2022 World Cup: one year to go, Qatar is still under fire from critics
Nasser Al-Khater, head of the organizing committee for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, on May 18, 2017 at the Khalifa International stadium in Doha.
AFP / Archives
Text by: Farid Achache Follow
5 mins
In one year, Qatar will kick off the 2022 World Cup and welcome hundreds of thousands of foreign supporters (November 21 to December 18, 2022).
Twelve months before the first meeting, Qatar is still under fire from critics, especially with regard to the situation of immigrant workers.
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More than a year before the football world finds itself in Qatar for the last
32-team World Cup
. The wealthy emirate obtained the organization on December 2, 2010 in Zurich under the Blatter era and became the first Gulf country to be able to organize the biggest sports competition in the world against the United States, Australia and Japan. Fruit of an
intense
lobbiyng
, the emirate had used all its diplomatic weight to convince the members of Fifa.
Quickly, accusations of corruption flourished, but never proved.
According to
France Football
, in 2010, Qatar spent 34 million euros in communication costs.
French justice is still investigating the conditions for awarding the competition to the emirate.
The judicial authorities are wondering about the conditions for the attribution of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar with, at the heart of the matter, a lunch at the Elysee Palace around the then president, Nicolas Sarkozy,
Michel Platini
and two senior Qatari leaders.
Qatar obtained the organization of the 2022 World Cup in 2010. FABRICE COFFRINI AFP / File
"
A little bit of sport, a lot of money, and massive human rights violations
"
Since the award of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar,
the criticisms
have never stopped. On Tuesday, November 16, Amnesty International called on the host country to respect human rights and stop abuses against immigrant workers, mainly from India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh, many of whom contributed to the construction stadiums and other infrastructure.
In its latest 48-page report dated November 16, the NGO specifies that "
one year before the World Cup
...
time is running out and Qatar has still not kept its promise to abolish the World Cup. sponsorship system (
kafala
) nor strengthened the protection of migrant workers
”, whose“
daily reality remains trying, despite changes to the law since 2017
”.
"
The 2022 World Cup in Qatar is a little bit of sport, a lot of money, and massive human rights violations,
" Amnesty International France president Cécile Coudriou wrote on Friday, November 19 in a column in
Le
newspaper.
World.
At the beginning of 2021, the British daily
The Guardian
had estimated at more than 6,500 the number of migrant workers died in the peninsula since the attribution of the organization of the World Cup.
"
Since the start of construction
(of the stadiums)
in 2014, there have been three fatal work accidents and 35 related deaths,
" said the Qatari authorities.
Qatar do not intend to be sidetracked by criticism during the tournament.
The Qatari authorities have regularly claimed to have "
always been transparent about the health and safety of workers
".
Amnesty International calls on Qatar to respect human rights and stop abuses against immigrant workers.
AFP - STRINGER
1.2 million visitors expected
In the meantime,
the country is busy
in its preparation.
The holding of the Arab Cup in six stadiums, from November 30 to December 18, will serve as a test for the small emirate.
The competition will bring together sixteen teams and according to Fifa: "
The event offers an excellent opportunity for participants and the public to discover the atmosphere in Qatar and the magnificent stadiums which will host the World Cup in 2022
".
Eight brand new enclosures were erected from scratch for this Qatari World Cup.
While the last world rally around sport with the Tokyo Olympics took place behind closed doors, Qatar hopes to attract more than 1.2 million visitors during the next World Cup, or nearly half of the population of this Gulf emirate.
Entertain tourists
And the real challenge will be to entertain hundreds of thousands of tourists in a small country little known for its attractions and its sense of celebration, where alcohol consumption is tightly controlled.
One of the biggest sporting events on the planet is usually punctuated with drunken celebrations.
If the World Cup is going to take place for the first time in history in a Muslim country, the chairman of the Qatar Tourism Authority, Akbar al-Baker, assures us that "
there will be as much alcohol as you want,
”referring to Fifa on the details of access to drinks.
"
We will make live
(to the visitors)
a unique experience of its kind
", he promises, without giving details.
France, Germany, Spain, Brazil, Argentina, several big names in world football already have their tickets.
So far, 13 tickets have been awarded.
One year from the opening, the organizers hoisted the flags of the countries already qualified on the corniche of Doha.
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