The Qatar World Cup 2022 – What is ‘Sportswashing’?

Whether you’re a football fan or not, everyone knows that right now the FIFA World Cup 2022 is well underway – and it might be the most controversial World Cup event in recent history. Fans have boycotted the event all over the world, accusing Qatar and FIFA of ‘sportswashing’.

But let’s dive into what that term actually means, and why the Qatar World Cup is so controversial…

What is sportswashing?

It’s a relatively new term, one that follows the likes of ‘greenwashing’. They both share the same sentiment; using something good to help you cover up the bad, essentially. Greenwashing refers to individuals, organisations and companies using sustainability as a cover or a smoke screen for their poor business deals, ethics or even their past of doing exactly the opposite of being sustainable.

And so when we look at ‘sportswashing’, we see the same. Except, they use sport as a way to hide their questionable ethics – and if we’re honest, the world cup this year is a cracking example of this. One for the sociology textbooks, I would imagine. But it’s happening in all areas of sport, and frankly, it’s becoming more and more obvious.

How is the World Cup 2022 sportswashing?

In December of 2010, FIFA announced that Qatar would hold the world cup in 2022. And since Russia had won the bid for the 2018 world cup, it seemed that there was something a little dodgy going on. Some deals being done under the radar, the right people being paid off that kind of thing. Two members of the 24-man FIFA executive committee were actually fired prior to the 2022 bid when footage was leaked of them offering support in exchange for money.

Both nations have been accused of sportswashing, using sports to bring in support and tourism for the country and to help sweep their controversies under the rug. In Qatar’s case, the main concern is the Human Rights situation – particularly the treatment of women, LGBTQIA+ individuals and migrant workers. The sportswashing accusation comes in as, despite having absolutely no infrastructure to host a massive sporting event, let alone a football event, it somehow manages to win the bid.

And of course, football fans want to support their countries, they want to be part of the biggest football event in the world – so they flock in their thousands (well, 1.2 million to be more accurate…) It’s taking advantage of the loyalty of sports fans to put up that smoke screen and hide the issues.

What is so bad about the Qatar World Cup?

So, what are the issues exactly? Well, the biggest argument leading up to the world cup itself surrounds the labour laws and migrant workers. Since Qatar had no football or sporting infrastructure in the country, stadiums needed to be built to house the enormity of the tournament – seven new stadiums, that is. And since they started construction, a staggering 6,500* died building them, all migrant workers.

To put that into perspective, when London built the new venues for the Olympics in 2012, not a single life was lost. Qatar’s labour laws were extremely poor, and workers were overworked, underpaid and working in conditions that were incredibly unsafe. The labour laws have since been reformed and workers are now entitled to a non-discriminatory and protected minimum wage for all. The new legislation also tackled safety concerns and gave them access to justice too. The problem now, however, is that these new laws are not being enforced to a high enough standard, and workers are still suffering for it.

One of the other issues surrounding Qatar is the severe homophobia. Being homosexual is still a crime, and one that is punishable by flogging and in some cases, death. Not only that, but women suffer huge repercussions and in many cases prosecution for reporting being victim to sexual offences or having pre-marital relations. The list of human rights violations is a frighteningly long one, and Human Rights Watch published a full report on the violations here.

The rules at the world cup reflect these violations too, for example all players are banned from wearing anything affiliated with rainbows and/or LGBTQIA+ charities. If they were to wear an armband or rainbow laces, they would receive a yellow card for that game. Fans have also been stopped from entering stadiums if they wore anything with a rainbow on.

The issues are big, and there are many – leading some to question the integrity of FIFA itself for allowing them to have a global stage.

Is it still okay to support your team and follow the World Cup?

With the controversy surrounding Qatar 2022, some fans have been questioning whether a full boycott or the World Cup is practical and if they can support their home teams without feeling a sense of guilt.

Well, yes you can. Of course, you can support your team, because supporting them is very different to supporting a human rights violation. But what is important is that we stand up for those people who are affected, we speak up and we don’t let those conversations about LGBTQIA+ rights, feminism and safe working conditions die.

Especially once the world cup is over. We can’t allow the conversation to die, we can’t say “well that’s that then, back to normal” because our ‘normal’ is so very different from their ‘normal’. This isn’t a football issue, the game is still the game. But what it is, is a human rights issue – and one we can’t let slip through our fingers.

There’s a lot of work to be done for human rights across the globe, and the worst thing you can do is to stay silent.