We are days away from World Cup Qatar 2022 kickoff.
The level of excitement seems on par with being told as a kid to eat spinach.
Is it the unprecedented six-week break in the middle of the soccer season?
Is it the lack of extended training camps and no friendly matches for national teams to prepare?
Or is it simply that the tournament is in Qatar?
I believe it is a combination of three, but FIFA's decision to have the games played in Qatar has an exceptional own goal quality.
World Cup Qatar 2022 will be the biggest sporting event ever held in the Middle East -- and in a conservative, majority-Muslim country.
The absolute monarchy nation has poured at least $200 billion into infrastructure and megaprojects since winning the World Cup in 2010.
But from the start, the tournament has been plagued by charges of corruption and human rights abuses.
As the Wall Street Journal Reports, this is not the first time a regime has hosted the world's largest sporting event with a global reputation problem. In 1934, the second time the tournament was held, it went to Benito Mussolini's Italy. And just four years ago, the World Cup was in Russia with Vladimir Putin in attendance. England and Iceland responded with diplomatic boycotts.
And it was just in February of this year that Beijing hosted the Winter Olympics, or as I referred to them, the "Splinter Olympics."
+ Get ready for the Beijing Splinter Olympics - Marc Ross OpEd - Colorado Springs Gazette
So much negativity has rained on this tournament, Didier Deschamps, coach of the defending world champion France said on the country's primary evening news broadcast this month: "Participating is not condoning. The decision was made more than 10 years ago. But we'll pay attention, at our level, to what's happening."
Indeed, he will be paying attention. Acts of advocacy are sprouting up all over the West.
In France, cities will not broadcast World Cup matches on giant screens in public fan zones amid "concerns over rights violations of migrant workers" and the event's environmental impact. Paris, along with Marseille, Reims, Nancy, and Rodez has all said: "Pas de télévision de la Coupe du monde cette fois."
Players from Australia recently released a video criticizing the human rights record of Qatar, specifically migrant workers and LGBTQ+ people.
Not to be left on the sidelines, the USMNT will feature a rainbow crest on the team's training gear.
Denmark requested to train in jerseys bearing the message 'Human Rights for All in protest at Qatar's track record in this area, but as Le Monde reports, FIFA urged all teams to "focus on football."
Denmark wanted to go further with a third black kit to protest Qatar's human rights record.
Not surprisingly, anger over FIFA's "focus on football" messaging has not gone down well.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has said critics were "handing out moral lessons to the rest of the world" and said nations should "not allow football to be dragged into every ideological or political battle that exists."
But being dragged into every ideological or political battle that exists is the reality of global sport today.
Qatar's Foreign Minister Mohammed ben Abderrahmane Al-Thani has denounced the "hypocrisy of attacks."
"Sport, for whatever reason, is a lot more political now than it was in 2018," he said, speaking to Le Monde, noting that while Qatar has faced heavy criticism over its treatment of LGBT+ people, there was not the same attention on Russia four years ago.
I suspect an amalgamation of Western governments having less support from citizens, plus sport being so dominant in culture and ever-present that using sport as a vehicle for ideological or political battles only makes sense.
According to Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal, NFL games were 75 of the 100 most-watched TV programs in 2021.
The 2022 World Cup in Qatar is expected to be watched by 5 billion people worldwide, surpassing the record 3.5 billion who tuned in to the 2018 edition in Russia.
As The Athletic reports, Qatar is exhausted at defending itself to the world, especially to the Europeans, who are seen as particularly negative and cynical about the first World Cup to be held in a Muslim country, which is an exciting thing for many in the Arab world.
Qatar has a point.
In the Premier League, you can go to a game at the Etihad or the Emirates Stadium or support Newcastle United, majority-owned by the Saudi Arabia state-run Public Investment Fund.
In Formula 1, you can watch races beamed from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, China, and Abu Dhabi.
It is essential to remind everyone that sometimes the Olympics drop in Beijing, but they also land in Tokyo, Paris, and Los Angeles.
You know, Denmark can't host every sporting competition.
Also, since sport is so dominant in culture and ever-present, there is a flip side. Sport is an exquisite soft power tool and vehicle for more enlightened thinking.
Nothing is more potent than Jesse Owens winning four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games held in Nazi Germany.
As you watch global sporting contests, know that athletes will compete, full stop.
No one should advocate for policies banning or boycotting athletes from competing.
Penalizing athletes with no choice in where the games are held is unfair. They did not decide on the location of these games.
All they can do is train, prepare, compete, and play fair.
Making athletes choose not to compete due to ideological or political battles would be a disservice and accomplish little in the way that less savory nations govern in the short term.
The World Cup 2022 opening match is Qatar v Ecuador on Sunday at 11:00 am ET.
I will be supporting the athletes and not the absolute monarchy.
Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.
-Marc
