It is simple to overlook what Qatar 2022 is actually about, the fundamental message at the very heart of this worldwide celebration of football, with all the surrounding noise on human rights, worker deaths, image laundering, and the rest. It is corruption, of course. Members of the committee getting high off of someone else’s hog. funding for development that never materialised. The wet, fatty handshake was enclosed in a TV rights agreement. Six weeks from FIFA’s winter World Cup, it is time to think about this thing’s fundamental tone.
At this point, a crucial disclaimer is necessary. There is no line of evidence connecting Qatar to any corruption in achieving the success of its World Cup bid. The supreme delivery committee of Qatar has consistently vehemently denied any involvement. Rightfully so. The ethics committee of FIFA conducted a two-year investigation and found no serious issues.
In reality, it is reasonable to say that both Qatar and Russia can blame their misfortune on being victimized by the corruption of others and having to deal with its negative effects and resentment. Even if, by happy accident, those judgments have also happened to line up with the interests of both parties.
In either case, Qatar 2022 will always be remembered as an occasion marred by a great gushing spume of individual corruption among FIFA’s executive committee and decisive actors outside of the voting room; nearly all of whom were physically present at the moment of delivery on December 2, 2010, in the Messe Hall at FIFA House, Zurich. This day is arguably the most important in the history of modern football, and historians in the future will undoubtedly mine it for colour detail.
With its ensemble of grifters, nabobs, and rainmakers, that astonishing tableau still makes people pause for breath. The design of FIFA’s headquarters is weirdly unrepentant.
