Stadiums Environmental impact Each stadium in Qatar requires 10,000 litres of water per day in winter months, when the tournament is taking place, to maintain the pitch. With little access to freshwater in the nation, the sourced water was saltwater, which has to be
desalinated. The process damages the marine environment. Desalination plants in the Middle East also heavily rely on the use of fossil fuels. As well as the pitches at the stadiums, the organising committee grew and maintained a large farm of match-suitable fresh grass outside Doha, in case of turf damage. The need for so much desalination, and the oil and gas used to power the plants, have been criticised. One of the eight stadiums,
Stadium 974, was designed to be able to be disassembled so that it could be moved elsewhere, in an effort to counter the negative effect of requiring upkeep of unused stadiums. The large PR campaign promoting this was criticised by activists, as it overlooked the other stadiums being constructed in Qatar. Stadium 974 and the organising committee pledge that the tournament would be
carbon neutral were also criticised as attempts to
greenwash Qatar, the nation with the highest per-capita emissions, especially as
carbon neutrality was planned to be achieved by planting trees to offset emissions generated by the tournament, rather than use alternative energies. Stadium 974, located at a port, does not have air conditioning; due to the climate of Qatar, the other seven stadiums do, with the systems running on fossil fuels.
Corruption There have been allegations of bribery or corruption in the Qatar's 2022 World Cup selection process involving members of FIFA's executive committee. There have been numerous allegations of bribery between the
Qatar bid committee and FIFA members and executives, some of whom—including
Sepp Blatter—were later recorded regretting awarding Qatar the tournament.
2011 In May 2011, allegations of corruption within the
FIFA senior officials raised questions over the legitimacy of the World Cup being held in Qatar. According to then vice-president
Jack Warner, an email has been publicised about the possibility that Qatar 'bought' the 2022 World Cup through bribery via
Mohammed bin Hammam who was president of the
Asian Football Confederation at the time. Qatar's officials in the bid team for 2022 have denied any wrongdoing. A whistleblower, revealed to be Phaedra Almajid, alleged that several African officials were paid $1.5m by Qatar. She later retracted her claims of bribery, stating she had fabricated them in order to exact revenge on the Qatari bid team for relieving her of her job with them. She also denied being put under any pressure to make her retraction. FIFA confirmed receiving an email from her which stated her retraction.
2014–15 In March 2014, it was alleged that a firm linked to Qatar's successful campaign paid committee member
Jack Warner and his family almost $2 million.
The Daily Telegraph reported that it understands that the U.S.
FBI is investigating Warner and his alleged links to the Qatari bid. On 1 June 2014,
The Sunday Times claimed to have obtained documents including e-mails, letters and bank transfers which allegedly proved that Bin Hammam had paid more than 5 million US dollars to Football officials to support the Qatar bid. Bin Hamman and all those accused of accepting bribes denied the charges. Later in June 2014,
Qatar Airways CEO
Akbar Al Baker gave an interview to German media in June 2014 stating that the allegations are being driven by envy and mistrust by parties who do not want the
World Cup staged in Qatar, and that the country is not getting the respect it deserves over its efforts to hold the World Cup. He reiterated that the
Qatari Emir strictly punishes and forbids instances of corruption and bribery with a
zero-tolerance policy. In an interview published on 7 June 2015,
Domenico Scala, the head of FIFA's Audit And Compliance Committee, stated that "should there be evidence that the awards to Qatar and Russia came only because of bought votes, then the awards could be cancelled".
FIFA ethics investigation report In 2014, FIFA appointed Michael Garcia as its independent ethics investigator to look into bribery allegations against Russia and Qatar, the hosts for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup respectively. Garcia investigated all nine bids and eleven countries involved in the 2018 and 2022 bids and spoke to all persons connected to the bids and appealed for witnesses to come forward with evidence. At the end of investigation, Garcia submitted a 430-page report in September 2015. FIFA governing body then appointed a German judge Hans Joachim Eckert who reviewed and presented a 42-page summary of the report two months later. The report cleared Qatar and Russia of bribery allegations stating that Qatar "pulled
Aspire into the orbit of the bid in significant ways" but did not "compromise the integrity" of the overall bid process. Michael Garcia reacted almost immediately stating that the report is “materially incomplete” and with “erroneous representations of the facts and conclusions". The report ended talks of a re-vote.
2020 In January,
Bonita Mersiades, a whistle-blower from inside Australia's 2022 World Cup bid published a book which alleges that in the months before the vote in December 2010, FIFA executives were privately worried that a Qatar win would leave a financial shortfall for the governing body in 2022 which
Al Jazeera (now beIN Sports) agreed a secret deal to pay $100 million if Qatar won the vote. According to the book, the deal took place with the involvement and knowledge of
Jérôme Valcke, secretary general of FIFA at the time who was later banned for nine years from football for corruption.
The Mail on Sunday asked
beIN Sports about the allegations, in which a spokesman characterised the bonus as "production contributions" which were "standard market practice and are often imposed upon broadcasters by sports federations and sports rights holders". According to leaked documents obtained by
The Sunday Times, Qatari state-run television channel Al Jazeera secretly offered $400 million to FIFA, for broadcasting rights, just 21 days before FIFA announced that Qatar will hold the 2022 World Cup. The contract also documented a secret TV deal between FIFA and Qatar's state run media broadcast Al Jazeera that $100 million will also be paid into a designated FIFA account only if Qatar wins the World Cup ballot in 2010. An additional $480 million was also offered by the State of Qatar government, three years after the initial offer, which brings the amount to $880 million offered by Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup. The documents are now part of the bribery inquiry by Swiss Police. FIFA refused to comment on the inquiry and responded to
The Sunday Times in an email and wrote "allegations linked to the FIFA World Cup 2022 bid have already been extensively commented by FIFA, who in June 2017 published the Garcia report in full on Fifa.com. Furthermore, please note that Fifa lodged a criminal complaint with the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland, which is still pending. FIFA is and will continue to cooperate with the authorities."
Damian Collins, a British
Member of Parliament (MP) and chairman of a UK parliamentary committee, called for payments from Al Jazeera to be frozen and launched an investigation into the apparent contract since the contract "appears to be in clear breach of the rules".
Scheduling The notion of staging the tournament in winter proved controversial; Blatter ruled out a January or February event because it may clash with the
2022 Winter Olympics, while others expressed concerns over a November or December event, because it might clash with the
Christmas season (even though Qatar is predominantly Muslim, the players in the tournament are predominantly Christian). The
Premier League voiced concern over moving the tournament to the northern hemisphere's winter as it could interfere with the local leagues.
FA Chairman
Greg Dyke said, shortly after he took his job in 2013, that he was open to either a winter tournament or moving the tournament to another country. FIFA executive committee member
Theo Zwanziger said that awarding the 2022 World Cup to Qatar's desert state was a "blatant mistake", and that any potential shift to a winter event would be unmanageable due to the effect on major European domestic leagues. In October 2013, a taskforce was commissioned to consider alternative dates, and report after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. In early 2014, FIFA Secretary-General
Jerome Valcke appeared to preempt this, saying: "Frankly, I think it will happen between November 15 and the end of December because that is when the weather is more favourable. It's more like springtime in Europe". This was controversial within FIFA itself, due to a possible conflict with the Christmas season, and Vice-president
Jim Boyce responded in saying that "it absolutely has not been decided as far as the executive committee are concerned. It was agreed all the stakeholders should meet, all the stakeholders should have an input and then the decision would be made, and that decision as far as I understand will not be taken until the end of 2014 or the March executive meeting in 2015. As it stands it remains in the summer with no decision expected until end of 2014 or March 2015". At a ceremony in Qatar marking the occasion of having been awarded the World Cup, FIFA President Sepp Blatter later agreed that this suggestion was plausible, but FIFA later clarified that any change from the bid position of a June–July games would be for the host association to propose. Beckenbauer would later receive a 90-day ban from any football-related activity from FIFA after refusing to cooperate in the investigation of bribery. The notion of holding the Cup during Europe's winter was further boosted by UEFA President
Michel Platini's indicating that he was ready to rearrange the European club competitions accordingly. Platini's vote for the summer 2022 World Cup went to Qatar. FIFA President Sepp Blatter also said that despite air-conditioned stadiums the event was more than the games itself and involved other cultural events. In this regard, he questioned if fans and players could take part in the summer temperatures. In addition to objections by European leagues,
Frank Lowy, chairman of
Football Federation Australia, said a change of the 2022 World Cup date from summer to winter would upset the schedule of the
A-League and said they would seek compensation from FIFA should the decision go ahead. Richard Scudamore, chief executive of the
Premier League, stated that they would consider legal action against FIFA because a move would interfere with the Premier League's popular Christmas and New Year fixture programme. In September 2013, it was alleged that FIFA had held talks with broadcasters over the decision to change the date of the World Cup as it doing so could cause potential clashes with other scheduled television programming. The
Fox Broadcasting Company who had paid $425 million for the right to broadcast both the
2018 and 2022 World Cups in the US, later voiced anger over the possible season switch, as doing so would clash with that year's
NFL season, which takes place in the winter and with whom Fox also has a lucrative broadcasting deal. The network said they bought the rights with the understanding the tournament would take place in the summer, and if the change did go ahead they would seek compensation. In February 2015, FIFA awarded Fox the rights to the
2026 World Cup, without opening it up for bidding with
ESPN,
NBC, and other interested American broadcasters. Richard Sandomir of
The New York Times reported that FIFA did so to avoid Fox from suing in U.S. courts, which under the American legal system could force FIFA to open up their books and expose any possible corruption. As BBC sports editor Dan Roan observed, "It does not seem to matter to FIFA that rival networks ESPN and NBC may have wanted to bid, or that more money could have been generated for the good of the sport had a proper auction been held. As ever, it seemed, FIFA was looking after itself". On 24 February 2015, it was announced that a winter World Cup would go ahead in favour of the traditional summertime event. The event was scheduled to be held between November and December. Commentators noted the clash with the Christmas season was likely to cause disruption, whilst there was concern for how short the tournament was intended to be. It was also confirmed that the
2023 Africa Cup of Nations would be moved from January to June to prevent African players from having a relatively quick two-week turnaround, although the monsoonal rainy season in its host country
Guinea starts about that time.
Climate As the World Cup usually occurs during the northern hemisphere's summer, the weather in Qatar was a concern with temperatures reaching more than . Two doctors from Qatar's Aspetar sports hospital in Doha who gave an interview in November 2010 to
Qatar Today magazine said the climate would be an issue, stating that the region's climate would "affect performance levels from a health point of view" of professional athletes, specifically footballers, that "recovery times between games would be longer" than in a temperate climate and that, on the field of play, "more mistakes would be made". One of the doctors said that "total acclimation (to the Qatari climate) is impossible". The inspection team for evaluating who would host the tournament said that Qatar was "high risk" due to the weather. FIFA President Sepp Blatter initially rejected the criticism, but in September 2013 said the FIFA executive committee would evaluate the feasibility of the event in winter instead of summer. As a result, FIFA postponed from Summer to 20 November 2022, following a unanimous decision by the Bureau of the FIFA Council.
Cost By some estimates, the World Cup is set to cost Qatar approximately US$220 billion (£184 billion). This is about 60 times the $3.5 billion that South Africa spent on the
2010 FIFA World Cup. Nicola Ritter, a German legal and financial analyst, told an investors' summit held in
Munich that £107 billion would be spent on stadiums and facilities plus a further £31 billion on transport infrastructure. Ritter said £30 billion would be spent on building air-conditioned stadiums with £48 billion on training facilities and accommodation for players and fans. A further £28 billion will be spent on creating a new city called
Lusail that will surround the stadium that will host the opening and final matches of the tournament. According to a report released in April 2013 by
Merrill Lynch, the investment banking division of
Bank of America, the organisers in Qatar have requested from FIFA to approve a smaller number of stadiums due to the growing costs.
Bloomberg.com said that Qatar wishes to cut the number of venues to 8 or 9 from the 12 originally planned. A report released in December 2010 quoted FIFA President
Sepp Blatter as stating that Qatar's neighbours could host some matches during the World Cup. However, no specific countries were named in the report. Blatter added that any such decision must be taken by Qatar first and then endorsed by FIFA's executive committee.
Possible Israeli qualification The head of the Qatar bid delegation stated that if
Israel were to qualify, they would be able to compete in the World Cup despite
Qatar not recognising the state of Israel. Israel ultimately were eliminated during
FIFA World Cup qualification, and thus did not compete at the tournament in Qatar.
Russia's participation following its invasion of Ukraine After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, FIFA stated that matches would not be held in Russia, though Russia would still be able to continue its participation in
World Cup qualifying, where it had reached
Path B. Also in Path B were Poland, the Czech Republic and Sweden, all of which refused to play against Russia in any form (as did England, which had
already qualified for the tournament). On 27 February 2022, FIFA announced a number of sanctions impacting Russia's participation in international football. Russia was prohibited from hosting international competitions, and
the national team had been ordered to play all home matches
behind closed doors in neutral countries. They may not compete under the name, flag, or national anthem of Russia: similarly to the Russian athletes' participation in events such as the Olympics, the team would compete under the abbreviation of their national federation, the
Russian Football Union ("RFU") rather than "Russia". The next day, FIFA decided to suspend Russia from international competitions "until further notice", including its participation in the 2022 FIFA World Cup. In July 2022, the
Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed the Russian appeals and upheld FIFA's and UEFA's decisions. Some observers, while approving of the boycott of Russia, pointed out that FIFA did not boycott Saudi Arabia for its
military intervention in Yemen, or Qatar for its human rights violations.
Qatari football record At the time of being awarded the tournament in 2010,
Qatar was ranked 113 in the world, and had never qualified for the World Cup before. The most prestigious accolade the team had won was the
Arabian Gulf Cup twice, both times hosting. Since being awarded the tournament, they have also won the Arabian Gulf Cup for a third time in 2014 and the AFC Asian Cup in
2019. Qatar became the smallest country by land area to host the World Cup (less than half the size of
1954 hosts Switzerland, when the tournament consisted of 16 teams). These facts led some to question the strength of football culture in Qatar and if that made them unsuitable World Cup hosts. The
Qatar Football Association has also been known to
naturalise players from foreign nations for its own team. Examples include
Sebastián Soria,
Luiz Júnior and
Emerson Sheik. The Qatar FA has previously attempted to offer incentives to uncapped players of other nations to switch allegiance to the
Gulf state. These have included the German-based Brazilian trio of
Aílton,
Dedé and
Leandro in 2004 – none of whom have ever played in or have other connections to Qatar – to help their team qualify for the
2006 FIFA World Cup. FIFA blocked the moves and as a result, tightened
eligibility requirements for national teams. With a 2–0 loss to
Ecuador on the tournament's opening day, Qatar became the first host nation to lose their opening match at the World Cup; Qatar subsequently lost 3–1 to
Senegal in their second group match, becoming the first team to be eliminated from the tournament. They lost their final group game 2–0 to the
Netherlands, becoming the first and only host to lose all their games, as well as the first host to finish 4th in their group and last overall in the tournament ranking.
Alcohol Hassan Abdulla al Thawadi, chief executive of the Qatar 2022 World Cup bid, said the
Muslim state would also permit
alcohol consumption during the event. Specific fan-zones would be established where alcohol could be bought. Although expatriates may purchase alcohol and certain businesses may sell alcohol with a permit,
drinking in public is not permitted as Qatar's legal system is based on
Sharia. In February 2022, the communications executive director at the supreme committee, Fatma Al-Nuaimi, stated in an interview that alcohol would be available in designated fan zones outside stadiums and in other Qatari official hospitality venues. In July 2022, it was reported that while fans would be allowed to bring alcoholic beverages into the stadiums, alcoholic beverages would not be sold inside the stadiums. But according to a source, "the plans are still being finalised." However, on 18 November 2022, days before the first match, Qatar officially banned alcoholic beverages from sale within the eight stadiums. The ban only applied to regular fans, and alcohol was still available to FIFA officials and wealthy guests. On 30 November 2022,
The Times published an interview with some female fans attending
FIFA World Cup 2022 games, with some of them saying that less drunkenness among other attendees made them feel safer at the stadiums than they expected.
November 2022 Infantino communications "Focus on the football" letter On 5 November 2022,
Gianni Infantino and
Fatma Samoura sent out a letter to all participating nations telling them to cease and avoid any further or current discussion of Qatar's poor human rights records to "respect all opinions and beliefs, without handing out moral lessons to the rest of the world" and to "
focus on the football" as to "not allow football to be dragged into every ideological or political battle that exists". Notably, members of the UEFA Working Group such as
Australia,
Belgium,
Denmark,
England,
France,
Germany, the
Netherlands,
Norway,
Sweden,
Switzerland, and the
United States were specifically targeted for their involvement in trying to improve the conditions for migrant workers, women, and LGBT people. All of the nations criticised the letter, stating "FIFA acknowledged in their letter that football does not operate in a vacuum, however they seem to be calling for that to be the case. History has shown us that the pursuit of such a strategy will be self-defeating and only further erodes football's social license to operate."
"Today I feel" address On 19 November 2022, Infantino gave an hour-long address to the media during a pre-tournament press conference, during which he defended FIFA's hosting of the tournament in Qatar, and commented upon pre-tournament developments such as the banning of alcohol. He opened by declaring that he "felt" Qatari, Arabic, African, gay, disabled, and like a migrant worker, because he understood how it felt to be discriminated. He asked, "do we want to continue to spit on the others because they look different, or they feel different? We defend human rights. We do it our way. We obtain results. We got women fans in Iran. The
Women's League was created in Sudan. Let's celebrate. Don't divide." The speech drew further criticism: The
Associated Press labeled the speech an "extraordinary diatribe" and a "tirade" while
The Guardian called it "bizarre and incendiary". ==Opening ceremony and anthem==