Those were the most exciting days of our childhood. Days before, we would get in the mood, get ready and wait for it to start. There would definitely be someone else we fell in love with, other than our own country team. My childhood, for example, it was Argentina with the great influence of Maradona.
When the World Cup was mentioned, big organizations were held all over the world, screens were set up in city squares, and breaths were held until the kick-off.
This normally the most anticipated football organization in the world will start in Qatar a few days later. Well, don’t you think there is an extremely dull atmosphere in this World Cup compared to previous tournaments?
Moreover, the issue is not just about the fact that our national team will not participate in this tournament. There seems to be a distance against this tournament all over the world.
Criticism of ‘sports-washing’ against Qatar!
Qatar, the host country of the World Cup, has come under serious criticism, especially for its treatment of migrant workers, anti-LGBTQ+ laws and restrictions on freedom of expression. One of the harshest claims came from The Guardian. The newspaper claims that 6,500 migrant workers working in preparation for the tournament in Qatar since 2010 have died.
According to Forbes, an enormous budget of $150 billion has been allocated for the tournament, which will be held in the shadow of the allegations of ‘sports-washing’ in the country. Exactly 10 times the last tournament in Russia.
Legionary fans!
According to the Times report, Qatar will bring and host supporters of 30 countries in exchange for money. All they have to do is give positive messages about Qatar and support their team with songs. It’s not just the fans who get paid for it. David Beckham also made a £15m deal for his PR activities.
Despite the artificial environment that is tried to be provided with money, the protests do not seem to end. Some of the sponsors are uneasy about Qatar. For example, Denmark’s shirt sponsor Hummel does not want to appear in the tournament. The team will take the field in a jersey without a logo. Meanwhile, eight of the 32 participating teams plan to wear rainbow armbands to support LGBTQ+ rights.
Cracked voices are also coming from countries. It has been announced that the fan areas and the big screens set up in the squares in the old tournaments in London will not be this time. A similar situation exists in Paris.
The tournament also has a critical environmental impact. Qatar will need at least 10,000 liters of water per day for each of the sites. Located in a region with virtually no access to fresh water, Qatar will rely on the desalination process—the highly environmentally harmful clutching of salt water to make it potable.
In summary, the tournament will need to manage 144 pitches across eight stadiums and more than 130 additional training grounds. This means that in the Qatari climate, the complex process of creating the right turf for football, fielders must mimic winter, blow cold air over the turf and irrigate the pitch with at least 10,000 liters of desalinated water.
Hypocrisy over football!
In addition to all this, Qatar says that the criticisms made against it had never been made to any other country before and that a deliberate smear campaign was carried out.
It is not surprising that the so-called civilized Europe presents itself as the epitome of ethics and morality here, as in many other issues, but continues its self-interest-oriented policies behind the door.
A glance at the refugees’ policies of Europe, which criticizes Qatar and basic human rights issues, is enough to see their ugly hypocrisy.
On top of that, I think the other side of ugly politics is to sign international trade cooperation while making such speeches to the public.
We are the children of the condemned world.
The world is going through difficult times that it has perhaps never seen before. Troubled pandemic process, Russia-Ukraine war, economic bottleneck, energy and food crisis, environmental problems and especially climate change and its negative effects…
I think football, which brings people together and gives pleasure despite everything, gets its share from this agenda. The tournament in Qatar starts under intense criticism in a different geography, time and environment.
I guess we are the children of the damned world to suffer. Even the football we love so much no longer excites us. Still, long live Argentina!
