Coinciding with the end of the World Cup Russia 2018 and the official receipt of the FIFA 2022 World Cup in Qatar, by His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Ambassador of the State of Qatar to Cuba wrote the following article:
Qatar's victory in the World Cup is a pride for the Arab and Muslim world
The whole world has been following these days with great interest the competitive games of Russia 2018, which is the most important competition for football, under the auspices of the International Football Association. It is known that the World Cup is held every four years since 1930, and only two championships were canceled in 1942 and 1946 due to World War II.
The World Cup Championship, like many of the most important sporting events in the world, is a meeting between the people and a very effective way to highlight the cultural values of all the countries of the world, where the competitive spirit and the intent of each country to overcome the opposing team to demonstrate to the world its ability to do so, with a "sporting" spirit to accept the loss. In neutral and perfect conditions, we can say that football is one of the languages that makes people understand and shows the ability of man to face everyone in a few hours in a stadium, and that can be seen through the feelings and the different reactions of the public of sadness or anger or joy and shouting in the stadiums, or at home or the cafeterias to follow the competitive games.
On the other hand, all countries compete to be chosen as host of the organization of these competitive games, which is considered a moral victory for them, in which they will be able to present their countries to the world, their culture and place in the world and be proud of its capacity to organize them and to lodge the participants in the games, apart from the economic gains that this supposes.
The importance of sport for the State of Qatar:
The interest of our state for sport dates back to immemorial time. In its modern history, the country has evolved more and more from a nomadic composition to the urban structure, and its citizens gradually became richer, and it was until 1971 when Qatar became independent. As of that date, several aspects of life have evolved in this country, including sports, sports education, recreation and physical training. Qatar currently plays a prominent and active role in sports, investing in sports as a means to improve relationships and strengthen friendships with the rest of the world.
Qatar ha expresado su deseo de manera clara y efectivo para todos los países del mundo en el ámbito del deporte y ha dedicado, dentro de su agenda pública, progamas de de apertura y aspiración a mejorar las relaciones entre las naciones a través del deporte.
The result of our state's interest in the sport is that Qatar has won the opportunity to host the 2022 World Cup, where it was selected in 2010 for this international event, and that was one of the most important days in which the Qataris have celebrated this happy news. It was also a very happy day for the people of the Gulf region and all the countries of the Middle East, since it is a pride for the whole region that this event is organized in a civilized Muslim Arab country, like Qatar, which has a positive futuristic aspect, and always looking forward to highlight its positive side by showing its most beautiful manifestations. We were able to see this sense of pride through the interventions of many Qataris and citizens of the Gulf countries and many Arab citizens in the social media, expressing their happiness and support to the State of Qatar.
Information about the corruption in the selection of Qatar:
After a short period of news of the selection of Qatar for the World Cup, the Western and Arab media started campaigns questioning the integrity of the State of Qatar to organize the World Cup, plus a wave of official accusations towards FIFA , and against a series of sports figures at the level of regional teams and some Asian and African sports teams. Some newspapers said that the organization of the Qatar World Cup was not recognized, as the international sports authorities concerned began investigating allegations of corruption about how they were granted the right to organize the final.
The Sunday Times was of the newspapers that publihsed this information, since Great Britain was not happy with the selction of Qatar, because it lost this opportunity. The British newspaper spoke about the movements of the president of AFC, Mohammed Bin Hammam, before the voting as he was considered to be seeking support for his country for this event. Nevertheless, the Court of Arbitration for Sport Court admitted alter that there was no direct evidence against Bin Hamman.
The Organizing Committee of the Qatar World Cup responded to these allegations by saying: "We affirm the sharpness of the Qatar 2022 Candidacy Committee during its entire mandate of its commitment to the highest standards of ethical rules and standards during the competitions to achieve the honor of hosting the 2022 World Cup World Cup."
The Commission added, "in regard to the recent allegations published by the Sunday Times that, once again we claim that Mr. Mohamed Bin Hammam, had no formal or informal role with the Qatar 2022 file. Like the case of any of the members of the FIFA Executive Office, the Qatar 2022 team had to convince Bin Hammam of the advantages of the Qatar file."
Qatar's position to defend itself against these allegations of corruption is that many of the documents mentioned by the British newspaper date back to 2009, a year before the World Cup voting and two years before the FIFA presidency. On the other hand, despite the issues raised by these documents of Bin Hammam's behavior and support for Qatar, none of the documents submitted, whether emails or bank transfers or letters, are not conclusive evidence of the involvement of the Qatar campaign in the payment of bribes, either directly or through Bin Hammam. Qatar was able to defend itself, since Bin Hammam did not take any official position in the campaign, and any action on his part to support his country was completely independent.
Therefore, these allegations were not based on any real legal basis, and no one could prove this, what interested us and clean our image in front of the world, and not be involved in any act of corruption, as shown through the confirmation of current officials in FIFA that the decision to grant Qatar the right to organize the World Cup is irreversible, and all the suspicions and what has been said in the past is not related to the fact, and that our country is working hard to achieve it very effectively, and FIFA is confident that it will do it in the best way possible.
Then came the other issue related to the rights of foreign workers who build the stadiums of the World Cup. That was part of sporadic news from Western newspapers, based on reports from human rights organizations about the poor conditions of these people and the harsh conditions for their work and the harsh treatment they receive. However, this news was made with much exaggeration, and was unfair towards the State of Qatar. The authorities explained this, then introduced many amendments to the country's labor legislation and expressed great cooperation with FIFA and these organizations. To demonstrate this, the Government of Qatar announced a three-year cooperation agreement with the ILO to reform and improves the conditions of migrant workers, such as the sponsorship system. In response to this agreement, the organization proposed amending the Labor Code and requiring the registration of employment contracts with the government, and prohibiting employers from preventing workers from leaving the country or changing jobs.
La cancelación de la Copa del Mundo 2022, uno de los objetivos del embargo:
Nuestro país sufre desde hace un año de bloqueo injusto por parte de sus vecinos del Golfo (Arabia Saudita, los Emiratos Árabes Unidos y el Reino de Bahrein), así como de la República Árabe de Egipto. Las razones de estas arbitrarias decisiones, han sido atribuidos a son provocaciones inventadas por estos países para socavar nuestra decisión y nuestra soberanía nacional, e imanan de mucha envidia y odio que sienten los líderes de estos países por nuestro papel en la región y nuestra posición en el mundo en los últimos tiempos, marcado por nuestra política de difundir la paz y el lenguaje del diálogo y la negociación, y participar en los aspectos que conducen al entendimiento cultural y la unión entre las personas, a través de diversos medios, a los niveles político, económico, de desarrollo, cultural y deportivo.
Es vergonzoso y triste que estos países buscan por todos los medios anular la organización de la Copa Mundial en el estado de Qatar, que de esta manera revela sus malas intenciones hacia nosotros, y muestra al mundo la incapacidad de los países árabes para la cohesión y la solidaridad entre ellos; y no expresar el más mínimo sentimiento de solidaridad fraternal, en el marco de nuestra region, y trabajar para unir nuestras filas, como una nación árabe musulmana. Arabia Saudita viene reptiendo en las últimas semanas estas posiciones vegonzosas, cuando traicionó a otro país árabe, el Reino de Marruecos, donde los marroquíes consideran Arabia Saudita "símbolo de la traición" al votar en contra de la acogida de Marruecos de la Copa del Mundo, y se movilizó en favor del trío liderado por los Estados Unidos. Los marroquíes están llevando a cabo una campaña de sin precedentes Contra Arabia Saudita en las redes sociales que ha llegado al llamamiento para cortar las relaciones con Arabia Saudita, lo que puede predecir a una crisis entre Riyadh y Rabat. Tampoco entendieron los marroquíes posiciones de países que consideran amigos, como Jordania, los Emiratos Árabes Unidos, Bahrein y Líbano, que votaron al trio anterior mencionado. Algunos atribuiron la votación de Jordania a la ausencia del rey Mohammed VI de la cumbre árabe organizado por Omán, y explicaron la posición de los EAU a su involucramiento en la política estadounidense. Por el contrario, los más prominentes voces marroquíes destacaron las posiciones de otros países árabes, encabezados por Qatar y Argelia, y saludaron países como Omán, Egipto, Libia, Túnez, Mauritania, Siria, Palestina, Sudán, Yemen y Somalia.
The cancellation of the 2022 World Cup, one of the objectives of the embargo:
For the past year, our country has suffered an unjust blockade by its Gulf neighbors (Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Bahrain), as well as the Arab Republic of Egypt. The reasons for these arbitrary decisions, have been attributed to provocations invented by these countries to undermine our decision and our national sovereignty, and imbued with much envy and hatred felt by the leaders of these countries for our role in the region and our position in the world recently, marked by our policy of spreading peace and the language of dialogue and negotiation, and participating in the aspects that lead to cultural understanding and union among people, through various means, at the levels political, economic, development, cultural and sports.
It is shameful and sad that these countries are trying by all means to annul the organization of the World Cup in the state of Qatar, which in this way reveals their bad intentions towards us, and shows the world the inability of the Arab countries for cohesion and the solidarity between them; and not to express the slightest feeling of fraternal solidarity, within the framework of our region, and to work to unite our ranks, as an Arab Muslim nation. Saudi Arabia has repeated in recent weeks these shameful positions, when it betrayed another Arab country, the Kingdom of Morocco, and the Moroccans consider Saudi Arabia as a "symbol of treason" when voting against Morocco's hosting of the World Cup, and mobilized in favor of the trio led by the United States. The Moroccans are conducting an unprecedented campaign against Saudi Arabia on social networks that has reached the call to sever relations with Saudi Arabia, which may predict a crisis between Riyadh and Rabat. Neither did the Moroccans understand the positions of countries that they consider friends, such as Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Lebanon, who voted for the aforementioned trio. Some attributed the Jordanian vote to the absence of King Mohammed VI from the Arab summit organized by Amman, and explained the UAE's position in its involvement in US policy. On the contrary, the most prominent Moroccan voices highlighted the positions of other Arab countries, led by Qatar and Algeria, and greeted countries such as Oman, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Mauritania, Syria, Palestine, Sudan, Yemen and Somalia.
All this is clear evidence that they are working hard to politicize sports, instead of encouraging us and helping us to make this important event a success. We would have wished that at least they had distinguished between some aspects and others, and to have another perspective, and to think that the successful launching of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar is a blessing for all our peoples.
The attempts of these countries came in various forms, such as the recent reports of German media, citing the President of the General Authority for Sport and adviser in the Royal Saudi court, Turki Al-Sheikh, indicating that nearby resources to al Sheikh assured that the International Football Federation (FIFA) is preparing at the end of the summer for the vote on the withdrawal of the Qatar World Cup, and transfer it to the United States or Great Britain.
These sources did not provide information or statements from FIFA, whose president, Gianni Navantino, praised a few days ago the preparations of Doha to organize the great world event. The sports referee made clear statements in a press release in the framework of the FIFA Executive Forum, which was held in Oman a few weeks ago, saying that the 2022 World Cup will be held in Qatar within four years, and there is no controversy in this matter at all. On the contrary, other press reported in December that the best version of the World Cup in 2022 was expected in Doha.
We want to organize the World Cup with great success, which is a success for our region and for all our Muslim Arab peoples, and we also wanted to wish the victory for our Arab teams.
Rashid Mairza Al Mulla
Ambassador of the State of Qatar, Havana, Cuba