The Football World Cup in Qatar started after a long build-up, and a lot of attention has been paid to issues such as the exploitation of migrant workers, corruption caused by working with and through FIFA to make this event happen, and worries about how Qatar treats people with different sexual orientations. Even though the Qatari royal family spent more than $250 billion to build several world-class stadiums to celebrate the fact that it is the first Arab-Muslim country in the World Cup’s 82-year history to host the event, some of these issues were bound to be talked about in the lead-up. After all of these problems, the government wanted to use the chance to host the World Cup to build more soft power. Qatar was already deeply rooted in the economies of major Western European countries, as evidenced by the Qataris’ significant role in buying property and making financial investments in London and Paris, as well as the fact that both Britain and France sell a lot of weapons, surveillance equipment, and other security systems to Qatar. Qatar is no longer a small Gulf state. It is now a major provider of energy to the West and a major investor, including in football, where it owns Paris Saint-Germain, the biggest club in France. However, the Qataris realised that there would be a significant need for a public relations exercise to open up a neutral space for Qatar so that the world could focus on the one thing that brings people together, which is the beautiful game of football. Even though Qatar spends a lot of money on hosting parliamentarians and using them to spread a positive message, Western media and some commentators continue to focus on the negative things that are happening in Qatari society. The other sad truth about this is that much of what is said is highly suspect in some cases and deeply inaccurate in many others.
There are two major mixed truths about the Qatar World Cup. First, based on research conducted by The Guardian, it is routinely stated that approximately 6,500 people died while constructing the stadiums. While many of them were of South Asian descent, they were all deemed healthy upon recruitment. What is also important to keep in mind about these deaths is that they fall within the 20- to 50-year-old category, which would suggest that it was the healthiest segment of the migrant worker population. Cardiovascular issues, such as heart attacks brought on by extreme heat and dehydration, were the main causes of many of these deaths. The picture of people falling off scaffolding to their deaths is not reality. However, there is indeed an exploitative relationship between workers and employers in the Gulf economies of the world, including in Qatar, and sometimes genuine issues of abuse of power or the lack of rights and safeguards for workers can be rendered invisible. Second, there is a constant argument made for why Qataris are insensitive at best or deeply repressive at worst when it comes to members of the LGTB+ community. While it is clear that Qatar is a conservative Muslim country with extremely strict guidelines, practices, and laws regarding public expressions of affection, even between married couples, people of diverse sexual orientations or preferences have not been banned or constrained from entering the country to enjoy the World Cup. The Qatari administration has only emphasised the importance of not displaying public displays of intimacy or sexuality. If the question of respect arises when this is asked of Qataris concerning this problem in general, it should also arise because the norms and values of the West in relation to minorities are vastly different from the projection of the Western or European liberal ideal. Moreover, the word ‘respect’ has many meanings. For some, it is having higher regard for someone or holding something in higher regard, which is something I should do concerning something or someone different from me. For others, I should accept people’s differences and their desires to express them, and this should be something that everyone should expect because otherwise, it shows intolerance and potentially breeds hatred. Demanding ‘respect’ is something that is restricted to those who have an elevated meaning in other people’s lives due to all sorts of reasons that have more to do with who they are than what they are. This is different from how minorities are treated in the West, where equality is thrown out the window and diversity is pushed as a catch-all for all minority differences, with tolerance being the best these minorities can hope for (tolerance used to mean the ability of some people to absorb a poison before it could kill them).
While there are aspects of life and society in Qatar that would raise many eyebrows in many university settings where students and scholars frequently think about issues of freedom, liberty, and democracy, it is also true that much of our understanding of Qatari society is based on significant Islamophobic and anti-Arabic framing that has been in the works for a long time. And this is why it is difficult for people to fully appreciate all of the issues at play because there is still a sense of cultural and intellectual superiority tinged with a sudden and urgent moral outrage that would not occur if this were not about Qatar. Many migrant workers died as a result of the construction of stadiums in Russia and Brazil, and little was said (the Russian World Cup occurred a year after the Skripals were poised in Salisbury, England). There are also many cases of homophobia and violence against homosexual groups in both countries that were never scrutinised to the extent that they are now in Qatar. These double standards suggest a level of hypocrisy and entitlement on the part of many who would pick one side of the argument, ignoring the horrible histories of those who have power, freedom, justice, and democracy and grew their economies and societies on the backs of slavery, colonialism, and the systematic oppression of people from all over the world. In these instances, memories are short, and entitlement is easily expressed when people only operate within an echo chamber and refuse to think beyond their immediate sense of themselves as being supreme and untouchable. This World Cup will go on for the rest of the month, and those of us who love football will watch all the games we can and talk about all the weird and wonderful outcomes that will inevitably emerge. There is a real hope that the football will do all the talking at the end, and then biased commentators and lazy hacks can switch their attention elsewhere. But while that happens over the next three weeks, after the event, it will be business as usual between Qatar and its Western allies, including all financial and military investments that benefit both sides as they expand soft and hard power while engaging in regional politics as friends against mutual enemies. Then we might be able to ask more questions about the larger set of relationships that enabled this World Cup, and at what cost.