World Cup 2022 Qatar: Too late to complain

Just days before the start of the World Cup 2022 in Qatar, there is a noticeable campaign against the Gulf state and its human rights record in the media.

Doha with that huge World Cup 2022 installation 
Photo :Bloomberg 

We suddenly found FIFA's former boss Sepp Blatter who is corrupt from top to bottom saying days before the start of the most important football tournament saying that choosing Qatar was a “mistake” and actually it was a deal and former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was behind it.

Blatter decided to speak up only ten days before the start of the World Cup. I do not know if he is bitter, or he suddenly got some consciousness, but I know he can’t participate in any FIFA activity till 2027.

For eight years, human rights organizations have been speaking days and nights about the rights of Asian and African workers who built those magnificent football stadiums as well as other gigantic buildings across the Gulf state and yet now Western media is mad about how LGBT football fans are going to be treated and how Qatar criminalizes same-sex relations just as the teams have arrived at those seven stars hotels!!

The laws of Qatar are known since day one.

Anyhow many Arab football fans believe there are some traces of racism here because we did not have this outcry when Russia which got human rights record that is worse than Qatar hosted the World Cup.

I do not need to remind you about the LGBT’s record in Russia or the fact that it already invaded Crimea and got involved in military operations in other countries including Syria where war crimes have been committed and documented.

Yet we have not seen this outcry in the same way, unfortunately.

FYI Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Greece want to host the World Cup. Three religiously orthodox countries want to host the 2030 World Cup.

I do not know if Egypt and Saudi Arabia will say that gay fans can go to Greece or what, but this is just mad.

Some say that this campaign is due to the position of Qatar in that gas crisis and honestly, I am not buying it because if Emirates was the little Sparta of the Gulf, Qatar is like … I do not know but I know it plays the game very to the level that I wish Egypt plays the game in the same way again.

Needless having this World Cup in Qatar after those bitter four years of Gulf boycott is another political and social victory for Sheikh Tamim bin Hamed whether you like it or not.

The Western media can complain but one thing I know very rich and powerful countries can get away with anything.

Sidenote: Aside from the worker's rights, I feel sad that as an Egyptian I had an opportunity to see once in a lifetime a World Cup in the Arab World but I missed it like many millions of Egyptians because of that bloody Egypt Vs Senegal game and how Mo Salah missed his penalty. Yeah, it is a complicated feeling.