World Cup Throws Qatar a Regional Consolation Prize
Doha may not get the global prestige it hoped from soccer’s biggest tournament, but it is already drawing a diplomatic dividend.
Sharing the wealth.
Photographer: Karim Jaafar/AFP via Getty Images
Nearly 12 years since their country won the right to host soccer’s quadrennial World Cup, Qataris might reasonably wonder, just days ahead of the kickoff, if it was worth the trouble. Rather than bestow the petrostate with the prestige associated with international sporting events, the World Cup has brought unwanted attention — most notably, to its exploitation of foreign workers and its attitudes toward sexuality — and accusations of “sportswashing” away a poor human-rights record.
Critics, including my colleague Martin Ivens, argue that “a Western sense of fair play will be outraged that a country without any native tradition in the game has won the right to host the tournament through financial muscle.”