With all the fanfare surrounding the forthcoming FIFA World Cup, it’s important not to lose sight of the fact that the tournament is being hosted by a despotic kleptocracy that’s a fair-weather American ally at best.
Qatar is a land of contradictions. It has been imprudently designated a major non-NATO ally by the Biden administration and is the site of two American military bases, one of which is home to Central Command’s (CENTCOM) forward headquarters. It nevertheless boasts strong ties with China, the Taliban, and Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. Al Jazeera, Qatar’s state-funded television network, regularly injects Islamist venom, anti-American propaganda, and defamatory antisemitic bile into the airwaves. And this is not to mention Qatar’s terrible human-rights record.
Given all this, how did Qatar secure hosting status in the first place? FIFA corruption is the answer. Soccer’s international governing body and graft go hand-in-hand. How else would a regime built on the backs of slave laborers that routinely stifles dissent and squelches freedom of the press earn such a privilege?
So before you sit down to watch the games in Doha, don’t forget about the nefarious schemes and gratuitous suffering that made all this gaudy pageantry possible.