoods. Many can’t even leave the country or change their jobs due to an “exit permit” policy implemented by their companies. Migrants from Bangladesh, India, and Nepal, all working on the refurbishment of the Khalifa Stadium and landscaping the surrounding gardens and sporting facilities known as the “Aspire Zone”, are being exploited. While these innocent people suffer, the governing bodies of the World Cup, its sponsors, and the construction companies involved are set to make massive financial gains from the tournament. Even now, the executive who presided over Qatar winning the bid now says it was a “mistake”. Regardless of his reasons for saying so, activists and organizations all around the world clearly agree.
In fact, protests across the world have broken out in complaint of the blatant human rights violations taking place in Qatar right now. The acknowledgment of these issues is crucial because if we, the people, don’t speak out against crises such as these, who will? Media outlets and nonprofit organizations implore the general public to look into what cost the World Cup is coming at this year and to rethink their support of it. Sport is an avenue of expression and an opportunity for unity across the board, but the events that have occurred in the 4 years leading up to this year’s tournament reflect a broken mirror image of that. What values and morals are we choosing to uphold and what does it speak of our characters to watch silently and comfortably in our beds as lives have and continue to fall apart?
Wednesday, April 22, 2026
