No sport quite inspires the same global passion as soccer and no event is popular as the World Cup. “The Beautiful Game” is a truly global from the favelas of Brazil to streets of Liverpool. It’s even becoming quite popular here in North America. The World Cup has given the opportunity to showcase so many great countries from Mexico to France to eventually South Africa. However, the World Cup is currently in serious trouble. FIFA, the governing body of global soccer, has been involved in rampant corruption that led to awarding the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids to Russia and Qatar respectively. Beginning in 2015, the US Department of Justice launched an investigation into FIFA that has led to the indictment of 11 FIFA officials on charges of fraud, racketeering, and money laundering, and the removal of FIFA President Sepp Blatter. Russia and Qatar both bought votes from FIFA officials for millions of dollars.
The World Cup in Russia has already happened however the next cup in Qatar is now only three years away. Several problems arise from Qatar hosting 2022. The first being that Qatar is an Islamic Authoritarian petrostate with no respect for human rights. The US State Department has uncovered ample evidence to suggest that Qatar has been funding Hamas in Gaza along with other terrorist organizations throughout the Islamic World. In addition, Qatar has used slave labor from South Asia to construct many of their stadiums. The Guardian reports that over 4,000 forced laborers have died in these conditions since 2014.
In addition, Qatar has summer temperatures that reach highs well over 120 F, which is dangerously high for both players and fans. This led Qatar to change the World Cup from it’s traditional June/July schedule to a November/December, directly in the middle of European football and NFL seasons along with cutting directly into the Christmas/Holiday season. FIFA also announced that it is expanding the World Cup from 32 to 48 teams, so Qatar is no longer able to host alone. Instead they will have to co-host with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Kuwait (states with human rights records almost as bad a Qatar). Furthermore, a 48-team World Cup means that there’s a very good chance Israel could qualify and considering that Israeli passports are banned in all of those countries, that would be quite problematic.
All this signifies that FIFA needs to gain a spine and remove Qatar from hosting the World Cup. Never less, 2022 is only three years away which is not a lot of time to find a new host. The most capable nation of hosting, the United States, is already co-hosting with Canada and Mexico in 2026 so all three are off the table. They could keep the event in Asia and perhaps allow South Korea and Japan to co-host (as they did in 2002). However, South Korea just hosted the Winter Olympics and Tokyo hosts the summer games this year, therefore it may be logistically impossible. No South American country has the infrastructure to be ready in time. Europeans countries such as Germany, the UK, France, Italy, etc. or a combination there of have the facilities and love of soccer, however if Europeans removed a world cup from a Middle Eastern country and placed it in Europe, it might look bad.
My solution is co-hosting between Spain, Morocco, and Portugal. Spain hosted the 1982 World Cup and won the trophy in 2010. Behind France and the United States, it ranks third worldwide in total tourism and is home to several of the world’s greatest soccer stadiums. By sharing the World Cup with Portugal and Morocco, there would be enough venues for 48-team tournament following a similar format to what will be used in 2026 where Spain would host most of the games and the final and Portugal and Morocco would only use 3 or 4 stadiums each, with Casablanca perhaps hosting a semi-final. Morocco is actually quite easy to get to from Spain (I have personally made the trip) and would keep the tournament in an Arab-Muslim country that is passionate about soccer but one that has a stellar human rights record, good relations with Europe and Israel, and no connections to terrorism.
The World Cup is a remarkable spectacle that represents the world can be. Therefore, it should not be located in a place that demonstrates the worst the world can be. If FIFA wants to restore any dignity than it should move the games to a Spain, Morocco, and Portugal. Three years is not a lot of time, but Madrid was able to play emergency host to the Copa Liberatores with a weeks’ notice and handles massive summer tourism so if any region could pull it off, it would be this one.
I had no idea how many issues were surrounding FIFA. I think this blog really opened my eyes to several issues and I think that it is FIFA’s responsibility to select a place that is free from the civil rights issues surrounding Qatar. I don’t exactly how they can correct this situation, but I completely agree that they have too.
Soccer is a beautiful sport to play and watch. The World Cup has been one of the biggest global sports events along with Olympic. It should not occur with any unjust conspiracy, especially granting the hosting position to a country which does not respect human rights. This is totally against the notion of sports that advocate freedom. I agree with your solution of who might be the hosting countries for the next World Cup since having multiple countries presiding this event may reduce not only economic burden but also the burden of other sources.
I learned a lot about FIFA and the issues within while reading your blog. I never knew that these problems existed. It shouldn’t be hard for FIFA to choose a place that doesn’t have human rights violations. That is a serious issue that they can not look past. I agree with your position on the World Cup and hopefully, they are able to find a solution.