FIFA WORLD CUP QATAR 2022 FACTS

 FIFA WORLD CUP QATAR 2022  FACTS            

The FIFA World Cup that is happening in the Middle East for the first time. It is happening in Qatar and there are some controversies going on around it. We will try to understand these controversies and see who is behind them and what are their arguments. We will also see the lessons for us in it.

The world cup is happening in the deserts of the Middle East for the first time. The interesting fact is that Qatar, which is the host country, is the smallest country here in terms of land...but it is hosting the most expensive world cup ever.

If we go 100 years into the past, Qatar was a very small country that had nothing in it. People used to spend their lives the way ancient people used to live in the deserts. There was no economy here. Oil was discovered here in the 1930s.

The monarchs of Qatar are the relatives of the Saud family of Saudi Arabia. Gas was discovered here in the 1970s and after that, Qatar became a rich country. Today, Qatar is one of the top gas exporters in the world and has the world's third-largest gas reserves. Just about 20 years ago, there was not much economy or infrastructure here.

But there was definitely a vision behind all this infrastructure, these buildings, and metros. Becoming able to host the world cup from a barren desert didn't happen just like that. The story of these tall buildings and these metros is a very fascinating one.

You can imagine their wealth by the fact that this world cup is the most expensive one in the history of football. Qatar has spent almost $250 Billion on it. In 2010, South Africa just spent $3 Billion on the world cup. And in the last 2 world cups which happened in Russia and Brazil, $10 Billion were spent on each. So, Qatar has spent almost 20 times more money on this world cup. Spending $250 Billion on a world cup shows their economic power. Qatar likes to make the world acknowledge its power and we will discuss it ahead.

Let's first discuss the controversies. For this world cup, Qatar built massive infrastructure. Almost 7 new stadiums were built for this.

No	Stadium	City	Matches	Capacity
1	Lusail Iconic Stadium	Lusail	10	80,000
2	Al Bayt Stadium	Al Khor	9	60,000
3	Al Janoub Stadium	Al Wakrah	7	40,000
4	Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium	Al Rayyan	7	40,000
5	Khalifa International Stadium	Al Rayyan	8	40,000
6	Education City Stadium	Al Rayyan	8	40,000
7	Stadium 974	Doha	7	40,000
8	Al Thumama Stadium	Doha	8	40,000

The interesting thing is that all these stadiums are within a 55 km radius of Doha city.This is a very compact world cup. It must have been very difficult for them to manage it.

                                Lusail Stadium.Image AFL Archetect

Managing the traffic, ticketing, hotels, and roads. They must have spent a lot on everything. Anywhere in the world, the world cup happens in different cities. In Pakistan, the matches happen in Lahore and Karachi. Similarly, there are different cities in England. But there is only one city, and that too is within a 55 km radius. And this is such a small country that you can cover it in a 2-hour drive.

But you will be simply amazed by their ambitions. This stadium has a really interesting story. It is built from almost 1000 shipping containers.

          Stadium974.Image via Qatar's Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy                                  As soon as the world cup will be over, these containers will be back in their actual location. This stadium will be converted back into a flat surface. That is how they are utilizing their resources. Moreover, they have designed these stadiums according to their culture.

They are also supporting green energy and have expressed their ambition of keeping carbon emissions low. They are claiming to make this world cup climate-friendly. Qatar was selected in 2010 for hosting this world cup.

We still remember the hype because the world cup was coming to a Middle Eastern and a Muslim country. But on the other hand, the western countries were not happy about this. Countries like USA and Australia also took part in the bidding so they were really shocked.

The west has raised many controversies and asked many questions about this. The first question that they have raised is that Qatar is a hot country so how will the players play here. Because traditionally, hot weather is not ideal for playing football. That is why we see the better players are from the cold regions.

So, Qatar said that we will host the tournament in November. But there is a problem with hosting the event in November. The western world is not happy with this because this time period is when their league matches happen. This is the peak time of their leagues such as England's Premier League, Spain's La Liga, and Germany's Bundesliga. So usually big tournaments like the world cup happen in the summertime.

So, when Qatar announced hosting the event in November, these countries were not happy because it disturbs their timetable. As a result, their brand deals and advertisements also get disturbed. So, you can imagine the pressure on Qatar from this lobby as well. But, Qatar remained adamant.

There were some other western lobbies as well which did a lot of vicious propaganda. Western media machinery became active against Qatar, especially British media.BBC, The Guardian, Daily Mail, and Sky News, did a lot of propaganda. They published very offensive articles on Qatar.

Their first allegation was that the human rights issues are very severe in Qatar.The migrant workers and the LGBTQ community have no rights there.You cannot drink openly, veils are very common, and strict Islamic rules are imposed there. So, they were angry about Qatar hosting the world cup as it was their thing.BBC showed strange behavior and did not show the opening ceremony properly and kept criticizing Qatar indirectly.

The top anchor of the UK, Piers Morgan, criticized this behavior of the BBC. He said why are you bringing so much politics into this sport. Have we not done anything wrong in the past? The good thing here is that even their own people are exposing their hypocrisy.

Just one world cup is happening outside the American and European continents and they have started crying.

They claim that they are the better ones and call themselves "Global North" while calling the third-world countries "Global South".They claim that the people of the North are educated, have a good environment, and care for the climate while others are despicable.

When the world cup went to Qatar, they were obviously not happy about it. The Guardian published articles claiming that 7,000 to 15,000 people died constructing the football stadiums in Qatar. Qatar rejects these accusations and claims that only 50 work-related deaths happened. United Nations on the other hand says that it is a complicated matter. The claim of UK media's 15,000 deaths is not correct.

The deaths did happen but it is not clear if they were work-related or not. Because many people die due to hot weather. 

This is a fact that migrant workers have to face a lot of challenges in Middle Eastern countries. They don't have many rights there. But we saw that Qatar did some legislation on this issue as well to give the workers more rights. Many analysts say that Qatar improved its laws due the pressure from the western world. Qatar gave more rights to migrant workers. This is a positive development.

But the western media did a lot of fake propaganda like showing fake numbers such as 15,000 deaths in the construction of stadiums.They should remember the dark history behind their own progress. Many people died in that process as well. Americans completely wiped out the natives.

Europeans kept fighting with each other. Many people died during the industrialization period. You will always see the hypocrisy of the west. They always try to take the moral high ground. If you go back just a little bit, you will realize who was the actual barbarian.

You will see from where knowledge, literature, and actual values emerged. And where were the wild people? But they call themselves superior just on the basis of the last 150 years. The element of color is also a part of it. Some people said that their criticism of Qatar is based on racism.

They have tried to discredit Qatar because of their superior thinking of themselves. These Arabs were illiterate, how come they host the world cup. But Qatar showed them the power of money. When you have money, you can do anything. You can even challenge the west as Qatar did.

It's an extremely small country. It has a population of only 3 million. Qatar, with a population of 3 million, of which less than 500,000 is their own, has become a pain in the ass for the world.

Qatar has emerged as an economic powerhouse and the soft power game it has played will always benefit it. We have so many resources. We have human capital. Qatar does not have anything other than oil and gas.

This is where we realize that the leadership of Qatar has a craving of progressing. They really want to emerge on the global map as an important player. Qatar had an important role in the negotiations that took place with the Taliban.

Qatar was a part of some of the most important decisions in the world. And that is why perhaps Saudi Arabia was angry and boycotted Qatar in 2017 or 2018. The reason was that Qatar was going on its own and not following Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia wants all the Gulf countries to follow it. But the leadership of Qatar has a vision that can be seen through its foreign policy, its involvement in geopolitics, and its soft power.

This world cup will obviously help them in boosting their soft power. Their positive image will be portrayed through it and that is why they have started correcting things regarding their human rights issues. Another important development occurred just before the start of the world cup.

Qatar announced a ban on the sale of alcohol near the stadiums. The western countries were angry about this as well because they want to drink on such occasions. They want to drink both inside and outside of the stadium and relief themselves by drinking.

When matches happen in cities like Manchester, people drink and fight with each other. Those who are more dishearted go to the clubs. But Qatar is asking to respect the Qatari values. Every place has its own decorum. When tourists go to Thailand or Japan, they follow their rules which are even mentioned on the boards. These boards tell you to not speak loudly or to respect sacred personalities.

But the west is criticizing these rules. France has even banned the Muslim veil. And they don't remember their terrible past. They just want everyone to do what they ask. So, this is a war of narratives which you can call a clash of civilizations.

This is becoming more prominent because of social media. Everyone wants to follow their roots. Unfortunately, we are witnessing this clash even in sporting events. It is being said that western players will put on ribbons to support LGBTQ. Even the chief of FIFA has spoken on the hypocrisy of the west.

But Qatar is dealing with it through money. If you have a good economy, you can counter anyone. You can tackle their propaganda effectively.

But if you have an economy of only $300 billion, like Pakistan, how can you fight with anyone? You can sell your narrative only if you have money. To construct a narrative, fight hybrid warfare, and buy global media, you need money. We don't have that money.

Qatar has a great platform "Al-Jazeera" which presents the Qatari side in a very effective manner. You will get the world's attention if you have money. Qatar is implementing its own rules there. It's not that the rules are very strict.

Qatari civilians cannot drink openly in Qatar, but this restriction is not for foreigners who have come for the world cup. But that does not mean that they can do what they do in the UK or Brazil. They have set the rules so that they respect the values of Qatari society. They cannot obviously provide the UK-like environment in Qatar.

In the opening ceremony, Quranic verses were recited in a very creative manner. This will be very beneficial for the soft power of Qatar and it will emerge as a geopolitical powerhouse. Qatar will be successful in becoming part of the political decisions of the world.

 The most positive thing about this is that a huge event is taking place in Asia. The west cannot stop the rise of Asia by any means. There is only one thing that we need to do and that is to fight the western pawns in Asia. We need to dismantle the western pawns here and then no one will be able to stop Asia.

Because there are a lot of western puppets here who are safeguarding their own as well as western interests. The west only has to fill the pockets of just a few traitors, the Meer Jafar's and Meer Sadiqs. When these characters will be taken care of, the west will not be able to do anything. So, we need to identify these characters.

Asia will be going forward. But the question is, who will be ahead. China has taken the lead in manufacturing. We cannot compete with China now. But there are other areas where we can compete with it.

Cricket was created by the English but India has created its hegemony in it on the basis of money. China has created its hegemony in manufacturing. India has done a lot with its soft power and now Middle Eastern countries like Saudia Arabia and Qatar are doing a lot.

For that, you need a vision and love for your country. You do fill your bank accounts but you also think about the overall economy of your country. It happens when you have compromised leadership forced upon you.

In gated communities, people only think to improve the living standards of their own. The living standards of common people are not given any attention. The per capita GDP of the country remains the same.

Just look at Qatar, they have created a festival in a desert. More power to Qatar and more power to Asia.