The World Cup Demonstrated Our Superficiality Toward Social Justice

Every four years, the world unites to celebrate the world’s biggest sporting competition—the FIFA World Cup. 

However, this year, fans were unable to fully enjoy the tournament due to the controversy surrounding Qatar, the 2022 World Cup’s host country.

Since it was chosen to host the event in 2010, Qatar has been the target of criticism from international organizations condemning the country’s treatment of women, migrants and members of the LGBTQ+ community. 

Controversy is not new to the World Cup. Despite Russia sharing a similar history, like Qatar, of persecution and bloodshed, they hosted the 2018 rendition of the global competition. The same goes for Brazil in 2014, who hosted the tournament amidst claims of corruption and worker rights violations.  

Countries like Qatar, Russia and Brazil continue to plague the sport by continuing to get away with human rights violations despite pushback from fans. 

The Fédération internationale de Football Association, the international governing body of soccer, needs to be investigated for their shady practices and history of placing profits above human lives and the sport itself. 

For fans, the struggle lies with the conflict between morality and pleasure. While we care about the controversies presented in each World Cup, we don’t care enough to let go of the entertainment they provide. 

People are only talking about migrant worker’s rights and violence against women because everyone else is. Once the games are over, we move on and pretend this discourse never happened until the next World Cup comes along and then we reset the clock.

We need to do more than simply complain about the World Cup’s frequent scandals. We need to take a stand and do something about it, like refusing to watch the games and protest the competition. 

Whatever we do, we must be aware there is blood and tears behind every goal celebration.

We should also reflect on what is important to us and what we are willing to overlook for the sake of entertainment.

The World Cup is a medium through which we have the opportunity to raise awareness about important societal issues. 

Unless we take decisive action, complaining about the treatment to LGBTQ+ people in Qatar with our coworkers while silently celebrating a goal from Neymar will not change anything for the better.