How TF Did We End Up With a World Cup in Qatar?
Well lucky for us John Oliver took the time on Last Week Tonight to break it all down for us. One of the best things about Last Week Tonight, is that John Oliver covers complex issues in a long-form journalistic format. Not only is it hilarious, but it’s also super informative. Very few shows, even cable news shows, take the time that John Oliver does to break down an important topic. This in-depth coverage at Last Week Tonight is really needed during these days of misinformation more than ever. Since everyone mostly watches short information clips on their phone all day, they rarely get the whole story. Oliver has covered the FIFA organization behind the World Cup and its internal corruption before. But this World Cup is even above and beyond the World Cup’s normal level of scandals. Which is really saying something…
The 2022 World Cup started with a scandal and then they just kept rolling. From the very beginning, FIFA did its own internal research on all the possible venues for the FIFA World Cup and its own research showed them that Qatar was a terrible place to hold an international soccer tournament. Having sweltering heat in the summer, no stadiums suitable for a World Cup match, and a shortage of not just hotel rooms, but an actual shortage of entire cities needed to support the event. To make up for this lack of infrastructure Qatar used an indentured servitude, slave labor, type of system where they invite workers from other poor countries to come to Qatar and work. Then trap them there at the mercy of their employers in conditions that are worse than United States prisons. They also have a total disregard for the safety of the migrant workers with over 6,500 of them dying on the job mostly due to “cardiac arrest.” Not surprising since they were working outside in the desert, doing back-breaking work, in the 125-degree scorching Summer heat.
Did Qatar Ban Alcohol at the 2022 World Cup?
Yes, they did! Days before the 2022 World Cup, Qatar banned alcohol at the event, only allowing a few beers per person in a few limited areas. Screwing all the fans over and throwing a huge dent in Budweiser’s plans for the massive soccer event. Budweiser by the way paid Qatar $75 million Euros to sponsor the World Cup this year. Then proceeded to ship a World Cup amount of beer to the stadiums in preparation for the games. After hearing about the rule change on Twitter, Budweiser tweeted, “Well this is Strange.” Then the next day came back completely unfazed and said the “winning country would get all the extra Budweisers that have been sent to Qatar for free!” Gotta give it to Budweiser for rolling with the punches and being savvy AF on social media. It was such an obvious violation of their contract to sponsor the World Cup matches in Qatar, that I hope they get paid a significant amount for their troubles. I’m honestly surprised they took it so well, I would have been livid if I was the CEO. This is why holding a World Cup in a third-world country is not worth the alleged million-dollar bribes, Qatar gave multiple members of FIFA, to secure the hosting of the 2022 World Cup, to begin with. All Qatar did was purchase a spotlight on their country that is laser-focused on how awful and behind the times it is.
