Emerging Issues: FIFA World Cup 2022: Enjoying the Game at the Suffering of Migrant Workers

On December 2, 2010, the Federation Internationale de Football Association (“FIFA”), granted Qatar the honor of hosting the 2022 World Cup. FIFA’s president, Sepp Blatter, stated that hosting the World Cup in Qatar, an “unstable region of the world,” is intended to unify millions of people that may not otherwise come together, such as Israelis and Palestinians. FIFA has put great efforts towards hosting this event in Qatar, so much so that it changed the tournament to be held in the winter rather than the summer for the first time in history. The logic behind this timing change was to prevent workers from suffering in the scorching heat and harsh conditions of Qatar’s summer while building and operating the infrastructure. Although the change is intended to be for the greater good of uniting people, the fact is that there are still numerous human rights concerns that surround the hosting of this event in a country reported to have high records of human rights violations even before this hosting was granted