By Satvik Shubham

The World Cup is almost here, the competition that has the eyes of billions peering over, a competition that can unite the world over a beautiful game. Starting this Sunday, Qatar will play their first game of the campaign against Ecuador. While this is a record-breaking tournament for many reasons, one notable one would be the cost. To build the infrastructure for this year, Qatar spent $200 billion on the tournament, making it the most expensive edition to date. An astonishing figure even for Qatar, considering they are expected to bring in $6.5 billion in revenue from hosting the competition.

This World Cup has brought along more talking points than any in history, for all the reasons one would not expect to be associated with the sport. Firstly, the issues with this competition that brings forward speculation of corruption and bribery. Many people thought that when the bid was going through for the hosting, the United States and Canada should have taken the 2022 bid rather than opting for 2026, but Qatar had come out as winners. These beliefs of complete and utter corruption were reinforced by FIFA President at the time of the hosting selection for the competition, Sepp Blatter, described the decision to award Qatar with the World Cup as a “mistake”, prompting reactions that suggested it was too little too late for this to be boycotted now.

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The idea of politics being associated with sport is hotly contested; some believe that this stage has a platform that is unique and should be utilized to make statements. While the other side of the table believes that it should stay out entirely, since the point of sporting events should be to keep the limelight on the actual sport. Regardless of this knowledge, quite frankly, Qatar was universally criticized for their mismanagement of the hosting. While building the high rising stadiums, approximately 6500 migrant workers have passed away. Which led to shouts to boycott the tournament from an early stage, also bringing forward the point that Qatar was not a nation that loved the sport, and just chose to host it for an increase in financial and political status.

When Qatar won the World Cup 2022 bid in 2010 everyone was shocked with the choice, that was because at the time, Qatar had minimal infrastructure to support this plan, with their bid being described as ‘high risk’ by officials.

The point of the World Cup is to welcome the world, and hosting it provides the connotation that you are ready to welcome anyone, and everyone, to your country to unite over the beautiful game. However, this did not seem the case when Qatar laid down the law when it came to LGBTQ people in the country. With this act being punishable by up to three years in prison for foreign citizens. So, this poses the question, why would Qatar join a bid to welcome the world to their country, if part of the world was not welcome? Well, in this case it is very simple, this edition has been surrounded by controversy, the deaths have been reported as occupational and are yet to be investigated, with maltreatment of transgender people being common among police officers across the country for many years.

Another factor that has raised eyebrows would be the fact that it is a winter World Cup. For many years, players have been bombarded when it comes to fixtures, playing a game every two or three days in certain circumstances. With the recent addition of the Nations League, this fatigue has multiplied. With a summer World Cup, players get a month to train in the country of the host, and then have two months of rest afterwards without any season to be immediately in consideration. However, in this case, there is merely a week after regular domestic games when the World Cup begins, not only does this mean that players who pick up short-term injuries before the competition might be at risk, but the lack of a break may also lead to further injuries in the main tournament. Shortly after the tournament final takes place, domestic football resumes worldwide. While the players will be given a break by clubs, they will be missing a significant and crucial part of the season due to the placement of the competition.

As a whole, while this may be a World Cup, it seems to be the strangest one yet, in terms of the dates and scheduling, all the controversy surrounding it, it will soon be seen how it will be compared to past editions after it concludes in December.

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The author is an upcoming journalist at Michigan State University.

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