If at its best football looks like community. At its worst, it may just look like Qatar 2022.

The upcoming FIFA World Cup in Qatar is like no other before it. It’ll be the first to be played in the Middle East. The first to be played in Winter. And it is also the most marred by Human Rights abuses and exploitation that we have seen.

It is important to go into this huge cultural moment in our community, and the world, with the ‘eyes of our heart enlightened’ (Eph 1:18) ready to not only see things as they are, but with the Hope for how they could be.

I have watched every World Cup with fixation and fascination since 2002. My earliest memories are of the TV being wheeled into the school assembly room for England vs Brazil at 7am. My mum had made a bacon sandwich to take with me. We threw our green jumpers in the air for Michael Owen’s opener. I was inexplicably crushed when Ronaldinho lobbed David Seaman from 40 yards.

And I wasn’t alone.

The whole school, stopped and stared with the rollercoaster of excitement and disappointment that competitive sport brings.

For all its (many) faults, International football has an enchanting affect on our nation. Viewing figures for England's loss to Italy in the UEFA European Championship Final peaked at 31 million last summer. While one journal even suggests, that exposure to national team victories is associated with higher levels of trust in others, driven by a genuine increase in national pride.

And this is all good and right, and no surprise, given Association Football’s origins in the factories and churches of northern England. Community is at the core of football, and with it notions of identity and place.

But not this year

This year is not the same. The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar is irremovable from corruption and human rights abuses. If, at its best, football looks like community. At its worst, it may just look like Qatar 2022.

This will take some explaining.

Corrupt beginnings

In 2010, Qatar was awarded the FIFA World Cup under more than suspicious circumstances. Allegations have laid at the feet of former President of France Nicolas Sarkozy, for leaning heavily on the vote of former UEFA President Michel Platini to give the tournament to Qatar.

This is after a alleged lunch between the Frenchmen and the crown prince of Qatar, Sheikh Tamin bin Hamad al Thani. The Qatari delegation supposedly offered to buy Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), the team Sarkozy supported, clear its debt, and buy televised football rights for French football to stream on their platform ‘beIn Sports’.

Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) completed their takeover of PSG in 2011, and have since invested €1.4 billion in transfer fees alone.

At the time FIFA President Sepp Blatter, was rumoured to have an agreement with USA, and has recently admitted the decision to award Qatar with the World Cup was a “mistake”.

Human Rights Abuses

In preparation for hosting the tournament, Qatar have set out to build 8 new stadiums, all within 50 miles of each other. Plus new metro rail infrastructure, roads, hotels and hospitality sites. It is believed that this investment has totalled £36 billion.

To put that number into perspective: you could be given £1.2 million every day for 80 years, and still not accumulate £36 billion… but that’s another blog.

Migrant workers make up around 95% of Qatar’s workforce, and this huge national transformation has relied on an army of migrant workers from countries including India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Many of whom, have been exploited, injured and, in the worst cases, lost their lives.

How many deaths, we’ll never know. The UN’s International Labour Organization (ILO) reported in 2021 that Qatar has inadequately investigated and reported worker deaths and injuries. Some believe the total fatalities to be more than 6,500.

I would encourage you to read this from Amnesty International.

They detail the extent of the exploitation that too many have suffered, including:

• Expensive recruitment fees, leading to debt.

• Appaling living conditions

• Lies about salary, now as low as £160-£210 per month

• Delayed payment, meaning families go hungry or homeless

• Workers ‘imprisioned’ within stadiums

• Passports confiscated so workers cannot leave or change jobs

• Threatened and intimidated by employers

We also cannot ignore the plight of the LGBT+ community, fearful of travelling to a country where homosexuality is punishable by up to three years in prison.

And with reports of much worse.

So what can I do?

Reading about all of these things is horrifying. It disturbs me.

That’s because we know that this exploitation of the poor flies in the face of everything we live and pray for, as believers.

Throughout the entire Bible, we see a God who sides with the poor, and the oppressed. Proverbs 14:31, reads:

Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker,
but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.

The abuse in Qatar shows contempt for God.

Our response is to be kind to the needy.

Give

Paul reminds the church in Corinth of the songs that they would sing:

They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;
their righteousness endures forever. (2 Cor 9:9)

To be righteous looks like giving freely to the poor. I would recommend giving to Justice United as they work together on behalf of the 28 million people currently in forced-labour slavery.

Pray

We can give gifts to support the poor, and we can also give gifts to God. In Acts 10, an Angel appears to Cornelius and says:

“Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God…” (Acts 10:4)

When we pray in unison with the Spirit of God for the poor, it comes before God as an offering. Not that God needs reminding, but that we remind ourselves that we are willing to partner in the creation of a Kingdom without oppression.

Compassion UK have some useful pointers to help you pray.

Be Kind

I don’t think the best way to counter exploitation in our world is to boycott the World Cup this winter. We live in a world that makes it hard for us to escape the reality of exploitation. For example, it seems impossible get through life without a smartphone these days. But then in my hand now, could be home to the Cobalt collected by 1 of the 35,000 children mining in Congo.

Without knowing it we contribute to cycles of exploitation the world over. How can we judge anyone’s actions?

Instead, we must do our best to consciously live a life that serves the poor, the lonely and the exploited. And be transformed by the renewing of our minds to see past the PR and discern God’s heart and will.

Especially in our current cost-of-living crisis, we must be active. Seeking needs and meeting them with our own, or our community’s resources.

Jesus said:

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.

Whenever we see the hungry, thirsty, lonely, ill-clothed, sick and neglected, we must act.

Inviting someone to watch a match is actually a good start…

If you find home at Proximity Church, remember that you have access to the Blessing Pot, a ring-fenced part of our accounts that is solely for giving away to our neighbours.

Or, if you have concerns about someone’s welfare. Please access our Safeguarding Portal.

I still look forward to finding what joy can be squeezed from the World Cup. Filling in my wall chart, and watching England vs Iran with new asylum seeking friends.

But I won’t be fooled that it doesn’t come at a cost.

God, you are love. All good things come from you.
Have mercy on us when we contribute to the abuse in this world.
Thank you that you hear the voice of the oppressed.
Bring justice to the poor in our streets and around the globe.
Open our eyes to the pain that you have spared us from, so we can show your kindness to those for whom it is a reality.
Amen.