A World Cup dogged by accusations of a corrupt bidding process. Discrimination against members of the LGBT+ community overshadowing the build-up. The Fifa president repeatedly insisting the World Cup can be a force for good in the country.
Three sentences that provide a brief summary of Qatar 2022. Three sentences that also happen to provide a brief summary to Russia 2018. The glove fits both tournaments comfortably.
Each, of course, has its own issues, its own geopolitical disputes and societal problems. But there are stark similarities between controversies swirling around the award of the World Cup to either country in a 2010 vote that was later described as “the biggest corruption decision in the history of sport” at a conference in London.
Eight months away from the tournament kicking off in the Gulf, is history about to repeat itself?
Less than four years after Russia hosted football’s most prestigious tournament and wowed outsiders with its welcoming atmosphere, the enthralling football and endless bowls of luscious Borscht, its president Vladimir Putin started a war that came as a surprise and shook the world.
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Sports journalists left Russia and wrote entire books about how amazing the experience had been.
And I was complicit in ways, too. I was there, covering England for the first time at a World Cup, reporting on the incredible story of Gareth Southgate’s social justice warriors.
And I didn’t really see much of the real Russia beyond hotel rooms, airports, media centres and stadiums. I spent most of the time in the tiny, sleepy resort of Repino, 20 miles from central St Petersburg, where England set up camp, trying to keep up with what was happening with the England team or catching up on lost sleep after countless flights around the country for games.
Do images of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman laughing and joking with Putin and Fifa president Gianni Infantino in the VIP box at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium for the opening game between Russia and Saudi Arabia require closer inspection?
In 2016, for the first time Russia and Saudi Arabia – the world’s two largest oil producers – agreed to manage oil production, forming a group with other oil providing countries known as OPEC+ which can effectively drive up the price of oil. While the two countries have disagreed since, when Boris Johnson flew to Saudi Arabia to try to convince Bin Salman to increase oil production for the UK to ease demand from Russia in an attempt to apply pressure on Putin’s war, the crown prince offered no assurances.
In relation to Qatar, there has been intense focus on the abuse of migrant workers who have been mistreated and in some cases died building an entire World Cup infrastructure from scratch. And a spotlight beamed on the treatment of women, whose freedoms are restricted, and people in the LGBT+ community, in a country where homosexuality is illegal.
Before the World Cup in Russia, there was more focus on racism. Yaya Toure suggested black players could boycott the World Cup after he was racially abused playing for Manchester City against CSKA Moscow, in the Russian capital. The Russian club strongly denied the claim, but were later charged by Uefa following an investigation and punished with a part stadium closure.
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Four years out from the World Cup in Russia, there were calls for the country to be stripped of the World Cup when Putin invaded and annexed the Crimea and deployed troops in eastern Ukraine. David Cameron, then prime minister, wanted the measure to be added to a list of EU sanctions, but Fifa declined.
Politicians compared the award of the World Cup to Russia to the appeasement of Adolf Hitler, who staged the 1936 Olympics and started the second world war three years later.
During a foreign affairs select committee, four months before the World Cup, Labour MP Ian Austin said, “Putin is going to use it in the way Hitler used the 1936 Olympics,” and Boris Johnson, foreign secretary at the time, replied: “I think that your characterisation of what is going to happen in Moscow, the World Cup, in all the venues – yes, I think the comparison with 1936 is certainly right. It is an emetic prospect of Putin glorying in this sporting event”.
If the World Cup really is a force for good, should it not be that it leaves behind a legacy of change for the oppressed and abused? Fifa has been urged to use its remaining sway over Qatar to enforce migrant labour reforms that appear to have only partially improved in the 12 years since it was awarded hosting rights. Should Fifa not be a firmer hand, improving conditions for migrant workers, women and members of the LGBT+ community while it can? Or will the World Cup swoop in and out of Qatar and everything return to as it was?
It took until the end of Russia 2018 for the first major protest moment, when three women and a man in police uniform staged a pitch invasion in the 55th minute of the final between France and Croatia in Moscow. Protest group Pussy Riot claimed responsibility for the action.
The group said the World Cup had showed an example of how “beautiful” Russia’s future could be, but the pitch invaders represented the “earthly policemen” prevalent in normal Russian life who disrupt and destroy, who incarcerate political prisoners and fabricate criminal cases to prevent political competition to Putin.
Given everything that transpired, perhaps the fierce shine of the World Cup blinding outsiders to what was really going on was a more damaging legacy than Fifa could ever have imagined.
We need to get our own house in order
Gareth Southgate has not been afraid to call for his country to get its own house in order before criticising others about issues surrounding the game, particularly racism from supporters.
When the England manager spoke of his concern that some LGBT+ and female fans might avoid travelling to Qatar for the World Cup, he could equally have made the same point in this case.
I know gay supporters of Premier League clubs who feel uncomfortable revealing their sexuality around English fans, or avoid holding hands with their other half at a game. The UK is, of course, in a much better place than Qatar, where homosexuality is illegal, but it still has a long way to go.
Undeserved booing is becoming the new normal
Is the booing of Harry Maguire by England fans at Wembley when a sign of things to come? Could it be football’s new normal?
Maguire has done little wrong for England in five years during which he has been at the heart of one of the most successful spells the national team has ever experienced. Yet a bit of poor form for Manchester United led to him being repeatedly booed by a loud portion of the crowd at the friendly against the Ivory Coast.
It feels like the toxicity of football fandom on social media spilling into real life.
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Let’s not forget, Lionel Messi was recently booed by Paris Saint-German supporters every time he got the ball against Bordeaux in the first match after they were knocked out of the Champions League.
His former team-mate Ronaldinho put it well: “I don’t understand [it]. If you whistle Messi, there’s nothing left! If you whistle the best in the world, who are you going to applaud?”
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