World Cup 2022: Why Qatar Is a Controversial Host Amid Serious Match Fixing Allegations Involving Ecuador

• Qatar has been rocked by yet another controversy a few days before the start of the World Cup, with reports claiming Ecuador has been bribed to sabotage their match
• The claims remain unfounded but are certainly bound not to help Qatar, which had for long been called a 'controversial' host
• Apart from corruption, questions have been raised about Qatar's stance on human rights and whether the weather conditions will be sustainable for football

The decision to award Qatar the hosting rights of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in 2010 was met with much resistance from the word go.

The United States of America had been widely expected to win the bidding process, but then FIFA President Sepp Blatter announced Qatar as the winner of the vote.

Shocking corruption allegations among the members of the Executive Committee, the panel responsible for deciding who hosts the World Cup, rocked the giant federation.

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Qatar survived the constant onslaught from a lot of stakeholders and media and is now just hours away from hosting the first World Cup in the Middle East. But why is Qatar such a controversial country to host World's biggest sporting event after the Olympics?

FIFA Uncovered

The corruption scandal that rocked the bidding process was aptly covered in a damaging Netflix documentary, FIFA Uncovered. Sports Brief reported that top Qatar officials colluded with members of the Executive Committee to sway the bidding process.

Even before the ramifications of the documentary, which was released on November 9th, settled in, new reports have indicated that Qatar have allegedly bribed close to eight Ecuador players to lose the opening game.

Match fixing vs Ecuador

Qatar is set to play its first World Cup game when it hosts Ecuador on November 20th, but as Sports Brief reported, match-fixing claims have emerged, with Ecuador players paid huge sums of money to sabotage the match.

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Humid conditions have also been a major issue, with FIFA forced to push the World Cup to the months of November and December rather than the usual June-July. This put FIFA on a collision path with major leagues, which had to stop their leagues momentarily for close to six weeks.

Wales cancel training session

The weather conditions were mitigated by giant coolers installed in all the eight stadia to be used in the month-long competition.

However, a report from the Wales training camp indicated that the players had to abandon their session due to adverse conditions.

Stakeholders will be hoping such occurrences don't become too common once the competition starts.

The issue of human rights, especially those of migrant workers and homosexuals, has also been widely debated. A lot of teams are expected to voice their frustration at Qatar's handling of these issues either by wearing armbands or using their platforms as big stars.

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Qatar might have dodged all the obstacles to host the event, but it is not lost on the world that there remains a big concern about a lot of issues concerning Qatar itself as a country and FIFA's image to award her the World Cup in the first place.