Where is Qatar and what is it like?
Qatar is a small monarchy of 2.7 million people – of whom about 300,000 are Qatari citizens and the rest expatriates – on the Persian Gulf that shares its only land border with Saudi Arabia. The entire country is about ten times the size of New York City, and all the games will be held in a tight circle of eight stadiums near the capital, Doha.
Who runs Qatar and how does it make money?
The British-educated sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani took over from his father nearly a decade ago and maintains control over nearly all aspects of government. Once one of the poorest Gulf states, Qatar has risen to become one of the wealthiest countries in the world per capita on the back of oil and gas.
What is its role geopolitically?
Qatar has an “open-door” foreign policy in which it speaks to all political groups, which is why the country has acted as a mediator, for example, between the Taliban and the US. But Qatar’s support for Islamist groups, such as affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas in Gaza, has caused serious friction with its neighbours.
In June 2017, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain cut diplomatic ties with Qatar. Saudi Arabia’s role, in particular, meant Qatar was effectively cut off from the rest of the world. The blockade was lifted last year.
What is Qatar famous for?
The small state has an outsized influence across the region and globally due to its 2006 launch of the influential pan-Arab and international TV broadcaster Al Jazeera.
While it is part-owned by the state – and avoids criticism of the Qatari monarchy – Al Jazeera has maintained a level of independence in its reporting, making it a vital source of breaking news across the Middle East, particularly during the Arab spring uprisings that erupted in 2011.
Dictators across the region detest Al Jazeera, which has closely reported on pro-democracy movements and Islamist uprisings. They accuse Qatar of using the channel to foment strife.
Why is this tournament so controversial?
Broadly, although not exhaustively, the main arguments made against awarding the tournament to Qatar fall into the following categories:
Migrant workers’ rights
The role of Qatar’s huge migrant worker population – often from south and east Asia – in the country’s construction industry has dominated discussions. A Guardian investigation in 2019 found hundreds of labourers had been worked to death in searing temperatures of up to 45C for up to 10 hours per shift, six days a week. Many workers live in squalid, overcrowded dorms, and some interviewed by the Guardian say they earn the equivalent of about £1 an hour.
Responding to the criticism, Qatar introduced a minimum wage and abolished the abusive kafala system, under which workers could not change jobs and were effectively controlled by their employers. Nevertheless in October Amnesty International said human rights abuses “persist on a significant scale”.
LGBTQ+ rights
Qatar criminalises same-sex sexual activity with jail time and the country ranks poorly on indices of LGBTQ+ rights, even by regional standards.
Last month, Human Rights Watch published a report documenting what it claimed was “arbitrary” police action against LGBTQ+ residents in Qatar. A Qatari official said the allegations “contain information that is categorically and unequivocally false”, without specifying.
In an effort at global acceptance, Qatar has explicitly said that LGBTQ+ couples visiting for the World Cup can stay in the same room. Documents seen by the Guardian suggest police will be told not to take action against public displays of affection or pro-LGBTQ+ protests. Still, the grey area is a serious cause for concern. Recent remarks by an official tournament ambassador describing homosexuality as “damage in the mind” have been decried as “harmful and unacceptable”.
The climate crisis
Qatar initially proposed holding the tournament during summer, when temperatures average 36C and sometimes reach into the 50s, though in 2015 Fifa confirmed a winter tournament would take place instead.
Doha has promised “the first carbon-neutral World Cup in history” with its “compact” design meaning less carbon-emitting travel. But concerns have been expressed over the use of air conditioning in the stadiums and hundreds of thousands of litres of desalinated water needed to keep the pitches lush and green.
Corruption
There is no evidence linking Qatar itself to any kind of corruption in securing its World Cup bid success, but it is 12 years since the host nation was announced, and questions remain about how a country that has never qualified for the tournament won the right to host it. Attention has focused instead on the 22 voting members of Fifa’s executive committee at the time, 16 of whom have been implicated in or investigated over some form of alleged corruption or bad practice.
Earlier this month the former Fifa president Sepp Blatter claimed the tournament was handed to the Gulf state because of the actions of the former Uefa president Michel Platini, under pressure from France’s then president Nicolas Sarkozy. Platini, a former France player, acknowledges that a meeting with Sarkozy took place but denies his votes were influenced. Sarkozy has previously chosen not to comment on the allegations.
• This article was amended on 21 November 2022. Qatar is about ten times the size of New York City, not a 10th of the size as an earlier version said.
