QATAR 2022

The 2022 World Cup is the first World Cup to be hosted in the Middle East, and this milestone brought many challenges and controversies leading up to the competition. Since Qatar is a relatively small country, they had to build new stadiums to reach the number required to host the tournament (8). The construction of these stadiums required over 30,000 workers during peak construction periods and cost over $8 billion to sponsor. In order to meet the 30,000 workers needed, migrant workers came and voluntarily worked in tough conditions brought by the construction industry, leading to a number of worker deaths, as there have been in the Brazil World Cup and across numerous construction projects across the globe. Nonetheless, these deaths were not met favorably by the media and people around the World, leading to discussions around whether or not it was morally correct to play a World Cup in Qatar.

Since the World Cup is in Qatar, which is in a region that has hot temperatures in the summer, FIFA opted to play the tournament mid-season, putting a pause to club football. This brought new challenges for players and teams alike as there was limited time to get aligned with teammates, mentally prepare to play in a big tournament, and block out the political controversy stirred by the media to focus on performance.

The media not only covers what is going on inside the football pitch, but they also cover what is going on outside on the streets of Qatar. Although the Messi v. Ronaldo matchup is settled on the football pitch, since this is the first World Cup in the Middle East, we wanted to include a couple of fan videos captured on tik tok to summarize some of the non-traditional experiences that fans had in Qatar that the western media may not capture in order to shed light on what Messi and Ronaldo may have been experiencing or hearing while staying there.