Matt Maher: A World Cup like no other...and not in a good way

Previously, that never felt a question which needed asking. The answer was obvious.

Though the Olympics will always hold the title as the planet’s biggest sporting extravaganza, for football supporters there has always been a magic and joy to a World Cup, each edition a landmark by which, as one commentator beautifully put it last week, you can measure a life.

For this writer the World Cup provides an earliest memory of football (Italia ‘90), a first sporting hero (Gary Lineker) and the first heartbreak (England losing on penalties to West Germany).

Get chatting to a football fan about the World Cup and more often than not they can instantly tell you where and what they were doing when Michael Owen scored his wonder goal at France ‘98, when Zinedine Zidane threw his head into the chest of Marco Materazzi in the 2006 final, or when Frank Lampard’s shot bounced a good yard over the line when England were knocked out by Germany in 2010.

The days and weeks before the tournament would be full of anticipation, furious studying of the team you pulled out in the work sweep, combined with hourly consultations of the diary to iron out the logistics of watching multiple matches in the same day. Will there be sufficient time for a supermarket dash between Japan v Senegal and Poland v Colombia? How do I get out of that family engagement which clashes with South Korea v Mexico? Typically, the opening week of fixtures is seared onto the brain, ready to be recalled whenever required.

But this time? There is none of that. With Qatar 2022 barely 48 hours away, I could not accurately list any of the fixtures beyond the opening two – and that only because England are involved in the second. I’m not familiar with any of the groups, barring that which includes the two home nations. I’m honestly not sure how many matches, beyond those I’ll likely be required to view in a work capacity, I’m going to watch. From conversations among friends in recent weeks and judging by the mood on social media, many others feel the same.

The timing does not help. For more than a decade we have known this World Cup would be played in winter but the experience still feels jarring. The domestic season has been removed from the hob just as it was beginning to bubble nicely. There has been no time to draw breath, reset and prepare properly. The whole thing feels rushed, with what should be a special moment in the calendar carrying a distinct air of inconvenience.

Yet any grumbling about scheduling is of little relevance when placed against the vast human cost of this tournament. It is for that reason many are hoping, privately or publicly, that far from delivering a feast of thrilling football, this next month provides only embarrassment for the hosts.

Defenders of Qatar are often quick to point out no country is perfect. That is undeniably true. After all, the last World Cup was held in Russia. And yet surely the lesson there is that scrutiny is vital? The plain truth is there are so many problems with staging the World Cup in Qatar, there simply isn’t enough space to go through them all in detail here.

The most immediate issue is Qatar’s failure to uphold basic human rights. Last year, The Guardian claimed 6,500 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Nepal had died since the country was awarded the World Cup in 2010. Qatar disputes those figures and says the number who died working on stadiums is three. The real number will never be known, owing to the fact this is a country where deaths are rarely investigated.

Whatever the number (all human rights groups estimate it to be well into the thousands), the fact the host nation is arguing over how many people have perished getting its tournament ready is sickening enough.

Qatar claims it is ready to welcome the world, yet efforts to rebrand a nation where same-sex relationships are punished with prison sentences are quickly in trouble when one of tournament’s ambassadors describes homosexuality as “damage in the mind”. Di Cunningham, of the England supporters’ LGBTQ+ group Three Lions Pride, has warned of a “toxic environment” for minority groups. It comes as little surprise to learn Three Lions Pride will not be travelling.

Further concerns include Qatar’s approach to women’s rights (not good) and the environmental impact of spending £220billion on construction for an event which will last just four weeks (colossal).

In the middle of it all sit Fifa, which itself listed Qatar’s bid as “high risk” and yet still, somehow, came to award it the tournament, amid claims members of the executive committee were offered bribes of $1.5m.

One of the main defences for giving the World Cup to Qatar was that it would help drive change but while there have been some reforms, all human rights groups agree these have not been properly enforced and have had little real impact. More money and time appears to be spent on a PR machine which encourages you to look the other way.

There probably is some truth to the romantic notion of sport having the power to change the world, at least when it comes to bringing people from different cultures together.

Yet the idea being awarded the world’s most high-profile tournament could seriously change a country’s governance has always felt laughable. Then again, Fifa so often appear so lacking in self-awareness, there may be some in the organisation who genuinely believe it. Gianni Infantino’s speech this week, in which he appealed to Russia and Ukraine to call a ceasefire for the duration of the World Cup, tells you everything about the arrogance of the man at the top. Infantino, for the record, has still not sent back the Order of Friendship medal awarded to him in person by Vladimir Putin.

Rather than highlight abuses and push for reform in Qatar, Fifa would rather everyone to “stick to the football”. In the meantime, the Qatar 2022 PR machine – which includes David Beckham for a reported £150m fee – is working overtime to disguise the fact what you are actually watching is the biggest sportswashing project in history.

The reality is no World Cup has ever been entirely pure but in the past it was easier to convince yourself it was. After Qatar, there is no chance of that.

Looking forward to the World Cup? Not in the slightest.