There is no doubt that the World Cup is the greatest sporting activity in the world. Essentially every nation around the world battles it out in a qualification format to get a chance to represent their nation in the biggest stage and this year’s edition of the tournament has been referred to, by many as one of the best in the competition’s history. And honestly, where is the lie?
The tournament has not come without its hiccups though. As far back as 2010 when it was announced that Qatar would host the World Cup, there have been questions as to how suitable they are to host such a prestigious competition. Qatar is not just a really small country that is ridiculously hot in the summertime, there are also serious reservations over their Human rights stands and in fact, corruption accusations were leveled against the FIFA officials who voted for Qatar to host the competition in the first place. As the competition got closer, more questions were raised with regards to how Qatar had treated immigrant workers which they had allowed into the country to help with building the proper infrastructures for the World Cup. An investigation by the Guardian in 2021 claimed that over 6000 immigrant workers from South-Asian countries had died in one way or another in Qatar since the announcement in 2010. And so while the lead up to the World Cup was filled with uncertainty about how countries were going to try to speak against the obvious injustices going on in Qatar, one thing was certain. There would be football. It was going to be in a weird time in November and would mean halting major leagues all around the world but winter was coming and so was football, world football.
