 |
| Qatar Unveils Official Mascot for World Cup 2022 |
By: Matt Carlson
As I was looking out the window at a dropping thermometer and the start of a light drizzle, my thoughts wandered to being somewhere warmer. While most people would start to imagine soft, sandy beaches and umbrella drinks, I began to wonder about Qatar. Sad, I know, that this is how my mind works, but if you frequent this site, you probably have soccer on the brain, too, so you may understand. Okay, maybe not. On to Qatar. It’s been over a year since FIFA surprised the soccer world by selecting Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup, so how is Qatar doing? Since the vote, most of the action has been in the area of The Three C’s – Corruption, Climate and Consumption. Let’s start with Corruption. Continue Reading After The Jump.
CORRUPTION
After the vote, FIFA created three task forces to investigate whether there was corruption, but, so far, they have not found anything untoward. It is really no surprise that an organization investigating itself fails to find anything wrong with itself. Heck, I am guilty of this every time I wear my swimming trunks, so why should I expect FIFA to be any different when it comes to self-assessment?
FIFA can get away with this attitude right now, too, because, while rumours have abounded, direct evidence of Qatar paying any money to FIFA Executive Committee members to vote for Qatar 2022 has yet to be found. Yes, two Executive Committee members were suspended for seeking bribes, but they were excluded from the vote. Yes, Mohammed bin Hammam was banned for life, but that was related to votes in his campaign to be FIFA President. In May 2011, there looked to be a break in the case when a former employee of the Qatar 2022 bid said three FIFA Executive Committee members had been paid for their votes. However, the whistle blower has recanted, saying she was just trying to get back at the Qatar committee for terminating her employment.
At this point, it looks like any influence Qatar may have exerted on the voting process was accomplished by far more sophisticated means than handing suitcases full of cash to Ex Comm members. If you had been paying attention – and really, there has been zero soccer reason to do so – you would have seen that Qatar has been making efforts in the last several years to become a player in the world community. Qatar's efforts financially and politically may well have garnered it all the goodwill it needed to get the votes. For example, in the months prior to the vote, Qatar made or was in talks to make investments of $400M in Cyprus, $100M in Argentina, $100M in Brazil, and $2.8B in China – all countries with representation on the Ex Comm. Qatar has long-standing military and economic cooperation treaties with Turkey, another Ex Comm member. Qatar's purchase of the controlling interest in Paris Saint-Germain and the broadcast rights to Ligue 1, when both the club and the league were in need of funds, had to have been looked upon favorably by the French. Qatar’s Aspire Football Dreams Academies have operated around the world, including in six countries on the Ex Comm. (Some have speculated that the real purpose of Aspire is to find players for Qatar’s national team. This makes sense as over 90% of Qatar’s workforce is comprised of foreign migrant labor, so why not import a soccer team, too? Can you imagine Preston Zimmerman’s Tweets if he were Qatari?!) Finally, Qatar’s promise to dismantle the World Cup stadiums and donate them to “developing countries” after 2022 didn’t hurt its cause, either. Any country on the Ex Comm that could possible qualify as a developing country had some self-interest in voting for Qatar. In light of all of this, maybe Qatar obtaining the World Cup is not so surprising.
We will have to stay tuned, I guess. One issue to watch in the coming months is the FBI’s involvement. I think the U.S. may find itself in the same position as England if the FBI pushes too hard and I’d like to see another World Cup in the U.S. before I die. Speaking of dying, let’s talk about Qatar’s climate.
CLIMATE
As I am sure you remember, Qatar’s winning bid was based, in part, on the promise that it would build high-tech air-conditioned stadiums to keep temperatures comfortable for fans and players. Qatar even built a twenty five million dollar prototype of the cooling system to show Ex Comm members during the bidding process. Well, I hope Qatar kept the receipt because the architects have already scrapped the idea calling it “notoriously unsustainable.” Paying twenty five million dollars for the prototype is looking look like the biggest waste of soccer-related money since Chelsea bought Andriy Shevchenko. Undeterred, the General Secretary of the Qatar Committee said that it is working on other air cooling plans and that it “can deliver... and fulfill the promises we made to the world.” In fact, he went on to say, Qatar has already been in contact with Mother Nature to request that she help get Heat Miser and Snow Miser to cooperate.
I know I have bashed Qatar’s climate a lot in this space and that I should be more objective. Actually, do you know what is good about Qatar in the summer? Nothing. Hahaha. See what I did there? Did you know that in addition to reaching temperatures of 120F in the summer, Qatar also can have 90% humidity? I know the phrase "hot as Hell" is one of the most frequently misused sayings on the planet, but I think we're on solid ground here. On the bright side, there won’t be any old people around saying, “At least it’s a dry heat."
Despite Qatar’s public optimism about its ability to hold a tolerable World Cup in the summer, there are indicators to suggest that World Cup 2022 is going to be held in the winter. Shortly after the vote, Sepp Blatter, UEFA President Michael Platini and FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke came out supporting a winter World Cup. Platini (who many think is the heir apparent to Blatter) reiterated being open to moving the Champions League and other competitions. It seems clear what the FIFA bigwigs want and they usually get what they want. Another telling development comes from Qatar’s bid on the 2020 Olympics. After having lost out on a prior Olympic bid, Qatar has reportedly asked the IOC if it can bid to hold the 2020 Olympics in September and October instead of July and August. This evidences that even Qatar knows holding the World Cup in the summer is a bad idea. If things continue as is, it may lead to a battle between FIFA, UEFA and the big Euro leagues over a winter World Cup. Could some countries boycott the World Cup? Sounds crazy, but nobody thought a country would boycott the Olympics either until it happened in 1980. Staying with the theme of bad ideas, let’s move on to the lack of alcohol.
CONSUMPTION
We all know that Qatar has promised that alcohol will be permitted during the World Cup. However, there are signs that this issue is not completely resolved. In December, Qatar stopped the sale of alcohol on The Pearl, a man-made island containing shops and restaurants catering to foreigners. Similarly, Qatar Airways has recently been the target of a grassroots campaign by Qataris trying to pressure it to stop selling alcohol on its flights. These events suggest that many Qataris do not support the sale of alcohol to anyone. Nevertheless, a Qatari official stated, "We have always said alcohol would be available [at the World Cup]” for any fan who wishes to have a drink. Of course, that fan will receive forty lashes in the market afterwards, but alcohol will be available for anyone who chooses to imbibe. Okay, I am exaggerating, but can we really believe Qatar on this? If this alcohol promise has the same weight as the promise Qatar gave us on the air conditioning, I suggest anyone who wants a drink at World Cup 2022 better start perfecting their recipe for making hooch in their hotel room bathtub.
So, without alcohol, what will fans do between matches? The Qatar Tourism Authority’s website actually lists the following “leisure“ activities: going into the desert to see the Dhal Al Misfir cave, digging for “Desert Rose” gypsum crystals, and listening to the musical sound of the wind moving the sand dunes. So, to summarize, when not watching the games, you can look at sand, dig in sand or listen to sand? I’m sorry, but the only way any of that has a remote chance of being fun is if hallucinogenics are involved and those are outlawed, as well. The Qatar Committee recognizes the problem and says it plans on making a significant investment in tourism. By 2022, Qatar expects to have other tourist attractions in place besides piles of sand, including “Hospital With Largest Heat Stroke Unit on Earth” and “World’s Hottest Vinyl Car Seat.” Whose in!?
Conclusion
You are now up-to-date with what has gone on since the vote fourteen months ago. FIFA is committed to making it work to avoid admitting it made a mistake, but is it really worth all the problems? It’s too bad there is not another country out there that could host a fan-friendly, no-hassle, profitable World Cup on short notice. Oh, well. I guess we’re stuck with Qatar.
