World Cup 2022: What Is This Qatar Boycott Story

World Cup 2022: What Is This Boycott Story

 

Let’s give some context: the Football World Cup, one of the most-watched sporting events in the world, is organized every four years by the International Football Federation (FIFA) in a different country.

After the 2018 edition in Russia (won by France, youpi), Qatar was chosen to host the 2022 edition, which will be held from November 20 to December 18 in its capital Doha. Problem: the conditions of organization and reception of the World Cup make a lot of people wince.

 

The environmental Question

 

Qatar, like many host countries before it, has built brand new infrastructure especially for the occasion. Including seven stadiums that required resources to be built and which will be air-conditioned.

The World Cup was originally scheduled to take place in June and July, when Qatari summer temperatures can reach 50°C. Finally, it was shifted to November and December, when it is less hot, but during which the thermometer can still reach 29°C.

When we know the environmental impact of air conditioning, this decision to cool the stadiums (which will be in the open air!) raises questions… even if the designer of the air conditioning system explained that it will be powered by electricity solar.

Another concern: the country has planned 160 additional plane flights per day for the duration of the World Cup to transport spectators who have chosen to stay in neighboring countries. In total, the carbon footprint of this 2022 edition would be estimated at 3.6 million tonnes of CO2, the equivalent of the pollution generated by 360,000 French people in one year! This figure is advanced in a report published in 2021 by FIFA and the Qatar Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy.

This carbon footprint would also be underestimated according to the Carbon Market Watch, which states that the pollution generated by the air conditioning of stadiums, for example, had not been taken into account in this calculation. According to the estimate of the French start-up Greenly, it could even rise to 6 million tonnes of CO2. So much more than what had been announced.

Faced with the controversy, FIFA and Qatar have pledged to offset these carbon emissions, for example by investing in green projects or by planting several thousand trees. Nice, in the idea… But for the moment, still according to Greenly, it seems that only three projects have been validated, which represents only 5% of the objective. In addition, concretely, carbon offsetting would not work so well.

Faced with these claims of “carbon neutrality”, no less than 5 complaints for misleading advertising were filed in France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands at the beginning of November. The NGOs behind it denounce FIFA’s greenwashing.

 

The Social Issue

 

The 2022 World Cup is also criticized for its deviations in terms of human rights. The English media The Guardian estimated that 6,500 workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka lost their lives building Qatar’s infrastructure.

So much so that the NGO Amnesty International has asked the International Football Federation to use part of its income to compensate workers on these major construction sites.

 

Boycott: Who Is For, Who Is Against?

 

Echoing these issues, personalities and organizations have publicly called for a boycott of the 2022 World Cup, by not watching the matches, by not publicly relaying information about the competition… In short, by acting as if this World Cup does did not exist to publicly show their disagreement.

This is the case of comedian Vincent Lindon, footballer Éric Cantona, or even the editorial staff of Le Quotidien de la Réunion, who announced that they “will boycott everything related to the sporting event, but will relay the information in connection with the ecological and human issues posed by the competition”.

There are even “counter-events” organized everywhere, for example, matches, concerts, parties, some of which are listed on this map of the Red Card for Qatar collective.

The icing on the cake: the Prime Minister of France herself, Élisabeth Borne, has admitted that open air conditioning in Qatar’s stadiums “is not a good signal”  as Europe prepares for a crisis energy.

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