Back in 2010 , FIFA officially announced Qatar as the host of the World Cup 2022. At that time, a lot of debates raised the question of ‘how is Qatar going to be prepared in terms of infrastructure?’ , and the heat of the small Middle Eastern country that may not be efficient was talked about. However, Qatar with the support of FIFA fulfilled this dream and it is expected to host over 1.5 million visitors for the sake of the tournament.

Qatar is a wealthy country that developed dramatically over the past decades. Their World Cup is the richest World Cup on the planet as they have spent $220 billion in 12 years. This huge amount of money was spent to build a strong infrastructure and gain the  appreciation and surprise from all visitors, particularly western audiences. It is also to give the biggest international football tournament a reasonable value that it deserves from a small part of the Middle East.

However, criticisms against Qatar escalated in the past weeks from the media and numerous sports figures as the Qatar government announced policies that did not seem to be favourable to the west. For instance, 48 hours before the first whistle of the World Cup, Qatar banned alcohol from sale around stadiums. As well as that, supporting homosexuality is forbidden. On the other hand, human rights organisations and activists hold Qatar responsible for the death of thousands of local and foreign workers who built the infrastructure the country is proud of.

Lastly, Qatar hosts the World Cup regardless of criticisms. FIFA President Gianni gave an extraordinary press conference on the eve of World Cup 2022. He indicated FIFA’s full support for Qatar as their values and policies should be respected.  He also accused the west of “hypocrisy” due to the recent judgements over the host country. It is a fact that since the tournament commenced, we have never witnessed chaos and problems that impact on the competition in a bad way. Apparently, World Cup fans in Qatar have not raised their voices yet because of something they expected to see better in a country of almost 3 million people.