5 Books to Read About Qatar Before the World Cup

When the soccer World Cup kicks off in Qatar on Nov. 20, it will accomplish two milestones. It will be the first World Cup played in the Arab world, bringing the globe’s favorite game to one of the regions where it is most loved. It will also be the first to be held in the Northern Hemisphere during its winter — essential in a nation where in June and July, when the tournament is normally held, the average daily high is around 107 degrees.

Qatar is one of the world’s smallest, but richest, countries: a tiny peninsula of land, barely the size of Connecticut, jutting into the turquoise waters of the Arabian gulf. It will host all games within Doha, the capital, and its satellite towns. The nation has seized on the global sporting and cultural event as an opportunity to announce itself on the world stage. Its brand-new stadiums, hotels, roads and metro system — built at hundreds of billions of dollars of expense — are designed to paint the picture of a futuristic hub of sports, tourism and education.

Yet the lead-up to this World Cup has been dominated like no other by negative headlines.

Human rights groups have drawn attention to unpaid wages, restrictive labor practices and unexplained deaths among low-income migrants, some of whom built the air-conditioned stadiums where the games will unfold. Soccer fans have criticized the decision to hold the world’s largest party in a country where homosexuality is illegal — and to one with too few hotels and very expensive beer. And an F.B.I. investigation of corruption in global soccer has cast a shadow over Qatar’s hosting of the tournament.

Qatar’s gloss and grit speak to its broader contradictions. Before the discovery of hydrocarbons, it was one of the poorest places on the planet, its economy reliant on pearl diving. Today it drips with seemingly limitless wealth and ambition. It touts itself as a beacon of free speech and education, home to the media giant Al Jazeera and satellite campuses of Georgetown, Cornell and Northwestern. But the local news media cannot officially quote the country’s ruler without written permission. And for all the allegations of worker abuses, tens of thousands of migrants still flock there in search of a better life.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/13/books/qatar-world-cup-books.html