By winning the most popular competition on the planet at the end of 2010, to everyone's surprise and at the cost of multiple controversies, this gas micro-State offered itself a rise in its notoriety that was as dazzling as it was risky.

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani receives the World Cup trophy from FIFA President Joseph Blatter on December 2, 2010 in Zurich, after his country was named host of the World Cup in 2022. KARIM JAAFAR AFP/Archives

"Qatar is playing a big game for such a small nation", betting on sport to exist against its powerful neighbors and to build its global "attractiveness", summed up Simon Chadwick, director of the Eurasian Sports Center in mid-2020. EM Lyons.

Like so many hosts – even decried – of major sports competitions, the Gulf monarchy can dream of a positive media bubble during the tournament, from November 21 to December 18, when the magic of the field will attract attention.

"We are still going to have a dissociation between the athlete and what is happening around. The fervor around the World Cup is such that people forget everything else", estimates with AFP Pim Verschuuren, specialist in geopolitics sports at Rennes-II University.

But in the meantime, now that the focus on China has dissipated after the Beijing Winter Games, "the pressure on Qatar will increase, well beyond the issue of migrant workers", predicts the searcher.

"Total Aberration"

From the outset, the designation by Fifa of this sandy peninsula as large as the Ile-de-France, devoid of infrastructures of the dimensions of a World Cup and stifling in summer, appeared as "a total aberration", contrary to any technical logic, recalls Pim Verschuuren.

Qatar managed to build the eight required stadiums on time, but by using tens of thousands of migrant workers in grueling conditions, in scorching temperatures and for poverty wages, documented by international unions and the press.

Workers work on the construction site of the Lusail stadium (Qatar), an 80,000-seat enclosure, on December 15, 2018, which will host the opening and closing matches of the 2022 Football World Cup Karim ABOU MERHI AFP / Archives

The "extreme inequality" of Qatari society, between natives enriched by gas income and "reserve army" of Bangladeshi, Indian, Nepalese or Filipino workers, is certainly long before the awarding of the World Cup, recently noted Antoine Duval , from the Asser Institute in The Hague, in the journal "Transnational Legal Theory".

But the attention aroused by the competition "brought this subject into the transnational public sphere", forcing Fifa to assume the social impact of its tournament, while it initially washed its hands of it, adds this specialist in sports law.

Qatar, which lifted a ban on workers changing employers and introduced a minimum hourly wage of $1.30, says it has done more than any other country in the region and firmly rejects the death toll of thousands of projects put forward by international media.

A technician greets a worker wearing a cooling jacket during the construction of the Losail stadium on August 30, 2018 in Doha, which will host the opening and closing matches of the 2022 World Cup. Work on the construction site of the Lusail stadium (Qatar) , an 80,000-seat venue, on December 15, 2018, which will host the opening and closing matches of the 2022 FIFA World Cup STR Qatar World Cup Organisers/AFP/Archives

What legacy?

Fifa, meanwhile, boasts in advance of the "international-level standards and practices" that its World Cup will leave to workers.

But the football body is also approaching a risky period: the Qatari World Cup has been tainted from the start by accusations of corruption, which have taken away almost all of its officials at the time and can resurface at any time.

Above all, for several years, ethical questions around major competitions have only grown, making the Olympics or the World Cups of football grounds for mobilization for governments, NGOs and athletes themselves.

View of the interior of the Al-Thumama stadium on October 22, 2021, one of the eight stadiums which will host several matches of the FIFA World Cup in 2022 in Qatar KARIM JAAFAR AFP / Archives

Fifa has also just banned Russian football after the invasion of Ukraine, a "political shift" which exposes it "to the risk of + double standards + if it does not take a position in the face of other violations of human rights, emphasizes Pim Verschuuren.

This week again, the ruling German Social Democratic Party urged its federation to "put political and social issues on the table" linked to the World Cup-2022, while the players' union FIPPro and the BWI (international workers' union wood and construction) have called for a "Migrant Workers' Center" in Qatar football, we are not even at half-time.

Any progress made for workers remains fragile.

And among migrants in Qatar, many fear that these improvements will fade when the spotlight on Qatar fades after the World Cup," the two organizations wrote on Wednesday.

© 2022 AFP