When FIFA rather bizarrely awarded the 2022 World Cup Finals to Qatar, it not only sparked off numerous various complaints on a human rights front, it also kicked off plenty of football related complaint – namely the heat, the fact they had no stadiums or any real infrastructure to host such an event, and of course, the safety of travelling fans given their strict rules.
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With the decision taken to totally up end and disrupt football leagues across the planet, FIFA decided to make Qatar the first ever winter World Cup in an effort to curb the temperatures and domestic leagues all had to come to a pause to allow the competition to take place. What this will ultimately mean for players and teams in what is effectively a season in two halves, remains to be seen.
Many millions of pounds and numerous worker deaths later, the tournament remains bogged down in controversy even though it actually kicked off earlier in the month of November, but for those who wish to temporarily ignore the wider political issues this edition of the World Cup has thrown up, there has been some immense football on show, and plenty of notable upsets and for those who like a flutter and a bit of a betting game the likes of https://www.slotozilla.com/uk/real-money can help fill your time until your preferred countries are back in action again.
Hosts Qatar, lost all three group games, Iran could well have qualified from Group B had they not lost the final game, Poland almost won the Group C battle, until Argentina knocked them into second spot at the last minute after they miraculously lost their opener to Saudi Arabia. Group D saw Australia go through in second spot, joint on points with France whilst Denmark could only pick up a point. Germany could crash out of Group E with a single point and Belgium must win their last match to stand a chance of moving forward, and with games left to play before the knockout rounds begin, we can fully expect additional shocks.
Whoever is the eventual winner of the competition, simply put, they will not be remembered without getting past how political the tournament is though.
Qatar’s best efforts made headlines worse on an LBGT front, FIFA’s Gianni Infantino amused, appalled and confused everyone when he became a true infant and claimed himself to feel everything from gay, through to African, disabled and a migrant worker because he understood them having grown up basically as a red head with freckles.
And despite some alcohol related retaliation, and their efforts to strong arm sides over the one love armbands and their political points of view – who can ignore Iran refusing to sing their anthem over equal rights and the death of Mahsa Amini (to name one tragic loss). Germany who covered their mouths for the on pitch photo owing to the armband ban and countless other moments of protest (and not just at Qatar) that have taken place both during games, but also around the world with some in the media making very good use of their platforms to show the hypocrisy that has been at play.
Qatar have been accused of sports washing the World Cup, if that was the intention, the vast majority of the world will believe it has massively backfired and after all the Sepp Blatter controversies, purely through their own doing, FIFA are again in need of a major public relations exercise if they even want to attempt to repair their again heavily damaged reputation.
