The Good, Bad, and Really Ugly About This Year’s World Cup
GoLocalProv Sports Team
The Good, Bad, and Really Ugly About This Year’s World Cup
Futbol is called the beautiful game, and the World Cup is the event, like the Olympics, that brings the world together and pits countries against one another. While the Super Bowl creates American superstars, the World Cup creates global fame -- nearly everyone in the world knows the name Pele.
FIFA projects that around 5 billion people will watch the World Cup this year.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTBut the decision to allow Qatar to host the games has cast a large shadow over the tournament.
Qatar has become a center of controversy. Sepp Blatter, former FIFA president, says, “For me, it is clear: Qatar is a mistake. The choice was bad."
The Guardian reports that “Measures to ensure the safety of LGBTQ+ people in Qatar remain inadequate with less than eight months to go to the World Cup, groups supporting the community have said. Same-sex relationships are directly criminalized under the laws of the Gulf state, leading to concerns over the wellbeing of LGBTQ+ people visiting the country for the tournament and those from that community who reside there.”
The international coalition of LGBTQ+ rights groups issued an action plan, but many have warned it may not be safe to travel to the tournament.
Qatari law calls for a prison sentence of one to three years for adults convicted of consensual gay or lesbian sex.
Dua Lipa, a global musical star, said, “There is currently a lot of speculation that I will be performing at the opening ceremony of the world cup in Qatar. I will not be performing and nor have I ever been involved in any negotiation to perform. I will be cheering England on from afar and I look forward to visiting Qatar when it has fulfilled all the human rights pledges it made when it won the right to host the World Cup.”
Human rights groups differ on the total number of immigrant laborers who died in building the stadiums and ancillary hotels in preparation for the World Cup. Qatar claims that there were "just" 37 deaths. Others, like Amnesty International, report that the number of deaths was in the thousands.
In total, seven stadiums, a new airport, a new metro system, a series of roads, and approximately 100 hotels have been built in preparation for the tournament. An estimated 30,000 migrant workers were brought into Qatar.
A Guardian report published in February of 2021, citing records from national embassies, claimed that more than 6,500 workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka had died in Qatar since the Gulf nation was awarded the World Cup hosting rights in 2010.
Qatar is banning all beer sales at and around its World Cup stadiums in a dramatic U-turn just two days before the massive soccer tournament begins, world soccer governing body FIFA confirmed on Friday.
Budweiser paid $75 million for the sponsorship and the pouring rights at the stadiums.
“Following discussions between host country authorities and FIFA, a decision has been made to focus the sale of alcoholic beverages on the FIFA Fan Festival, other fan destinations and licensed venues, removing sales points of beer from Qatar’s FIFA World Cup 2022 stadium perimeters,” a statement from FIFA said.
Qatar is banning the beer and FIFA is keeping the money -- sponsors beware.
The U.S. Soccer team is the second-youngest team in the tournament. The U.S. Team has an average age of just 25.2 years of age -- only Ghana is younger at 24.7.
The oldest team is Iran, at 28.9.
“One of them didn’t know who Prince was,” midfielder Kellyn Acosta, at 27 one of the older players on the squad, told the New York Times about his younger teammates. “It’s like, ‘Wait, how old are you again?’”
USMNT plays its first game on Monday against Wales.
GOOD: The World Up Is...
Cafes, bars, and living rooms, and town squares will be packed with fans watching, cheering, and crying over the fate of their teams...it is the beautiful game.
The 2022 World Cup in Qatar starts Sunday with the host country, Qatar facing Ecuador in the first game at 11 a.m. EST (view full schedule).