The World Cup is one of the most watched and anticipated sporting events in the world, bringing together countries and foreign nationals in bars, on couches, and at stadiums alike across the world. Having to worry about the ethics of the World Cup has always been at least a small consideration, but this year this problem is on the forefront of viewer’s minds more than ever before. -- Declan McMahon, 10th Grade

The World Cup is one of the most watched and anticipated sporting events in the world, bringing together countries and foreign nationals in bars, on couches, and at stadiums alike across the world. Having to worry about the ethics of the World Cup has always been at least a small consideration, but this year this problem is on the forefront of viewer’s minds more than ever before. The Cup is being hosted in Qatar this year, a country that has not historically been the most favorable countries for the human rights of queer people, women, and workers, but also is dealing with accusations of bribery to be awarded the privilege of holding the event.
To begin with, Qatar is not the most progressive of countries. It criminalizes homosexual activity both between men and between women. Male homosexuality is further illegal under Sharia law, a legal interpretation of the Kuran, which allows Qatar to penalize homosexuality with death.
While FIFA Chief Social Responsibility & Education Officer Joyce Cook assured the Associated Press in 2020 that “rainbow flags, T-shirts will all be welcome in the stadium,” officials have offered conflicting statements.
Major General Abdulaziz Abdullah Al Ansari, chairman of the National Counterterrorism Committee at the Ministry of Interior (NCCMI) and head of the Department of International Cooperation (DIC) had this to say on pride flags: “If [a fan] raised the rainbow flag and I took it from him, it’s not because I really want to, really, take it, to really insult him, but to protect him,” Al Ansari said in an exclusive interview with the Associated Press. “Because if it’s not me, somebody else around him might attack [him] [...] I cannot guarantee the behavior of the whole people. And, I will tell him: ‘Please, no need to really raise that flag at this point.’”
To begin with, Qatar is not the most progressive of countries. It criminalizes homosexual activity both between men and between women. Male homosexuality is further illegal under Sharia law, a legal interpretation of the Kuran, which allows Qatar to penalize homosexuality with death.
While FIFA Chief Social Responsibility & Education Officer Joyce Cook assured the Associated Press in 2020 that “rainbow flags, T-shirts will all be welcome in the stadium,” officials have offered conflicting statements.
Major General Abdulaziz Abdullah Al Ansari, chairman of the National Counterterrorism Committee at the Ministry of Interior (NCCMI) and head of the Department of International Cooperation (DIC) had this to say on pride flags: “If [a fan] raised the rainbow flag and I took it from him, it’s not because I really want to, really, take it, to really insult him, but to protect him,” Al Ansari said in an exclusive interview with the Associated Press. “Because if it’s not me, somebody else around him might attack [him] [...] I cannot guarantee the behavior of the whole people. And, I will tell him: ‘Please, no need to really raise that flag at this point.’”
Although this line suggests that he cares about the safety of queer people in his country, he goes on to nearly contradict himself: “We realize that this man got the ticket, comes here to watch the game, not to demonstrate a political (act) or something which is in his mind. [...] Watch the game. That’s good. But, don’t really come in and insult the whole society because of this.” Al Ansari is clearly putting on a facade one way or another here.
An anonymous report published by the Washington Post alleged that a transgender woman was arrested, beaten, had her head shaved, and was held for weeks without charge before being released to a conversion therapy center. There is also a heavy and prevalent stigma of HIV/AIDS in Qatar. Multiple reports of HIV positive travelers being deported upon arrival in Qatar have been obtained by the U.S. State Department.
On top of their obvious mistreatment of LGBTQ people, there is one problem that has been plaguing the World Cup since it was chosen as a host country in 2010: the facilities, which are just too big to be conceivably sustainable for most countries. Sure, the Olympics or the World Cup bring a lot of commerce to a country—but only briefly. After that month, the stadiums that took years and billions of dollars to build, stand mostly vacant, because countries just don’t have enough sporting events to consistently use more than one or two. Brazil’s Arena de Amazonia, a 300 million dollar stadium in Manaus—a jungle town--lays nearly abandoned as of 2016, with only ~1,000 people going to see matches there regularly. That’s a fraction of its 40,000 seats, and certainly not enough revenue to keep the stadium running. Rio’s Olympic stadiums (and abandoned Olympic Village), Russia’s World Cup stadiums, and Pyeongchang’s winter Olympic facilities all remain nearly abandoned.
The second drawback of the facilities is the dangers the workers face building these stadiums. Over 6,500 migrant workers have died under excruciating working conditions in Qatar’s heat. Nepali laborer Surendra Tamang was almost one of those workers: “In October 2021, he was sent home with a mysterious, crippling ailment that his employers dismissed as gastritis—chronic indigestion—and claimed had nothing to do with the arduous conditions at his work site. By the time he arrived at a Kathmandu hospital in debilitating pain, both his kidneys had given out, wrecked by working long hours of hard labor in punishing heat, according to his doctor,” says a TIME article about the construction of the World Cup stadiums. “‘I used to have dreams,’ Tamang says from his hospital bed at the dialysis clinic of Nepal’s National Kidney Center. Now 31 and with no potential kidney donors on the horizon, he will likely be on dialysis for the rest of his life, forced to watch the World Cup on his phone.”
An anonymous report published by the Washington Post alleged that a transgender woman was arrested, beaten, had her head shaved, and was held for weeks without charge before being released to a conversion therapy center. There is also a heavy and prevalent stigma of HIV/AIDS in Qatar. Multiple reports of HIV positive travelers being deported upon arrival in Qatar have been obtained by the U.S. State Department.
On top of their obvious mistreatment of LGBTQ people, there is one problem that has been plaguing the World Cup since it was chosen as a host country in 2010: the facilities, which are just too big to be conceivably sustainable for most countries. Sure, the Olympics or the World Cup bring a lot of commerce to a country—but only briefly. After that month, the stadiums that took years and billions of dollars to build, stand mostly vacant, because countries just don’t have enough sporting events to consistently use more than one or two. Brazil’s Arena de Amazonia, a 300 million dollar stadium in Manaus—a jungle town--lays nearly abandoned as of 2016, with only ~1,000 people going to see matches there regularly. That’s a fraction of its 40,000 seats, and certainly not enough revenue to keep the stadium running. Rio’s Olympic stadiums (and abandoned Olympic Village), Russia’s World Cup stadiums, and Pyeongchang’s winter Olympic facilities all remain nearly abandoned.
The second drawback of the facilities is the dangers the workers face building these stadiums. Over 6,500 migrant workers have died under excruciating working conditions in Qatar’s heat. Nepali laborer Surendra Tamang was almost one of those workers: “In October 2021, he was sent home with a mysterious, crippling ailment that his employers dismissed as gastritis—chronic indigestion—and claimed had nothing to do with the arduous conditions at his work site. By the time he arrived at a Kathmandu hospital in debilitating pain, both his kidneys had given out, wrecked by working long hours of hard labor in punishing heat, according to his doctor,” says a TIME article about the construction of the World Cup stadiums. “‘I used to have dreams,’ Tamang says from his hospital bed at the dialysis clinic of Nepal’s National Kidney Center. Now 31 and with no potential kidney donors on the horizon, he will likely be on dialysis for the rest of his life, forced to watch the World Cup on his phone.”

Tamang’s story is one of many, and even more didn't make it. Workers have been forced to work throughout the summer in Qatar’s excruciating heat, with many collapsing or dying from heat exhaustion in the summer temperatures that reached up to 113ºF in 2022. Although many deaths have been attributed to natural causes—and therefore the families are not compensated—the rates of cardiovascular deaths are suspiciously high among the Nepali migrant worker population. According to “Heat Stress Impacts on Cardiac Mortality in Nepali Migrant Workers in Qatar,” a study published in Cardiology, “Global studies show that approximately 15% of deaths in the age group 25–35 years are due to [cardiovascular disease] causes. However, in this [Nepali migrant worker] population, the figures were 22% during the cool season and 58% during the hot season. [...] The increased [cardiovascular disease] mortality during hot periods is most likely due to severe heat stress.”
The World Cup was moved into November—5 months after it normally starts—just to avoid the heat. Why should workers have to suffer and die in 113 degree heat when players don’t?
Finally, there is the legitimacy of FIFA’s decision to host the World Cup in Qatar itself.
The FIFA Congress votes on what country gets to host the World Cup about 7 to 8 years in advance–with the exception of Qatar being 12 years in advance, as it was voted on at the same time the Russian World Cup was voted on. Every FIFA recognized country gets a vote and the countries that put in bids are whittled down by an exhaustive voting process.
Since the beginning, Qatar has been suspected of bribery and corruption. Qatar only beat out the United States in a runoff vote, after two voters had already been kicked off after footage was leaked of them agreeing to sell their vote for Qatar.
Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter called Qatar “a mistake,” going on to say “it is too small of a country. Football and the World Cup are too big for it,” while interviewed outside of a Swedish federal criminal courthouse on November 8th. Although he and retired French player Michael Platini were both acquitted of all charges of fraud on Tuesday, prosecutors have appealed the result. Those charges were the result of a 7-year fraud investigation into the two and FIFA as a whole by the Department of Justice and other international police forces.
In the end, no one is going to tell you what to do. There is no ethical consumption under capitalism. In 2018, 3.5 billion people watched the World Cup. That’s not something that can just go unwatched. However, there is a fine line to walk between respecting LGBTQ people and respecting Qatari sharia laws, and Qatar has clearly crossed that line. Bottom line: enjoy the World Cup skeptically and at a safe distance.
The World Cup was moved into November—5 months after it normally starts—just to avoid the heat. Why should workers have to suffer and die in 113 degree heat when players don’t?
Finally, there is the legitimacy of FIFA’s decision to host the World Cup in Qatar itself.
The FIFA Congress votes on what country gets to host the World Cup about 7 to 8 years in advance–with the exception of Qatar being 12 years in advance, as it was voted on at the same time the Russian World Cup was voted on. Every FIFA recognized country gets a vote and the countries that put in bids are whittled down by an exhaustive voting process.
Since the beginning, Qatar has been suspected of bribery and corruption. Qatar only beat out the United States in a runoff vote, after two voters had already been kicked off after footage was leaked of them agreeing to sell their vote for Qatar.
Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter called Qatar “a mistake,” going on to say “it is too small of a country. Football and the World Cup are too big for it,” while interviewed outside of a Swedish federal criminal courthouse on November 8th. Although he and retired French player Michael Platini were both acquitted of all charges of fraud on Tuesday, prosecutors have appealed the result. Those charges were the result of a 7-year fraud investigation into the two and FIFA as a whole by the Department of Justice and other international police forces.
In the end, no one is going to tell you what to do. There is no ethical consumption under capitalism. In 2018, 3.5 billion people watched the World Cup. That’s not something that can just go unwatched. However, there is a fine line to walk between respecting LGBTQ people and respecting Qatari sharia laws, and Qatar has clearly crossed that line. Bottom line: enjoy the World Cup skeptically and at a safe distance.