Qatar 2022

[krow]

Also those look like a lot of DEMOCRATIC societies

lol no.

[Quaker2001]

Although I think Qatar will be a terrible host, planned cities have been built many times in the western world and generally work out well. Washington DC is a planned city. So are Helsinki, Lisbon, Kobe, Yokohama, Canberra, Adelaide, Perth, Brasilia, La Plata, etc.

Washington DC was built in the late 18th century. Little different than a tiny oil rich country in the Middle East building a planned city in 2014, particularly one where work conditions are probably going to be so bad to the point that many people will probably die for this city to get built.

[Faster]

A completely different case. Also those look like a lot of DEMOCRATIC societies

None of those cities were in what we would now call democratic societies when founded. There is nothing wrong with planned cities. Brasilia is a very recent example, Abuja even more so. But there is little need for Lusail.

[baron-pierreIV]

Although I think Qatar will be a terrible host, planned cities have been built many times in the western world and generally work out well. Washington DC is a planned city. So are Helsinki, Lisbon, Kobe, Yokohama, Canberra, Adelaide, Perth, Brasilia, La Plata, etc.

Actually Paris too, or the 8th arrondissement, is a "planned" city when Gen. Hausmann relaid the whole Etoile section. Sections of Manila were laid out systematically during the early American occupation.

[Nacre]

Washington DC was built in the late 18th century. Little different than a tiny oil rich country in the Middle East building a planned city in 2014, particularly one where work conditions are probably going to be so bad to the point that many people will probably die for this city to get built.

Obviously the question is who will end up living there. In a perfect world the sheiks of the gulf states would use this as an opportunity to resettle Palestinian refugees at Lusail. That won't happen, but if they were willing to do something decent like give citizenship to the South Asian workers or take in refugees from Syria, Iraq, etc then this would be a great development.

The reason this won't work out well is not because Lusail is a planned city, but rather that it is a planned city with no citizens to inhabit it.

[Quaker2001]

Obviously the question is who will end up living there. In a perfect world the sheiks of the gulf states would use this as an opportunity to resettle Palestinian refugees at Lusail. That won't happen, but if they were willing to do something decent like give citizenship to the South Asian workers or take in refugees from Syria, Iraq, etc then this would be a great development.

The reason this won't work out well is not because Lusail is a planned city, but rather that it is a planned city with no citizens to inhabit it.

No the reason this won't work out well is because people are going to die building this planned city. If Qatar wants to throw around money like they have too much of it, I have no problem with that. But where you're talking about giving citizenship to South Asian workers.. those workers would be better off not going to Qatar in the first place and losing their lives in the process

[Nacre]

That's my point, though. The fact that Qatar is building a planned city isn't a problem. It's how and why they are building it.

[Rob2012]

More good news...

British human rights investigators disappear in Qatar after being followed by plain clothes police

Two British human rights workers investigating the plight of migrant labourers constructing facilities for Qatar’s 2022 World Cup have disappeared and are feared to be held incommunicado by the Gulf state’s security forces.

Krishna Upadhyaya and Ghimire Gundev vanished on Sunday afternoon after sending texts to colleagues saying they were being followed by plain clothes police officers and feared they arrest as they tried to leave Qatar on flights that day.

The two men, who are of Nepalese extraction and both carry British passports, had been in the Qatari capital Doha to record interviews with Nepali labourers and investigate conditions in accommodation camps. They were working in cooperation with Nepalese diplomats in the city.

Qatar has been strongly criticised for the working conditions of its 1.4m migrant labourers as it races to spend £123bn on new infrastructure ahead of the 2022 World Cup. More than 400 Nepalese, the vast majority of them in Qatar to work on construction projects, died in the Gulf state between January 2012 and this May - a death rate of one worker per day. Qatar has insisted that none of the deaths occurred on World Cup sites.

The Norwegian charity employing the men told The Independent it had heard nothing from them for three days and received no information from the Qatari authorities despite multiple requests to officials in Doha to establish their whereabouts.

The Global Network for Rights and Development (GNRD) said it believed its employees were being held by the Qatari police and were at risk of maltreatment or torture. Amnesty International has previously expressed concern at allegations of torture of detainees and the Filipino government earlier this year called for an investigation into claims that three of its nationals had been tortured while under arrest in Qatar.

In a statement, GNRD said: “We are deeply concerned that our employees, both British citizens, may have been subjected to enforced disappearance and are currently at risk of torture.

“GNRD has zealously fought to eliminate abuse of Nepalese migrant workers in Qatar. We hold the Qatari authorities responsible for the safety of our employees. In the event that they are subjected to any kind of physical or psychological harm, GNRD is prepared to take all necessary legal action.”

More @ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/british-human-rights-investigators-disappear-in-qatar-after-being-followed-by-plain-clothes-police-9709804.html

Edited September 3, 2014 by Rob.

[runningrings]

Lovely.

FIFA might as well pencil in Somalia 2026, Burma 2030 before culminating in ISIS 2034.

[Ikarus360]

Another proof of FIFA stupidity. And the sad thing is that IOC seems to be now following its footsteps.

[StefanMUC]

Qatar is however making slow but steady progress in the game, or rather the Futsal variant:

http://www.futsalplanet.com/agenda/agenda-01.asp?id=18613

(I only know that because I'm currently staying at the same hotel near Zadar as the Qatar team)

[Quaker2001]

Another proof of FIFA stupidity. And the sad thing is that IOC seems to be now following its footsteps.

The IOC has been to China and Russia. FIFA is headed to Qatar. Not really that comparable.

As someone who cries at the state of basic journalism in this country, kudos to all those working to expose the real atrocities with the 2022 World Cup. When they first got awarded the tournament in 2010, the questions where what about these supposed air-conditioned stadiums and the calendar and how can such a tiny nation justify this event. Whereas not the rhetoric has turned to the plight of the migrant workers in Qatar which is a much larger issue than the World Cup. Being that this is FIFA we're talking about, who knows what action they'll take, but let this whole mess of a situation continue to shame both FIFA and the leadership of Qatar directly responsible for a great many deaths.

[gotosy]

FIFA Qatar World Cup Date May Clash with 2022 Olympics

September 8, 2014

(WFI) Despite Sepp Blatter promising that the Qatar World Cup will not clash with the 2022 Olympics, his FIFA task force reported today that the Jan/Feb window is now an option.

“We will not play the World Cup in January and February,” Blatter said in a FIFA statement following a trip to Qatar last November.

“It would be totally disrespectful to the Olympic family and organisation when they have the Winter Olympic Games in January and February. We have also consulted our economic and media partners. So many different partners are with FIFA and the Olympic Games so we can not have the partners in two competitions at the same time.”

Yet today, the FIFA task force set up to discuss alternate dates for the 2022 World Cup was said to be examining two possibilities – Jan/Feb 2022 and Nov/Dec the same year.

Blatter, a Swiss IOC member, has previously suggested Nov/Dec was the most suitable time to host the Gulf state’s FIFA showpiece to avoid the searing heat of the Qatari summer when temperatures can reach 50 degrees.

But UEFA president Michel Platini and European league officials are dissenting voices. Moving the Qatar World Cup to Nov/ Dec would clash with the regular club season across Europe and disrupt the prestigious Champions League tournament.

At today’s first meeting of the task force chaired by Asian football chief Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa and FIFA secretary general Jérôme Valcke, respresentatives from World Cup stakeholders including confederations, associations, clubs, leagues and FIFA sponsors began discussions to determine the dates of the Qatar World Cup. The international match calendar 2018-2024 is under scrutiny, as any switch in dates will affect competitions either side of the first World Cup in the Middle East.

FIFA said participants were “presented with information on the implications of staging the event in winter as opposed to summer”, as proposed by the FIFA Executive Committee.

Valcke clarified that the hosting agreement dictated that the World Cup must be held in 2022.

“The options of January/February 2022 and November/December 2022 were put forward as alternatives to June/July 2022, and initial feedback received,” FIFA said in its statement.

The task force will meet again in November, with each World Cup stakeholder asked to provide detailed feedback on how the proposed World Cup dates “will impact their relevant competitions, activities and/or stakeholders”.

Another meeting is set for February with an announcement on the World Cup date possible before the FIFA Congress next May.

“As the FIFA Executive Committee has emphasised, the consultation process should not be rushed but instead be given the necessary time to consider all of the elements relevant for a decision,” Salman said.

“We have made progress at today’s meeting and will continue to work together to find the best solution for football.”

http://www.worldfootballinsider.com/Story.aspx?id=37252

[StefanMUC]

Who cared what Blatter said in the past.

He always changes mind whenever he feels like it, so this is no surprise.

I however do not think the IOC will let this happen. After all, it wasn't them that made a ludicrous host decision for once.

[ofan]

Who gives a damn if it interferes with the champions league for a month? End the champions league and European leagues in June then for that season.

[zekekelso]

Why not Jan/Feb 2023 (As long as you are considering Dec 2022)?

[Gold Coast Lions]

FIFA is heading down an real mess road now the low to the lowest now if they keep Qatar 2022 they can not win and if they pick to hold it in Jan/Feb 2022 then they can say goodbye to Football/Soccer at future Olympics Games the IOC will be so pissed at them which will destroy IOC relations to FIFA.

[zekekelso]

The best way to guarantee a Jan/Feb 2022 World Cup is for the IOC to threaten to kick football out of the Olympics.

[StefanMUC]

Why not Jan/Feb 2023 (As long as you are considering Dec 2022)?

Apparently Blatter said "Qatar was awarded 2022, so they'll host in 2022". But, as mentioned earlier, Sepp cares the least about what he once said.

I do think that if he risked a confrontation with the IOC, they'd kick football out of the Games without hesitation. Saves a few venues, hundreds of participants and officials, and not much loss in terms of significance for the men's tournament. The wonen would lose out though.

But maybe that's indeed Sepp's tactics...getting out of the Olympics, make it look like it's the IOC's fault, no need to share revenue from the Games and even creating time in the calendar for a new FIFA event to cash in from.

[Rob2012]

Football brings in a lot of ticket revenue over the course of the Games. I don't think they'd kick it out with no hesitation. 1.6m tickets at London 2012 were football. That's a big hole in your budget you've got to fill if it's suddenly removed.

[StefanMUC]

But the venues need to be financed as well, do ticket sales make up for this? Besides, the 2012 and 2016 hosts are football fanatic and it may be easier to fill stadia in England or Brazil than in other host countries.

[Quaker2001]

If FIFA is creating a task force to determine if this is a good idea, that task force is probably going to determine it's not a good idea. Here's the key line from that article gotosy posted..

“It would be totally disrespectful to the Olympic family and organisation when they have the Winter Olympic Games in January and February. We have also consulted our economic and media partners. So many different partners are with FIFA and the Olympic Games so we can not have the partners in two competitions at the same time.”

This is not about the IOC trying to prevent it from happening or FIFA infringing upon the IOC's turf. These organizations get a lot of their money through TV rights and sponsorship deals and because FIFA and the IOC have interests in the same organizations, if these events step on each others toes, everyone loses. So having a World Cup in January/February isn't just about confronting the IOC. It's about answering to all your media rightsholders and sponsors whose bottom lines they would be hurting with such a decision. The IOC will continue to tell FIFA to get FIFuck themselves and whether or not football remains in the Olympics is not at issue here. If FIFA really wanted out of the Olympics, there are better ways to accomplish that than going down a road like this.

[reindeer]

But the venues need to be financed as well, do ticket sales make up for this? Besides, the 2012 and 2016 hosts are football fanatic and it may be easier to fill stadia in England or Brazil than in other host countries.

But the stadiums usually exist already. It's not difficult to find a few suitable venues around the country with most olympic hosts.

Football brings in a lot of ticket revenue over the course of the Games. I don't think they'd kick it out with no hesitation. 1.6m tickets at London 2012 were football. That's a big hole in your budget you've got to fill if it's suddenly removed.

Exactly, what many here don't seem to understand is that the IOC probably needs football more than other way round. The (men's) Olympic tournament has always been a headache for FIFA with age limits and other criteria because it's meant to be a secondary competition and not to threaten the World Cup's prestige. For women it's of course more important.

January would be a better time than Nov-Dec as it would disrupt less the natural flow of a season and many leagues are on a winter break anyway. That would piss the IOC but in principle FIFA isn't obliged to give them any explanations.

[ofan]

^So why not move the winter break to November/December for that season??

[Faster]

Because the weather in Munich is shittier in January than it is in November?