Doug Vaughan AP Lang. Final Speech Manuscript 4th
Hour
Goalazoooooo-o-lo-lo-lo-looo! Is
what the people of every nation hope to be yelling when the FIFA World Cup
comes around. The world cup is the biggest international soccer tournament in
the world which is hosted every four years for which teams go through a lengthy
qualification process. Qualifying for the World Cup for every nation is an
honor and brings great excitement and pride to the whole nation as many fans
travel half way around the globe to support their country. However, in 2022 it
might be best for the fans to stay home. The location of the 2022 World Cup is
surrounded by great myriad of issues such as corruption, declining budget,
political isolation, high security risks, homophobia, intense heat, gender
abuse, abusive labor, and human slavery.
With the
amount of issues present, why would hosting a World Cup in Qatar even be
considered? In December of 2010 the 22 members of the FIFA executive committee
held the final vote for the host of the 2022 World Cup which saw Qatar prevail
with narrowly over other biding nations Japan and the United States. The Amir
of Qatar stated the tournaments goal to be “Vehicle to demonstrate social
development, unity, and football in the region of the middle east.” (Brenner).
Qatar being the richest GDP country in the world was a significant reason why
Qatar won the bid in 2010. Qatar designated a 200-billion-dollar budget to
create 6 new state of the art stadiums, renovate 2 existing ones, build state
of the art player facilities, a new efficient public transport system, grand
hotels, and plenty of experiences for tourists. This project would cost 500
million a week until its completion in 2022. In 2015 a huge scandal in FIFA was
exposed, 12 FIFA Executive committee members who involved in the vote, were
indicted including the president of FIFA Sepp Blatter for taking up to 6
billion dollars in bribes just between 2010-2014 (Brenner). This scandal
resulted in Blatter’s resignation and caused controversy over the Qatar bid.
Was the vote corrupted by bribery? Qatar certainly had the money.
A few people
out there couldn’t care less about the corruption and politics and just want to
attend the games wherever and support their nation. However, a fans experience
in Qatar isn’t garneted to be fun.
Traditionally the fans attending the World Cup games always drink it’s a
cultural norm but, in Qatar alcohol is illegal. Fans will undoubtedly attempt
to sneak alcohol in to the countries. If they are caught then they will face a
sentence in a Qatari jail. Homophobic behavior in public is also illegal and could
result in some pretty severe sentences. No law stands in Qatar that goes
against domestic abuse, so justice won’t come to any crime of this nature
(Conn). These laws or lack thereof could make a World Cup in Qatar unsafe and
unenjoyable to the fans who travel.
Another
thing that would hinder the experience of the fans is the heat. Several times during
the summer the temperature reaches close to 110 digress Fahrenheit (YR). In
response to this FIFA announced they would move the World Cup from the summer
to the winter where the temperature is still decently high around 80 degrees
Fahrenheit. Even though this helped a bit with the heat problem it still
angered many fans as the World Cup had never taken place in winter. It conflicts
with many large European club soccer leagues.
This means major club teams will be without their star players for a month
which is unfair to them. Sadly, this isn’t a problem you can fix with money,
which Qatar is starting to lose.
Over the
summer a political dispute occurred in response to reports of Qatar funding
terrorist groups. This resulted with several countries including Egypt and
Qatar’s only land boarder, Saudi Arabia, cutting all ties with Qatar refusing
to trade and enacting a travel ban. This will damage the economy of Qatar as a
large chunk of its GDP is Oil Exports and it would slow down the transportation
of materials. A professional economic journalist Simon Kerr states this would
be a huge and expensive set back of billions of dollars and several months of
construction.
The declining budget isn’t the
biggest problem with the stadiums. 94% of the work force comes from migrant
workers most originating from south east Asia. They come to Qatar seeking easy
labor for lots of money. In the documentary “21st Century Slave State” by ESPN,
reporter Jeremy Shapp investigated their life style. They live in labor camps
on the outskirts of cities. About 16 people share a room about the size of that
pole to the wall. The air conditioner hardly works in the 110-degree heat. One
floor of rooms shares one bathroom without plumbing in the toilets. The kitchen
is filthy and full of unhygienic food. The worst part is they are stuck there
under the kafala system. The kafala system entitles employers to hold on to the
laborers passports until they have completed their contract. However, its not
the contract they agreed to when they signed up originally in their countries.
That contract is thrown away and a new one is created extending the labor’s
stay and lowering the pay to whatever they feel like. They hold the laborers
against their will and force them to live in such awful conditions while paying
them hardly anything, pretty much slavery. Kali a 27-year-old Nepalese man,
needed money to provide for his family. He then signed a contract of a Qatar
World Cup migrant worker for 2 years for about 300 dollars a week. However,
when he arrived in Qatar they told him he now had a 6-year contract for less
than 60 a week. He couldn’t leave as they had his passport. Just 2 months later
Kali was sent back to Nepal to his wife and 2 kids, in a coffin. He had died
from a heart attack due to intense heat. His wife claimed he was so heathy she
couldn’t believe he had died until she saw the body. By the time the fist ball
is kicked 4,000 people will die due to this abusive enslavement just like Kali.
Already these games have failed. The
Amir of Qatar wanted these games to unite the middle east, which right now is
clearly divided. He also wanted to demonstrate their developed society,
conducting slavery and murder is no were close to developed. To have these
games built on blood and lies is a tragedy for the great game of soccer and for
humanity. At first Qatar repeatedly denied these claims, but as more undercover
footage came out like ESPN’s E:60 they then confessed to it and promised change
back in 2014. But just last summer Journeyman TV produced another
documentary going under cover showing no change with anything. In fact, it has
gotten worse with the setbacks of the past few years they are attempting to
compensate it with more workers, an increase in 36,000 workers is expected
within the next year(Conn). FIFA has done nothing in response to this except
for saying “We are watching it”. DON’T WATCH ACT! You need to conduct thorough
investigations report your findings to the International Labor Organization
(ILO) who will impose sanctions on Qatar and their system. FIFA If ANYTHING is
found forget the money and put on your big boy pants and pull the games out of
Qatar. Now I talk to you the common citizen of the world. Spread the word of
this greatly over looked issue about what FIFA needs to do with this World Cup.
Tell them of the corruption, declining budget, political isolation, high
security risks, homophobia, intense heat, gender abuse, and most importantly
their abusive labor system. With all of these issues there is no way the
beautiful game’s World Cup should be in Qatar.
Works Cited
Conn,
David. “FIFA Urged to Press on Qatar on Conditions for World Cup Workers.” The Guardian
9 Nov. 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/nov/09/fifa-urged-press-qatar-improvements-2022-football-world-cup-stadium-worker
http://time.com/3910054/fifa-scandal-sepp-blatter/
Kerr, Simeon.
“Neighbor’s Blockade on Qatar Raises Fear for 2022 World Cup.” Financial Times. 16 Jun. 2017, www.ft.com/content/1b16b4c6-5128-11e7 -a1f2db19572361bb?mhq5j=e1.
Accessed 24 Jun. 2017.
E:60 Qatar’s World
Cup.
Directed by Joel Edward, Performance by Jeremy Schaap, Espn, 2015.
Wong, Kiera.
"Abuse of Nepalese Workers in Qatar" Image on YouTube. Accessed
14 Dec. 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYOhdKt_EU4
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