for A&E
The World Cup is the most internationally watched sporting event, and arguably one of the most unifying celebrations around the globe. In Early December of 2010, FIFA (The International Federation of Association Football) announced that Qatar would host the 2022 World Cup. In 2021, over a decade after the announcement, the Guardian reported alarming statistics of the 6,500 migrant construction workers' deaths while building stadiums in preparation for the event. Due to the high temperatures of Qatar, it was deemed unrealistic for the football players to perform in the World Cup during the regular summer season. Therefore, it was moved to the Winter and lasted from November 20th to December 18th of this year. Unfortunately, a similar empathy was not expressed toward the migrant workers that built the stadiums in which the games were played. The mistreatment to the workers in comparison to the players is apparent not only during the fabrication, but also after the passing of the migrant workers. Most of their deaths were dismissed and reported as ‘due to natural causes’.
Sébastien Marchal, a French graphic designer and activist, wanted to spread awareness of the deaths to the rest of the world through art, “--the best form of resistance.” He designed posters, in hopes of getting the attention of young people worldwide. It worked! It reached David Streiber, a German student and football fan himself, who had already been researching and questioning the deaths on his own. David noticed a poster made by Sébastien in Heidelberg, Germany and reached out to Marchal for further information. Not only did the two shape the BoycottQatar2022 movement, but they’ve brought recognition to one of the biggest contributing factors to Qatar and its human rights policies--FIFA. The website provides ample information on ‘corruptive’ decisions FIFA has made in the past, along with remedies to those decisions, like decreasing viewership to those that were willing to give up the World Cup games.
After speaking with students living around the world, I am reassured that the younger generations are working on and developing a recovering future.
Rachele Ugolin, an 18-year-old student living in Vicenza, Italy expressed negative emotions about the hypocrisy of the boycotting. “Even if people are aware of the situation they still watch [the World Cup] anyways and don’t [acknowledge what’s going on]. People in my class have even watched the games during lessons.”
Nearly 10,000 kilometers away, Emily Gdula, a 17-year-old student living in Japan, shares how sad it was that most of her friends weren’t even aware of the lack of human rights in Qatar. “I think for my friends in Japan, it’s all too far away both geographically and emotionally to understand the gravity of what is happening behind the scenes. [As] a nation, it seems like Japan doesn’t have much interest in what is happening. I haven’t seen much coverage about it in the media.”
Germany, a country known to be passionate about football, is at a loss. Benedict Adam, 18 years old and studying at the University of Berlin, says that many football fans are disappointed and choose not to watch the games, while others just care a lot about football and watch them anyway. “I think many did boycott it, but the fact that the world cup is in winter probably contributed too. In the summer, there would have been all sorts of public viewing events outside, which did not really happen now.”
Johanna Knoll, a 17-year-old student from Tirol, Austria expressed annoyance with her classmates that were promising to boycott but watched the games anyway. “I’m boycotting [the World Cup] even though I would love to watch it. I even feel bad if I walk past a screen showing a match, [or posters showing] all the games and the results. I believe that this is not acceptable, especially if we talk [about] the situation in Qatar in our classes and then walk out of the classroom and basically see an advertisement for [watching it].”
How effective was the boycott? The goal of boycotting football games was to prevent FIFA from receiving profit from their virtual audiences. According to Bayern Munich News and Commentary, there was a 34% decline in overall viewership in the opening game between Qatar and Ecuador, showing a significant decline of 50% in the 14-49 age group. “USA vs Wales, the most watched game of the second day of the World Cup, averaged around 4.35 [million] viewers.” While the weakest viewership number for an evening game at the 2018 World Cup was 8 million.
The best-case scenario would have been for a unanimous, worldwide, altogether refusal to watch World Cup games, which would have decreased viewership of advertisements and therefore fed less money to FIFA. However, that may have not felt like an option for many football fans that had been anticipating this event for years. The easiest solution for passionate fans was to stream the games from platforms other than FIFA’s official channels and spread awareness locally. An additional, indirect form of boycott, is refusing to buy from companies supported by FIFA, such as merchandise stores, Adidas, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Budweiser, and others.
Laws among countries --or lack thereof--, global conflicts, reliable news sources, all need to be considered when making a decision for yourself. However, the mere fact that people’s lives have been lost for a ‘unifying’ global event, is enough of a reason for many. Did it have to take the deaths of thousands of migrant workers to recognize FIFA’s decisions? Let’s acknowledge that the 2010 World Cup was hosted in South Africa, with a similar desert climate to Qatar’s; and also, the protests to Russia’s LGBTQ rights, occuring during their host of the World Cup in 2018. It wasn’t until this year, after a significant number of individuals have already died, that the media took over to get a closer look at FIFA and their motifs.
How conscious was the decision for Qatar, a country unlikely to have a use for the multiple stadiums built --only one of which will be recycled-- to host the World Cup? Nonetheless, at a time when our world is struggling to come up with sustainable solutions to the ticking global warming clock. Consider how our clothes were made, where the food we’re eating is grown, how the cars we drive are manufactured, how the furniture we buy is made. Much bigger problems are at hand here, and they’re only now beginning to be recognized.
The World Cup is the most internationally watched sporting event, and arguably one of the most unifying celebrations around the globe. In Early December of 2010, FIFA (The International Federation of Association Football) announced that Qatar would host the 2022 World Cup. In 2021, over a decade after the announcement, the Guardian reported alarming statistics of the 6,500 migrant construction workers' deaths while building stadiums in preparation for the event. Due to the high temperatures of Qatar, it was deemed unrealistic for the football players to perform in the World Cup during the regular summer season. Therefore, it was moved to the Winter and lasted from November 20th to December 18th of this year. Unfortunately, a similar empathy was not expressed toward the migrant workers that built the stadiums in which the games were played. The mistreatment to the workers in comparison to the players is apparent not only during the fabrication, but also after the passing of the migrant workers. Most of their deaths were dismissed and reported as ‘due to natural causes’.
Sébastien Marchal, a French graphic designer and activist, wanted to spread awareness of the deaths to the rest of the world through art, “--the best form of resistance.” He designed posters, in hopes of getting the attention of young people worldwide. It worked! It reached David Streiber, a German student and football fan himself, who had already been researching and questioning the deaths on his own. David noticed a poster made by Sébastien in Heidelberg, Germany and reached out to Marchal for further information. Not only did the two shape the BoycottQatar2022 movement, but they’ve brought recognition to one of the biggest contributing factors to Qatar and its human rights policies--FIFA. The website provides ample information on ‘corruptive’ decisions FIFA has made in the past, along with remedies to those decisions, like decreasing viewership to those that were willing to give up the World Cup games.
After speaking with students living around the world, I am reassured that the younger generations are working on and developing a recovering future.
Rachele Ugolin, an 18-year-old student living in Vicenza, Italy expressed negative emotions about the hypocrisy of the boycotting. “Even if people are aware of the situation they still watch [the World Cup] anyways and don’t [acknowledge what’s going on]. People in my class have even watched the games during lessons.”
Nearly 10,000 kilometers away, Emily Gdula, a 17-year-old student living in Japan, shares how sad it was that most of her friends weren’t even aware of the lack of human rights in Qatar. “I think for my friends in Japan, it’s all too far away both geographically and emotionally to understand the gravity of what is happening behind the scenes. [As] a nation, it seems like Japan doesn’t have much interest in what is happening. I haven’t seen much coverage about it in the media.”
Germany, a country known to be passionate about football, is at a loss. Benedict Adam, 18 years old and studying at the University of Berlin, says that many football fans are disappointed and choose not to watch the games, while others just care a lot about football and watch them anyway. “I think many did boycott it, but the fact that the world cup is in winter probably contributed too. In the summer, there would have been all sorts of public viewing events outside, which did not really happen now.”
Johanna Knoll, a 17-year-old student from Tirol, Austria expressed annoyance with her classmates that were promising to boycott but watched the games anyway. “I’m boycotting [the World Cup] even though I would love to watch it. I even feel bad if I walk past a screen showing a match, [or posters showing] all the games and the results. I believe that this is not acceptable, especially if we talk [about] the situation in Qatar in our classes and then walk out of the classroom and basically see an advertisement for [watching it].”
How effective was the boycott? The goal of boycotting football games was to prevent FIFA from receiving profit from their virtual audiences. According to Bayern Munich News and Commentary, there was a 34% decline in overall viewership in the opening game between Qatar and Ecuador, showing a significant decline of 50% in the 14-49 age group. “USA vs Wales, the most watched game of the second day of the World Cup, averaged around 4.35 [million] viewers.” While the weakest viewership number for an evening game at the 2018 World Cup was 8 million.
The best-case scenario would have been for a unanimous, worldwide, altogether refusal to watch World Cup games, which would have decreased viewership of advertisements and therefore fed less money to FIFA. However, that may have not felt like an option for many football fans that had been anticipating this event for years. The easiest solution for passionate fans was to stream the games from platforms other than FIFA’s official channels and spread awareness locally. An additional, indirect form of boycott, is refusing to buy from companies supported by FIFA, such as merchandise stores, Adidas, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Budweiser, and others.
Laws among countries --or lack thereof--, global conflicts, reliable news sources, all need to be considered when making a decision for yourself. However, the mere fact that people’s lives have been lost for a ‘unifying’ global event, is enough of a reason for many. Did it have to take the deaths of thousands of migrant workers to recognize FIFA’s decisions? Let’s acknowledge that the 2010 World Cup was hosted in South Africa, with a similar desert climate to Qatar’s; and also, the protests to Russia’s LGBTQ rights, occuring during their host of the World Cup in 2018. It wasn’t until this year, after a significant number of individuals have already died, that the media took over to get a closer look at FIFA and their motifs.
How conscious was the decision for Qatar, a country unlikely to have a use for the multiple stadiums built --only one of which will be recycled-- to host the World Cup? Nonetheless, at a time when our world is struggling to come up with sustainable solutions to the ticking global warming clock. Consider how our clothes were made, where the food we’re eating is grown, how the cars we drive are manufactured, how the furniture we buy is made. Much bigger problems are at hand here, and they’re only now beginning to be recognized.