Since Qatar was awarded the 2022 World Cup in December 2010, the baseless allegations about Qatar’s right to host the World Cup keep surfacing from time to time. Some jealous elements could not digest the success of Qatar and they have been continuously publishing fake and wrong information about bidding process of 2018 and 2022 World Cup.
One of the allegations was about the rights of workers involved in the construction of sports projects in Qatar. However, the country has managed to close this chapter through reform of laws, implementation of the highest standards of occupational safety requirements and showing full cooperation and transparency by making all of its construction facilities open for FIFA, ILO and labour rights advocating organisations.
The illegal siege, imposed on Qatar to risk the future of the 2022 World Cup projects, has no impact on preparations, and most of the projects are at their final stages of completion despite the ongoing crisis. Thus Qatar has been cleared of all allegations related to hosting of the 2022 World Cup after investigation into bidding, labour safety, human rights etc.
Six months before the current Gulf crisis, UAE’s officials were expressing their support to Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup and praising its capability to host the event.
“We will support them if they need any kind of support at any time, but as far as I know from my experience of the Qatar Football Federation, they are capable, they have the knowledge and the know-how,” Yousuf Al Serkal, UFA president and vice-president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) had told reporters.
However, a link between the staging of the 2022 tournament by Qatar and the siege imposed on it by the quartet was clearly shown by top UAE officials when the UAE openly set a condition that Qatar would have to surrender the 2022 World Cup to end the blockade, as if the move was made for blackmailing.
This is happening at the time when Qatar wants this prestigious global tournament, which is the first World Cup in the Middle East, to become a source of pride for all Arab countries as the Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, has said expressing his hopes that the event would help bring a divided region back together.
The motive behind such reports, which are entirely based on media stories, political agendas and anonymous sources, remain earning money and implementing hidden agenda’s of the blockading quartet against Qatar and its people.
As the countdown for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar has begun, the blockading quartet, no doubt, will be behind many more reports with anonymous sources such as the allegation made two days ago by the UK newspaper Sunday Times. This is not the first report of its kind and will not be the last as long as the current diplomatic crisis lingers on.
Qatar is fully confident of its legal path to the tournament and its strict adherence “to all FIFA’s rules and regulations for the 2018/2022 World Cup bidding process,” as the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC) has said in statement, rejecting “each and every allegation” made by the Sunday Times in this regard.
