The unlikely precedent was already set a dozen years ago.
A tiny Middle Eastern Arab dictatorship, but bursting with money, on the shores of the Persian Gulf, which has never played in the soccer World Cup, without a proper national team and without a sporting heritage, has won the honor of hosting the World Cup games, which will open there next week.
Sepp Blatter, the former president of FIFA, who announced the winner at the time, now fully admits that it was a mistake.
Three arguments were raised even then against the announcement: the first, that it was an invalid decision because Qatar had bribed FIFA officials and dozens of other influential people, including prime ministers and influencers, in order to pave its way to the World Cup. To prove this argument, it must be admitted, very little has been discovered over the years A fire is damning, but the smoke around it keeps rolling in. The Qataris, of course, deny it.
Admitted by mistake.
Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter, photo: Reuters
The second argument was that Qatar, without minimal sports and tourism infrastructure, would not be able to handle an international sports event of this magnitude.
But that argument collapsed.
Qatar has invested no less than 220 billion dollars in paving new roads, building a light rail, building seven stadiums and dozens of hotels and hospitality.
It will probably also be the most secure World Cup.
In exchange for billions more, the Pakistani army flew 4,500 elite infantry fighters to Doha, who have already been stationed around the sports facilities and hotels of the national teams. The Turks sent there 3,000 policemen skilled in handling disturbances. The British air force and navy will increase the defense of the kingdom's maritime and airspace. More than a billion dollars have been invested in building a defense system against cyber attacks.
Neymar's portrait on the background of a building in Qatar, photo: AFP
Photo: AFP,
The third argument against hosting the games in Qatar is related to the principality's harsh record of human rights abuses, repression of political opponents, persecution of members of the LGBT community, enforcement of strict Islamic dress codes and a ban on drinking alcohol. What exacerbated Western criticism of Qatar around the World Cup were reports of The death of thousands of foreign workers who were employed in the construction of the infrastructure for the sports events in harsh slavish conditions, unbearable heat and meager wages. In Germany, signs were hung along the lines of "Shame!!!
5,000 thousand people died for 5,760 minutes of football."
The fact that on the eve of the opening of the competitions these attacks did not subside and the calls for a boycott only increased, caused the Qataris to launch a counterattack.
The ruler, Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, declared that these were "evil and fabricated" reports, which were only intended to blacken the image of the princess.
Another senior Qatari official, the former deputy prime minister, warned that after the World Cup, Qatar "will have a reckoning with its critics."
Emir of Qatar Al-Thani with the World Cup, photo: AP
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, photo: Reuters
At the same time, the Qataris promised this week that they would not enforce the strict rules during the games, and would even turn a blind eye to "slight symptoms" of drunkenness in public and send the drunken fans to "sobriety tents", after which they would be sent to their hotel without punishment.
It remains to be seen if these promises will actually be fulfilled on the ground, and even more so if the concessions in question and the improvement of the living conditions of more than two million foreign workers will not disappear immediately upon the departure of the last team.
The Qatari precedent may go a long way in deciding the chances of Saudi Arabia, with an equally poor human rights record, to host the World Cup in eight years' time.
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