{"id":7015,"date":"2022-12-02T15:00:22","date_gmt":"2022-12-02T20:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/?p=7015"},"modified":"2022-12-02T15:00:22","modified_gmt":"2022-12-02T20:00:22","slug":"the-politics-of-the-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/?p=7015","title":{"rendered":"The Politics of the World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Alexis Barton<\/span><\/p>\n

Futbol, football, soccer– regardless of the chosen name, sports fans across the world have turned their eyes to Qatar for the 2022 Men\u2019s World Cup. This exciting display of international athleticism is unique not only in its late fall timeline, as to avoid extreme heat in Qatar\u2019s summer season, but it has also sparked social and political discourse from several participating countries.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Both in the months leading up to and within the weeks of the tournament thus far, there have been concerns raised by Fifa\u2019s decision to select Qatar as the hosting nation. This concern is driven by corruption that exists within the country’s political structures as well as major human rights and workers\u2019 rights abuses. <\/span>In a November letter published by the organization, Fifa president Gianni Infantino recognized that the sport did not \u201cexist in a vacuum\u201d and was undoubtedly influenced by the political sphere of the world, but he did not want the sport to be \u201cdragged into every ideological or political battle that exists\u201d (Scott, 2022). His statement closed with restating the organization\u2019s belief in general practices of nondiscrimination, but the statement still left many fans uneasy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As a result, there have been several instances of both formal and informal protests at the venue. In protest of Qatar\u2019s ban on same-sex marriages, teams from England, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland and Wales had all planned on wearing armbands to support the ideas of inclusivity and non-discrimination. However, Fifa threatened to sanction the teams involved in the plan and subsequently they elected to not wear the armbands. This was not the only instance of fans or athletes having problems with expressing their support for same-sex marriage at the venue. Several fans have taken to social media platforms to report being turned away for wearing rainbow-colored jerseys and items that explicitly state their support for marriage equality. These claims have yet to be fully vetted and the context of the circumstances remain unclear, but it nonetheless serves as insight into the experience that Fifa has provided to avoid falling into ideological disputes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps the most prominent point of controversy throughout the tournament has revolved around the Iranian team. The country has put its best foot forward in trying to promote nationalism and pride amongst its fans. This comes in stark contrast to the protests, murders, and mass censorship that is taking place within their borders. Iranians are speaking out against the oppressive policies of their current government, and many have sacrificed their lives to do so. The World Cup and the success of the Iranian team, according to the Associated Press, represented the reign of the sitting government to many Iranians which resulted in resentment towards the team. When Iran faced off against the United States, and ultimately lost, celebrations in Iran were met with gunfire from state forces. Fans across the world are also concerned for the safety of the team members who, in the opening game of the tournament, elected to not sing Iran\u2019s national anthem. Many fans interpreted this as a sign of solidarity between the team and Iranian protestors, but this changed in the following games as the team began to sing the anthem again.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sports and politics have a close relationship. It is impossible to separate the two as the athletes, coaches, and other professionals alike are all individuals with political agency. The World Cup has served as a prime example of the link between these two concepts that are central to our culture. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alexis Barton Futbol, football, soccer– regardless of the chosen name, sports fans across the world have turned their eyes to Qatar for the 2022 Men\u2019s World Cup. This exciting display of international athleticism is unique not only in its late fall timeline, as to avoid extreme heat in Qatar\u2019s summer season, but it has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7016,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}