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When the 2010 World Cup was awarded to Qatar, there was huge cheering in the country.
Motorcades, roaring vuvuzelas – the desert state rarely sees anything like that.
12 years later and thus shortly before the start of the World Cup, the country is now heavily criticized - above all because of the human rights situation.
Right?
Peter Ahrens, DER SPIEGEL »This World Cup is always portrayed as the worst and most terrible award in World Cup history. You also have to see that there was a World Cup in Argentina in 1978 under a brutal dictatorship. There was a World Cup in Russia four years ago. We all know how Russia developed. That too was foreseeable at the time. Well, sometimes I find it a bit, I don't want to say dangerous, but a bit negligent, capturing everything negative in Qatar. «
In this respect, FIFA followed an inglorious tradition with Qatar when it came to awarding major tournaments.
However, the World Football Association has been indifferent to criticism from Western countries for a long time.
Peter Ahrens, DER SPIEGEL »Of course, Qatar is already a World Cup, which Fifa actually plays into the hands of. Infantino and his predecessor Blatter naturally stand for corruption. They stand for mismanagement, they stand for nepotism. Actually, Blatter wasn't a fan of the World Cup in Qatar. He himself spoke out against this award in advance. But the ex-co back then was of course simply rotten and full of corrupt moneybags who really only cared about their own well-being.«
The view of the World Cup seems ambivalent.
With the whole world watching Qatar more closely for over ten years, the pressure on the emirate has increased.
The images of the sometimes terrible working and living conditions of the guest workers who were used to build the stadium have a deterrent and shocking effect.
In fact, there has also been progress.
Peter Ahrens, DER SPIEGEL »The international unions are at least saying that the conditions on the World Cup construction sites have at least improved since 2017. Of course, that doesn't necessarily speak volumes when it comes to overall working conditions in Qatar. Of course, the eyes of the world are now also very much focused on these World Cup construction sites. Something has improved there. All the other abuses, some of which have existed for hundreds of years. The view of the position of women, for example, the attitude towards homosexuality - nothing will probably change there and nothing has changed either.«
Before that there was already a handball and an athletics world championship in Qatar.
But why is a state that is smaller than Schleswig-Holstein organizing this gigantic event?
A country where it is so hot in summer that the World Cup had to be moved to winter for the first time?
Peter Ahrens, DER SPIEGEL »The emirate has a master plan behind all these sporting events. This plan totally worked. They have been trying to acquire sporting events for 15, almost 20 years. And of course the World Cup is now the culmination of these efforts.
Of course it's sports washing. Of course they are trying to focus on this small emirate with these events and to show that it's great what's going on there. Of course, this also means looking at the grievances and also looking at what is going wrong. That's probably the only point in this master plan that you may not have given much thought to that has backfired a bit. «
Again and again critics have raised the question of a boycott of this World Cup.
Shouldn't the athletes have said we're not going there?
Can you look forward to the games as a spectator?
And what about the journalists reporting on the World Cup?
Peter Ahrens, DER SPIEGEL »I don't believe in saying yes, reporting should be restricted, because even if there is war somewhere, if there are abuses, journalists actually have a duty to go there and look. And of course we're going to do it this time too. I'm also a sports journalist and of course I report on the biggest sporting event that there is together with the Olympics.«
It remains to be seen whether the insipid aftertaste will disappear once the games start on the green pitch.
But the one in Qatar will certainly not be a World Cup like any other.
