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Tag: World Cup
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Panini Stickers: The billion-dollar industry for collectible soccer stickers | 60 Minutes
Panini Stickers: The billion-dollar industry for collectible soccer stickers | 60 Minutes – CBS News
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Qatar Suffers Ignominious Defeat In World Cup Opener, Breaking 92-Year Record
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In one more sign of the lunacy of the corruption-tainted pick of Qatar to host the World Cup, the nation’s team was trounced 0-2 in an embarrassing face off against Ecuador on Sunday before more than 67,000 soccer fans.
It was the first time in the 92 years of the World Cup’s existence that the host nation’s team failed to win its opening game.
The Washington Post called the soccer match a “manhandling” by Ecuador.
“The Ecuadoran goalkeeper seemed so untroubled that someone should have gotten him a chair, a little cafe table and a nonalcoholic beer,” the Post quipped. (All alcohol was banned in the stadiums at the last minute in the Muslim nation, except for the wealthy, who can guzzle whatever they want in their luxury stadium suites.)
A Guardian sports columnist noted that Qatar’s team was not only bad among hosting nations over the years, it was the worst host team by miles.
And in yet another kick, while Qatar money “bought the World Cup,” it couldn’t buy the loyalty of Qatari fans who left the stadium in droves when their team began to lose, noted ESPN.
Countries chosen to be World Cup hosts typically have an impressive history of soccer. But Qatar was picked in 2010 after a massive bribe scandal involving officials of the world soccer governing body FIFA. Not only did it not have a soccer legacy, Qatar had no international-level stadiums. It was also notorious for egregious human rights violations, including exploiting migrant labor, and harshly restricting the rights of women and the LGBTQ community in the nation, where homosexuality is illegal.
Qatar built the stadiums it needed, and thousands of migrants died in the nation’s extreme heat and construction accidents building them.
The Times of London has called Qatar’s World Cup grab the “biggest sportswashing coup” in history, referring to nations that host sports events to distract from their horrific reputations.
In a bizarre speech Saturday, FIFA head Gianni Infantino defended Qatar’s human rights record, and called Europeans hypocrites for complaining about it. He indicated he knew just how the oppressed in Qatar felt because he had been bullied as a boy — in Switzerland — for having red hair and freckles.
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11/20/2022: The Most Dangerous Place in the World, The Panini Sticker Phenomenon, Wild Horses
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11/20/2022: The Most Dangerous Place in the World, The Panini Sticker Phenomenon, Wild Horses – CBS News
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Panini stickers: How a family collectibles business became a worldwide phenomenon
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The World Cup kicked off today in Qatar, and while you’ll hear all manner of “Oles” and “Allezs” over the next four weeks, this might be the event’s ultimate soundtrack: got, got, need. It’s not the scalpers hawking tickets, it’s the refrain of fans sifting through packs of World Cup stickers. Think soccer’s answer to baseball cards. Before the 1970 World Cup, four brothers in Italy, the Paninis, began printing collectables featuring images of players from every country in the competition. More than 50 years later, fans all over the globe scour for that obscure Serbian goalkeeper or elusive lionel messi – hoping to complete their albums. The Panini sticker phenomenon has become a booming, international business and a central part of the World Cup experience.
For millions of soccer fans, the World Cup unofficially began weeks ago, when the Panini stickers for this quadrennial event shot onto the market.
In a classroom in the town of Sudbury, England, in the thrumming cities of Sao Paulo and Mexico City, fans of all stripes embarked on a common treasure hunt: collecting 670 stickers depicting the players and teams from this World Cup.
All so they can complete their album.
Francesco Furnari: Listen. If you have gold or Panini sticker today, people will go for the sticker and not the gold.
Jon Wertheim: Panini sticker’s more valuable than gold you’re saying?
Francesco Furnari: Today, yes.
Francesco Furnari is the biggest official Panini distributor in the United States. An Italian Venezuelan American, he is the ultimate Panini sticker evangelist.
He’s completed every sticker album since 1974, including the 2022 vintage, many times over.
Francesco Furnari: I have already seven.
Jon Wertheim: You’ve- you’re a man in your 50s. You have seven albums completed?
Francesco Furnari: And still counting.
A pack costs a $1.20, and Furnari predicts sticker sales from 2022 will reach 100 million packets in the U.S. alone, nearly a billion worldwide.
Jon Wertheim: We’re talking about a little piece of paper with some adhesive on it. What makes this so special?
Francesco Furnari: Jon, you gotta understand that you have all your legends. You have all your best players at a distance of, you know, your hand. You can touch them, you can talk to them It’s fantastic.
How coveted are these things? When Argentina ran out of stickers in September, its secretary of commerce called an emergency meeting to solve this national crisis.
Jon Wertheim: We live in a digital world. How are these paper stickers still this popular?
Francesco Furnari: This sensation, Jon, to get a pack, to rip it out, to smell it, to open it, and to find the players right here, there is no way you can replicate it in an electronic way.
Jon Wertheim: So you even have a method for how you’re ripping that packet open—
Francesco Furnari: Every single pack has to be done (LAUGH) in the same way. By the way, I’ve opened at least—
Jon Wertheim: You’ve done this before.
Francesco Furnari: –probably 2,000 packs up until now. Oh my God. Germany
Jon Wertheim: This was a good one? Good pack…
Francesco Furnari: That was a good pull. I love it.
We went to Modena, Italy, to Panini’s headquarters. The equivalent of Willy Wonka’s factory.
Paninis rolled off the press 21 hours a day, 11 million packets a day, each containing five stickers. The headliners: Mbappe, Messi, Modric. And the coming stars, players with four names, and there’s Fred.
The phenomenon started here, next to the cathedral, at a newspaper kiosk in the center of town. After World War II, Olga Panini, a widow, ran the newsstand with her four sons. Not unlike a soccer team, each had a special skill. The oldest son, Giuseppe, was the dreamer with the big plans.
We met Giuseppe’s son, Antonio, and Giuseppe’s nieces, Laura and Lucia Panini in Modena.
Laura Panini: He was like a volcano. He had many, many ideas.
Jon Wertheim: A volcano?
Laura Panini: A volcano, yes.
Giuseppe’s initial idea was to sell cards depicting flowers.
Antonio Panini: And was a disaster (laugh). But they realized that the formula was okay, not the subject.
Short of lire, Giuseppe had, as it were, one last shot on goal. It was 1961 and he turned to a new subject: Italian soccer. It was a hit, especially with the kids.
Even if production was rudimentary.
Lucia Panini: All the stickers were printed and then were cut. And they were mixing with a shovel at the beginning.
Jon Wertheim: To make sure there were no duplicates (laugh) they mixed with a shovel.
Lucia Panini: Then they replaced a shovel with a churn, the one they use normally for making butter or cheese..
Jon Wertheim: With a butter churn?
Lucia Panini: Yes, yes. (laugh) And they had a handle, and they were moving this handle and it was working.
Giuseppe’s brother Umberto, the family engineer, invented machinery that mixed stickers to prevent dreaded duplicates in each pack, his contraptions were so successful, the designs are still in use today, 60 years later.
And they enabled the brothers to scale up their ambitions. Before the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, they paid a thousand dollars cash to soccer’s governing body to buy the rights to produce stickers of the players, not least the great Pele.
Suddenly “Panini” became chiefly associated not with a sandwich but with a worldwide pastime. The growth of the stickers mirroring the growth of soccer.
Antonio Allegra, Panini’s marketing director, told us how collecting the World Cup albums over the decades became a rite of passage; also a way to mark time.
Antonio Allegra: Wow. It’s the first appearance for Diego Armando Maradona in the World Cup.
Jon Wertheim: This is Maradona’s first World Cup?
Antonio Allegra: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Antonio Allegra: This one is Germany 2006. And here we have a very, very young Messi.
Jon Wertheim: This, this teenager right here.
Antonio Allegra: Yeah, yeah, yeah, he is 19.
There are countries that have fallen off the map and hairstyles that have fallen out of fashion.
Jon Wertheim: He looks like the drummer.
Today, Panini sticker photo shoots are the World Cup equivalent of school picture day.
Back in Italy, Marcella Mannori is Panini’s project manager overseeing image control.
Marcella Mannori: Sometimes these pictures are not perfect. Might be too dark, maybe there’s a pimple on someone’s face. And we’re asked to remove it.
Jon Wertheim: Little Photoshop?
Marcella Mannori: Correct.
Jon Wertheim: Heard one story of a federation once getting in touch and saying, ‘This guy’s really ugly. Can you do something about that?’
Marcella Mannori: Yes. It’s the truth.
Jon Wertheim: Should we name names?
Marcella Mannori: No, I’m still working with these people. (laugh)
Jon Wertheim: So what do you do when you get that call…
Marcella Mannori: We…First reply is of course, ‘No, no worry. I mean, we’re gonna change the picture.” Second time, third time, fourth time. The fourth time I will say, ‘Listen, this is his face (laugh) it’s his face, I’m sorry. I mean we did all we co-could.
What do players think of sticker madness? We asked Gigi Buffon, who literally saved Italy during its run to the World Cup trophy in 2006.
One of the greatest ever goalkeepers, at age 44, he’s not only still playing, but, let’s keep this between us, he’s still collecting stickers, a hobby since childhood.
Jon Wertheim: When you still collect, where are you getting your stickers?
Gigi Buffon (Translation): Now and again I like the ritual of going to the kiosk to buy say 10 packets of stickers. It’s a little embarrassing, but now I can say to the kiosk owner the stickers are for my kids, and he believes me.
Buffon let us in on another secret.
Jon Wertheim: Do the players swap stickers in the locker room?
Gigi Buffon (Translation): Yes, I think if we were really to investigate all the players in the locker room, I think 60 to 70 percent filled the album.
Buffon appeared in four World Cup albums, aging before our eyes, and his.
Jon Wertheim: We have visual aids…
Gigi Buffon: Ooh!
His favorite sticker was for the 2006 album, the last time Italy triumphed at the World Cup.
Jon Wertheim: You’ve had your picture taken thousands of times, but you understood this is for generations
Gigi Buffon (Translation): Yes, for sure. For me it was a solemn moment, because there was a kind of respect that I had to show towards Gigi the child and to the dreams of Gigi the child.
An hour from Buffon’s practice field in Parma, we met another child at heart, Gianni Bellini. Considered the most prolific Panini collector in the world.
The debut edition, Mexico 1970, is the holy grail of World Cup sticker albums. This guy has five of them. And he ain’t sellin’.
He lives in what is less a home than a sticker repository. You might have baseball cards in your attic, he has half a million stickers spilling out of every drawer. Bellini even has whole sheets of them hidden under a tablecloth, no one is allowed to eat on the table because it’s too sacred.
Lucky for Gianni, his long-suffering wife, Giovanna, has a sense of humor.
Jon Wertheim: Heaven forbid there were a fire tonight, you had to go back into your house, what would you rescue first?
Gianni Bellini (Translation): Obviously the stickers, if there is a fire my wife would run away with her own legs.
Jon Wertheim: Your wife can fend for herself, but the stickers can’t.
Gianni Bellini: Exactly.
Saturday nights are all right for sticking at the Bellini household. While Giovanna watches a movie, Gianni fills his album, and never forgets a face.
Jon Wertheim: You remember 50 years later what the last player was you needed to complete the album?
Gianni Bellini (Translation): I also remember the first sticker that I got in a pack which was Sergio Carantini, a defender from Vicenza.
Jon Wertheim: It’s like your first girlfriend.
Gianni Bellini (Translation): Her I don’t remember.
He’s not alone in his soccer nostalgia, those kids who grew up in the 70s collecting stickers are now grandparents and parents, passing down the tradition – like Francesco Furnari in Florida.
Francesco Furnari: Think about this. There is no way you can find a product that you can have different generations doing at the same time. It’s fantastic. (big smile)
Here’s what else makes it exceptional, almost everyone that completes their album does so not through purchase power, but through old fashioned, face-to-face trading. Around the world, there are Panini sticker swapping sessions that are organized; others that are impromptu.
This next month in the desert of Qatar, one country will lift the trophy, but millions will feel their personal version of World Cup glory.
Jon Wertheim: You’ve seen people complete their albums. What is that feeling like when you get that very last sticker?
Francesco Furnari: Let me put it this way. Whenever you play soccer and you score a goal in the final of the tournament, that’s kind of the feeling you have whenever you complete an album.
It’s an old-timey, analog hobby, no screen required. It relies on the humanity of touch and the value is largely sentimental. But in these tribal, polarized times, leave it to stickers to take people, and countries, and bind them together.
Produced by Draggan Mihailovich. Associate producer, Emily Cameron. Broadcast associate, Elizabeth Germino. Edited by Sean Kelly.
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Reflecting on a modern Qatar during a World Cup game with friends
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Al-Rayyan, Qatar – A group of friends and family gather daily at the majlis in a building that is walking distance from their homes in Al-Rayyan, just west of Doha.
It’s a tradition that has been going on for years and is part of daily life here in Qatar. A majlis is an area in a house or a separate building used for all sorts of gatherings, from daily lounging to more important events.
But now, with the World Cup in town, it has taken on a different theme: a football watch party.
The mostly middle-aged and older attendees at the majlis were there to watch Sunday’s opening match of the 2022 World Cup, Qatar v Ecuador.
In Qatar, they have been waiting for this moment for years. All across the country, in majlis just like this, Qataris tuned in to see themselves on the world stage.
Not that everyone was here for the game.
“Honestly, I’m not into football,” said Nasser Al Thani, who is here most days. “They’re all here for the game, but I’m here for the opening ceremony.”
The opening ceremony, with its display of Qatari history, took the guests back to their childhood. One moment, in particular, took them back when a video was shown of Qatar’s former Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani playing football in the desert in what the guests estimated to be the early 1970s.
“We used to play in the sands like this,” said Al Thani. “Barefoot, toes bleeding. When I see these old images, it reminds me of the old days. People were simpler and nicer then.”
Al Thani and the other guests reminisced about their trips to the desert in their youth.
One of them, Mubarak al-Naeemi, used to play for the Qatari football teams Al-Rayyan and Al-Gharafa in the 1980s. He said that one of his teammates at the time was Hassan Afif, the father of the current star of the Qatari team, Akram Afif.
“I would play on the left wing; I was good, but Hassan could get the ball to anyone, wherever they were on the field,” al-Naeemi told Al Jazeera.
Distracted from the game
Qatar conceded a goal early, setting the game’s tone.
So, instead of wasting their time by paying too much attention to what was a poor performance from the Qataris, the majlis guests returned to thinking about the changes they have seen in the last 20 years in Qatar, particularly since the World Cup was awarded to the Gulf country in 2010.
It is well-known that Doha has changed rapidly since then. But listening to the guests here, who saw that change, it is clear how radically different things are.
“Look at these metro stations,” said one of the guests, Sultan Johar. “Four floors underground. It’s amazing. We got the World Cup out of it, but even if we hadn’t, these changes would have been enough. When you get off at each stop, you see something new.”
Al Thani points out that the change has gone beyond the infrastructure and spread to the people.
“Let’s be honest, we didn’t have a strong sense of nationalism or national identity before,” said Al Thani. “The World Cup, this project, has helped build this. Now you even hear the other Arabs who have been raised here, they speak with a Qatari accent. They have started to feel that pride in living in Qatar.”
But that does not mean that this group welcomes all the changes.
They recalled that the Qatar of their childhood and adolescence was less developed, but people were hardier and could survive on their own.
And not just that, the weather was cooler, and rainfall was still rare but more plentiful than today, they said.
Now, as many World Cup guests have found out, the temperatures are warmer than they used to be.
“It’s climate change, and it makes us worry about the future,” said Johar. “We never understood things like conservation or protecting the environment. Now we go on trips to the desert and pick up the litter. We get it now but look at the trees. They’ve disappeared in some areas because of the lack of rainfall. And the animals we used to hunt, you have to go deep into the desert to find them now.”
On the television, Qatar conceded a second and then showed little in the second half, with the game eventually ending 2-0 for Ecuador.
Most of the guests at the majlis had left long before the end of the games, and the jokes were already rolling into everyone’s phones, commiserating over the loss.
At the end of the day, the result was not too important for the guests here, but the symbolism of the arrival of such a significant event to their doorstep was. And yet, once this tournament is over, the majlis will carry on, and these friends will still gather, wondering how much more they will see their country change in the years to come.
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Qatar kicks off 2022 World Cup with message of inclusion
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Al Khor, Qatar — Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman extended one yellow-gloved hand to a FIFA World Cup ambassador suffering from a rare spinal disorder in an image meant to represent inclusion in a country facing international criticism over its human rights record.
It wasn’t the biggest moment of Sunday’s seven-act World Cup opening ceremony ahead of the match between host country Qatar and Ecuador, which Ecuador won 2-0. The largest cheers were reserved for the Mideast and African leaders watching from their luxury suites in Bedouin-tent inspired Al Bayt Stadium.
In fact, it was Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani who drew a thunderous applause in a short speech delivered in Arabic from the suite. He was seated between FIFA president Gianni Infantino and his father, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who secured the World Cup for the tiny gulf nation 12 years ago.
Getty Images
“How beautiful it is for people to put aside what divides them in order to celebrate their diversity and what brings them together at the same time,” Sheikh Tamim said, his words translated into English on a video screen inside the stadium.
“I wish all the participating teams a magnificent football performance, high sportsmanship, and a time full of joy, excitement and delight for you all,” he continued. “And let there be days that are inspiring with goodness and hope.”
He then said, “I welcome you and good luck to all,” in his only words spoken in English.
Sheikh Hamad, viewed as the modernizer of Qatar during his 18 years as ruler, further delighted the crowd by autographing an official World Cup shirt handed to him by his son. He then held the shirt up to the crowd.
Qatar, home to 3 million people, most of them migrant workers, has spent more than $200 billion on preparation for the World Cup. Seven new stadiums were built, including the 60,000-seat Al Bayt Stadium north of Doha.
The opening ceremony was meant to introduce Qatar to the world through its culture with a theme of “bridging distances.” Creative director Ahmad Al Baker wanted the ceremony to signify “a gathering for all mankind, an invitation to come together as one, bridging all differences with humanity, respect and inclusion.”
It hit the mark when Sheikh Tamim was joined in the stadium suite by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, two leaders who had boycotted Qatar for years. Not present were the leaders of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, the two other nations involved in the boycott.
There were no major Western leaders in attendance, as Qatar is under intense scrutiny for its treatment of the migrant workers who prepped the nation for the World Cup, as well as the LGBTQ community. Gay and lesbian sex is criminalized in Qatar.
But among those who did attend the opening match were U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Senegalese President Macky Sall, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Rwandan President Paul Kagame.
Kuwait’s crown prince came, along with the director-general of the World Health Organization and Djibouti’s president. Also present was Jordan’s King Abdullah II.
They listened as BTS’ Jung Kook, while Qatari singer and producer Fahad Al Kubaisi debuted the single “Dreamers,” produced specifically for the World Cup.
Then came remarks from Infantino, who spoke in Arabic, Spanish and finally English to officially open the tournament.
“Dear friends, welcome, welcome, to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022,” Infantino said in English. “Welcome to celebrate football because football unites the world. And now let’s welcome the teams and let the show begin.”
As “The Business” by Tiesto blasted over the speakers, Qatar and Ecuador took to the field and the World Cup officially began.[ad_2]
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FIFA World Cup 2022 opening ceremony: Event starts with Arabian theme; Jungkook performs new song ‘Dreamers’
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FIFA World Cup 2022 kicked off in Qatar, on Sunday, with a grand opening ceremony that saw international celebrities perform. The event started with American actor Morgan Freeman’s dulcet voice and an Arabian theme with camels.
Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani arrived at the stadium flanked by FIFA president Gianni Infantino to a roaring crowd. Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was also present at the opening ceremony and inaugural match of the tournament.
The opening show also saw the performance of a new tournament song called ‘Dreamers’ featuring singer Jungkook of K-pop boy band BTS, alongside Qatari singer Fahad Al-Kubaisi. Interestingly, Qatar is also the smallest nation to host soccer’s biggest global event. Crowd control will be key with some 1.2 million visitors expected – more than a third of its population.
A ban on sale of beer was imposed two days before the opening ceremony of the World Cup.However, at the FIFA Fan Festival in central Doha, visitors were seen sipping beers. But the conditions outside the city’s edges were different as hundreds of workers gathered in a sports arena in an industrial zone, without alcohol.
Thousands of attendees were turned away from a Saturday night concert in the official fan zone because of overcrowding. According to the reports, around 1.2 million visitors are expected to begin arriving this week in the tiny nation on the Arabian Peninsula.
Qatar – which is home to 3 million people, mostly migrant workers – has spent more than $200 billion on improvements across the country for the tournament. Among the additions are seven new purpose-built venues, including the 60,000-seat Al Bayt Stadium that hosted Sunday’s opening ceremony and the first match.
(With input from agencies)
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Qatar World Cup Games To Cut Off Human Sales After 75th Minute
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DOHA, QATAR—Unveiling several policies for the upcoming international soccer tournament, the nation of Qatar announced Sunday that its World Cup stadiums would cut off human sales after the 75th minute of each soccer match. “We want fans to enjoy themselves, but we also want to provide a safe environment, so get your human purchases in early,” said Qatar’s World Cup ambassador, Khalid Salman, ending speculation over whether the host country might completely ban the sale of human beings at its eight tournament stadiums. “We’re pleased to offer a wide selection of people—we’ve got Indians, Nepalese, Bangladeshis, and many more to choose from. We simply ask that you plan ahead so that, after the game, we can ensure spectators are able to exit the stadium in an orderly fashion and get home safely with their purchases. We’re also limiting sales to two humans per purchase, but don’t worry—you can come back as many times as you like. Whether you’re buying your person for forced labor or prostitution, we just ask that you do it in moderation.” Qatari officials added that there would also be a strict no-tolerance policy against fans bringing their own slaves into the game.
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Generation Football: Vincent Kompany says representation is key
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From: Generation ChangeVincent Kompany on why representation needs to start in club boardrooms and football as a vehicle for change in Algeria.
What makes a great leader on and off the pitch?
Iman Amrani sits down with Vincent Kompany, Burnley Football Club’s new manager. He became a legend playing for Belgium and also captained Manchester City during the most successful time in their history.
Vincent discusses family, identity, legacy and how to make an impact in society.
Our report in this episode looks at Algeria, where football played a key role in its liberation struggle from France and the 2019 protest movement.
Has football been an agent for change in Algeria?
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World leaders descend on Qatar for World Cup 2022 kickoff
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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame, Palestine’s Mahmoud Abbas are among those arriving in Doha.
World leaders, politicians, diplomats and royalty have begun to arrive in Qatar before the 2022 FIFA World Cup kickoff on Sunday.
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived in Doha on Saturday, followed by Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who was spotted at Hamad International Airport on Sunday, Qatar News Service reported.
Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman also touched down in the host nation late on Saturday before Sunday evening’s opening match between Qatar and Ecuador.
Prince Mohammed’s arrival in Qatar comes after Saudi Arabia and Doha resumed diplomatic ties in January 2021 following years of frosty relations.
Saudi Arabia, playing in Group C, will take on Argentina on November 22.
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will also attend the opening ceremony, Egyptian state TV quoted the presidency as saying on Sunday.
Those not attending in person have sent messages of support.
On Friday, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Qatar’s emir, received a call from Russian President Vladimir Putin. He called the emir’s office to congratulate the host country and wish the Qatari national team success in their coming games.
Qatar’s Bassam al-Rawi celebrates after scoring in the AFC Asian Cup against Iraq at Al Nahyan Stadium, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in 2019 [File: Suhaib Salem/Reuters] The official opening ceremony is slated to kick off at Al Bayt Stadium at 5pm (14:00 GMT) on Sunday before the inaugural Qatar-Ecuador match at 7pm (16:00 GMT).
Ecuador’s Byron Castillo in action with Argentina’s Nicolas Gonzalez during the South American qualifiers for the World Cup in Guayaquil, Ecuador in March 2022 [File: Jose Jacome/Pool/Reuters] The emir’s office said the opening event will be attended by “a number of Their Majesties, Highnesses, and Excellencies Heads of States and Heads of Delegations of brotherly and friendly countries”.
Qatar, competing in Group A in their debut World Cup appearance, will face Senegal on November 25 and the Netherlands on November 29.
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11/19: CBS Saturday Morning
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11/19: CBS Saturday Morning – CBS News
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‘I Feel Qatari’: FIFA Head Rips Europe For Qatar Human Rights Uproar In Bizarre Speech
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The head of the world soccer governing body FIFA in a bizarre speech on Saturday blamed Europe for triggering the controversy over human rights abuses in Qatar, this year’s World Cup host.
Qatar was chosen in 2010 as the venue for the international sports event after a massive bribe scandal involving FIFA officials. It was picked despite its record of migrant worker abuse, harsh rules involving women, and police attacks on people in the LGBTQ community in the conservative Muslim nation, where homosexuality is illegal.
The British are so worried about potential problems that they have dispatched a crew of special “engagement officers” to protect fans from zealot police in Qatar.
FIFI head Gianni Infantino called out the “hypocrisy” of outraged Western nations issuing “moral” lessons, given their own past histories. He compared his own suffering to migrant workers and the LGBTQ community in Qatar, explaining he was “bullied” as a boy in Switzerland because he had red hair and freckles. Thousands of migrant workers have died in the last ten years in Qatar from the extreme heat and accidents building World Cup stadiums and related facilities.
“You want to criticize someone, come to me,” Infantino said in his hour-long lecture to the international press at the Qatar National Convention Center.
“Criticize me. Here I am. Crucify me,” Infantino said. “Don’t criticize Qatar.”
Most shockingly he appeared to characterize himself as a representative of all people oppressed in Qatar — or at least as someone with a profound understanding of what they experience in the nation.
“Today I have very strong feelings, I can tell you that,” Infantino said. “Today I feel Qatari. I feel Arab. I feel African. I feel gay. I feel disabled. I feel [like] a migrant worker.”
He added: “Of course, I am not Qatari, I am not an Arab, I am not African, I am not gay, I am not disabled. But I feel like it because I know what it means to be discriminated [against], to be bullied, as a foreigner in a foreign country.”
Infantino assured members of the LGBTQ community that they would be safe — though there have been no such guarantees made by Qatari officials. In fact, Qatar’s ambassador to Britain has warned that kissing between same-sex couples would likely be problematic.
Amnesty International harshly criticized Infantino after his remarks, saying he was guilty of “brushing aside legitimate human rights criticisms” and “dismissing the enormous price paid by migrant workers” to make the tournament possible.
Infantino also defended Qatar’s last-minute ban on all alcohol, even beer, at all of the stadiums. He scoffed that fans should be able to go “three hours” without a beer. The ban will not apply to FIFA executives, like him, or wealthy visitors who will be allowed to drink beer, wine, whiskey and champagne in their luxury stadium suites.
Fans around the world have called for boycotts on attending or watching the event, and several teams have and will protest human rights abuses in the nation.
Critics on Twitter blasted Infantino, one of the highest paid sports administrators in the world, for presuming to identify with migrant workers and other oppressed people in Qatar.
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FIFA chief Gianni Infantino delivers bizarre tirade on eve of World Cup
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Gianni Infantino said he feels gay. That he feels like a woman. That he feels like a migrant worker. He lectured Europeans for criticizing Qatar’s human rights record and defended the host country’s last-minute decision to ban beer from World Cup stadiums.
The FIFA president delivered a one-hour tirade on the eve of the World Cup’s opening match, and then spent about 45 minutes answering questions from media about the Qatari government’s actions and a wide range of other topics.
“Today I feel Qatari,” Infantino said Saturday at the start of his first news conference of the World Cup. “Today I feel Arab. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel a migrant worker.”
Infantino later shot back at one reporter who noticed he left women out of his unusual declaration.
“I feel like a woman,” the FIFA president responded.
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Qatar has faced a litany of criticism since 2010, when it was chosen by FIFA to host the biggest soccer tournament in the world.
Migrant laborers who built Qatar’s World Cup stadiums often worked long hours under harsh conditions and were subjected to discrimination, wage theft and other abuses as their employers evaded accountability, London-based rights group Equidem said in a 75-page report released this month.
“They’re like anyone else in the world,” Mustafa Qadri, founder of the Equidem organization, told CBS News this week of the migrant laborers. “You want to have a better life than your parents. You want your children to go to college to have a better life than you. So, you’re desperate for an opportunity.”
“I think hundreds of workers have died to make this World Cup possible,” Qadri added, though he admitted it’s impossible to determine a precise figure.
Infantino defended the country’s immigration policy, and praised the government for bringing in migrants to work.
“We in Europe, we close our borders and we don’t allow practically any worker from those countries, who earn obviously very low income, to work legally in our countries,” Infantino said. “If Europe would really care about the destiny of these people, these young people, then Europe could also do as Qatar did.
“But give them some work. Give them some future. Give them some hope. But this moral-lesson giving, one-sided, it is just hypocrisy.”
Qatar is governed by a hereditary emir who has absolute say over all governmental decisions and follows an ultraconservative form of Islam known as Wahhabism. In recent years, Qatar has been transformed following a natural gas boom in the 1990s, but it has faced pressure from within to stay true to its Islamic heritage and Bedouin roots.
Under heavy international scrutiny, Qatar has enacted a number of labor reforms in recent years that have been praised by Equidem and other rights groups. But advocates say abuses are still widespread and that workers have few avenues for redress.
Infantino, however, continued to hit the Qatari government’s talking points of turning criticism back onto the West.
“What we Europeans have been doing for the past 3,000 years we should be apologizing for the next 3,000 years before we start giving moral lessons to people,” said Infantino, who moved last year from Switzerland to live in Doha ahead of the World Cup.
In response to his comments, human rights group Amnesty International said Infantino was “brushing aside legitimate human rights criticisms” by dismissing the price paid by migrant workers to make the tournament possible and FIFA’s responsibility for it.
“Demands for equality, dignity and compensation cannot be treated as some sort of culture war – they are universal human rights that FIFA has committed to respect in its own statutes,” said Steve Cockburn, Amnesty’s head of economic and social justice.
QATAR’S PUSHBACK:
A televised speech by Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, on Oct. 25 marked a turning point in the country’s approach to any criticism, claiming it had been “subjected to an unprecedented campaign that no host country has ever faced.”
Since then, government ministers and senior World Cup organizing staff have dismissed some European criticism as racism, and calls to create a compensation fund for the families of migrant workers as a publicity stunt.
WHAT ABOUT EUROPE?
Qatar has often been criticized for laws that criminalize homosexuality, limit some freedoms for women and do not offer citizenship to migrants.
“How many gay people were prosecuted in Europe?” Infantino said, repeating previous comments that European countries had similar laws until recent generations. “Sorry, it was a process. We seem to forget.”
He reminded that in one region of Switzerland, women got the right to vote only in the 1990s.
He also chided European and North American countries who he said did not open their borders to welcome soccer-playing girls and women that FIFA and Qatar worked to help leave Afghanistan last year.
Albania was the only country that stepped up, he said.
“ONE LOVE:”
Seven of Europe’s 13 teams at the World Cup said their captains will wear an anti-discrimination armband in games in defiance of a FIFA rule, taking part in a Dutch campaign called “One Love.”
FIFA has declined to publicly comment significantly on that issue, or on the urging of European soccer federations for FIFA to support a compensation fund for the families of migrant workers.
The ripostes came Saturday.
FIFA now has its own armband designs, with more generic slogans, in partnership with various U.N. agencies. Armbands for the group games say: “FootballUnitesTheWorld,” “SaveThePlanet,” “ProtectChildren,” and “ShareTheMeal.”
At quarterfinal games, “NoDiscrimination” will be used.
Not good enough, the German soccer federation said a couple hours later, deciding to stay with the heart-shaped, multi-colored “One Love” armband logo.
FIFA also wants to create a legacy fund from its revenues tied to this year’s World Cup – and will let its critics, or anyone who wants, to contribute.
“And those who invest a certain amount will be part of a board that can decide where the money goes,” Infantino said.
Legacy funds from previous World Cups went directly to soccer in the host nation – $100 million from FIFA to South Africa in 2010 and Brazil in 2014. Some money was spent on new vehicles for officials and even more opaque projects.
Two priorities this time for global projects are education and a “labor excellence hub” in partnership with the United Nations-backed International Labor Organization.
MEDIA JIBES:
British media reports this week noted fans wearing England shirts and cheering outside the team hotel were people from India who lived and worked in Qatar.
It followed reports of Qatar’s project to pay expenses for about 1,500 fans from the 31 visiting teams to travel to the World Cup, sing in the opening ceremony on Sunday and stay to post positive social media content about the host country.
It fed a long-standing narrative that Qatar pays people to be sports fans.
“You know what this is? This is racism. This is pure racism,” Infantino said of the criticism about the England cheer squad. “Everyone in the world had a right to cheer for whom he wants.”
Infantino spoke while knowing he will be unopposed for re-election as FIFA president in March.
“Unfortunately for some of you,” he said to reporters Saturday, “it looks like I will be here for another four years.”
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World Cup opens with host country Qatar facing Ecuador
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Given the level of focus on the Qatari regime, its attitudes toward human rights, immigrant workers, the LGBTQ community — and beer — the World Cup host’s soccer team has slipped under the radar.
Qatar opens the tournament against Ecuador on Sunday, but even the buildup to that match has been overshadowed by Friday’s announcement that the sale of beer will be banned inside the stadium grounds.
The World Cup is a source of immense national pride for Qatar in its attempt to raise its profile on the global stage and drive toward modernization. But what about the team?
KARIM JAAFAR/AFP via Getty Images
“The best thing that can happen is to focus on football, keep calm and avoid the noise and rumors,” Qatar coach Felix Sanchez said Saturday. “Obviously we don’t like it when people criticize our country. We managed to have great preparation, kept calm and that’s how we planned this.”
Qatar has never before appeared in a World Cup and faces a major challenge just to emerge from Group A, which also includes Senegal and the Netherlands. South Africa in 2010 is the only host nation to fail to get beyond the group stage, so to avoid sharing that distinction would be success in itself.
Sunday may be Qatar’s best hope for a victory against an Ecuador team that is only five places above it at No. 44 in the FIFA rankings.
Qatar’s preparation for this tournament has been going on for several years, including involvement in the 2019 Copa America and 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup. But it was victory in the 2019 Asian Cup that provided evidence of the country’s potential to provide a shock over the next few weeks.
That continental title was masterminded by Sanchez, who has been in the position since 2017 and before that was in charge of the under-19 team. The 46-year-old Spaniard learned his trade at Barcelona’s famed academy and his impact has been remarkable, with the Asian Cup success his standout moment.
But the World Cup is another level entirely.
“We are aware who we are, where we are coming from and who we are facing,” Sanchez said. “We will try to give our all, try to be competitive against such talented teams. It will be a great challenge for us.
“When the statistics add up it makes them the favorite. History told us that. Having said this, we consider ourselves to be competitive and worthy of being here.”
RAUL ARBOLEDA/AFP via Getty Images
Ecuador will hope to spoil the party — and has been talked about as a potential surprise package. But the team heads to the World Cup on the back of doubts about whether it would even be allowed to compete after claims it fielded an ineligible player during qualifying.
Chile and Peru argued that defender Byron Castillo was actually Colombian and illegally played in qualifying matches. That claim was rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Ecuador kept its place at the World Cup, but will be deducted three points before the start of qualifying for the 2026 competition because of the use of false information on Castillo’s birthday and birthplace in its proceedings to grant him a passport.
Castillo was then left out of coach Gustavo Alfaro’s 26-man squad for Qatar.
With so much focus away from the field for both teams, Sunday’s opener will bring the conversation back to soccer.
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World Cup organizers face scrutiny ahead of tournament
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World Cup organizers face scrutiny ahead of tournament – CBS News
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FIFA World Cup 2022: When and where to watch first match, all about opening ceremony
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The four-year wait is over. The FIFA World Cup 2022 will kickstart on November 20 in Qatar. This will be the first time that football’s biggest tournament will take place in the Middle East. A total of 32 teams will take part in the FIFA World Cup 2022.
France, the current defending champions, will start as favorites along with Brazil and Argentina. Former champions Germany, Spain, Uruguay, and England, along with the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, and Croatia, will also be participating in the tournament.
The world’s biggest football tournament will start with a star-studded opening ceremony that will take place in Qatar on Sunday, November 20, ahead of the first match. Hosts Qatar will be facing Ecuador in the first match of the tournament.
Here’s all you need to know about the opening ceremony of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar:
When will the opening ceremony take place?
- The opening ceremony of the FIFA World Cup will take place on Sunday, before the opening Group A match between hosts Qatar and Ecuador.
- The ceremony is scheduled to begin at 1400 GMT. In India, the event will begin at 7:30 p.m. IST.
- The original plan was for the opening ceremony to be held before Qatar’s first game on Monday, which would have created the unusual situation of two games being held before it. Qatar’s opening match was then brought forward by a day.
- Ecuadorean President Guillermo Lasso said he would not attend his country’s high-profile opening match, citing domestic unrest.
Where will the opening ceremony take place?
- The opening ceremony will be at the 60,000-capacity Al Bayt Stadium, 40 km (25 miles) north of Doha.
- Named and designed after the tents used by nomads in the Gulf, the Al Bayt Stadium is the furthest venue from central Doha but also one of the biggest and it has a retractable roof.
Who will be performing at the opening ceremony?
- FIFA is yet to announce a full list of performers for the opening ceremony.
- South Korea’s BTS said Jungkook, one of seven members of the boy band, would perform a track titled “Dreamers” at the ceremony.
- Others named as possible performers at the opening ceremony include the Black Eyed Peas, Robbie Williams and Nora Fatehi, according to the Telegraph.
- In an excerpt of an interview with Italy’s Il Venerdì di Repubblica to be published next month, Williams said it would be “hypocritical” of him to not perform in Qatar.
- British singer Dua Lipa denied a report that she was set to perform. Some Spanish media reports said Shakira would also not perform.
- Singer Rod Stewart told the Times he had turned down an offer of “over $1 million” to perform in Qatar.
Who performed at the 2018 opening ceremony?
- The 2018 World Cup in Russia kicked off with a ceremony in Moscow headlined by British pop star Williams and Russian soprano Aida Garifullina.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin and FIFA President Gianni Infantino gave speeches at that opening ceremony.
Where to watch the live stream and live telecast of the FIFA World Cup 2022 in India?
- The FIFA World Cup 2022 will be telecasted live on Sports 18 in India. However, football fans can also be able to stream the tournament live online on the Jio TV app.
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Qatar accused of labor abuses of migrant workers ahead of World Cup
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Qatar accused of labor abuses of migrant workers ahead of World Cup – CBS News
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Qatar World Cup: Beer sales banned at all game venues, FIFA confirms
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Doha, Qatar — The sale of all alcohol at the eight stadiums used for soccer’s World Cup tournament in Qatar has been banned, the sport’s international governing body FIFA said on Friday, just two days before the games begin. The organization said in a statement that the decision to ban alcohol sales came “following discussions between host country authorities and FIFA.”
The last-minute change in plans will see alcoholic drinks banned from the “FIFA Fan Festival, other fan destinations and licensed venues, removing sales points of beer from Qatar’s FIFA World Cup 2022 stadium perimeters.”
Non-alcoholic beer will still be available for fans at the 64 matches.
Budweiser’s parent company, AB InBev, pays tens of millions of dollars at each World Cup for exclusive rights to sell beer. The company’s partnership with FIFA started at the 1986 tournament.
As news of the ban broke on Friday, a post briefly appeared on Budweiser’s official Twitter account, reading: “Well, this is awkward.” The post was removed not long after.
When Qatar — a conservative Muslim nation where alcohol and homosexuality are both generally illegal — launched its bid to host the World Cup, the country agreed to respect FIFA’s commercial partners, and again when signing contracts after winning the vote in 2010.
At the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, the host country was forced to change a law to allow alcohol sales in stadiums.
AB InBev’s deal with FIFA was renewed in 2011 — after Qatar was controversially picked as host — in a two-tournament package through 2022. However, the Belgium-based brewer has faced uncertainty in recent months on the exact details of where it can serve and sell beer in Qatar.
An agreement was announced in September for beer with alcohol to be sold within the stadium perimeters before and after games. Only alcohol-free Bud Zero would be sold in the stadium concourses for fans to drink in their seats in branded cups.
Last weekend, AB InBev was left surprised by a new policy insisted on by Qatari organizers to move beer stalls to less visible locations within the perimeter.
Budweiser was also to be sold in the evenings only at the official FIFA fan zone in downtown Al Bidda Park, where up to 40,000 fans can gather to watch games on giant screens. The price was confirmed as $14 for a beer.
Ab InBev did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The company will be based at an upscale hotel in the West Bay area of Doha with its own branded nightclub for the tournament.[ad_2]
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Roger Bennett on ethical complexities of 2022 World Cup, U.S. men’s national team preview
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Rights group estimates
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It may only be about the size of Connecticut, but huge oil reserves have made the Middle Eastern nation of Qatar one of the wealthiest in the world. The riches enabled the tiny nation to pour more than $200 billion into eight state-of-the-art, air-conditioned soccer stadiums and accompanying infrastructure to host more than a million spectators for soccer’s 2022 World Cup.
But to build its World Cup legacy, Qatar has relied on an army of migrant workers, mostly from South Asia and Africa. Thousands toiled for years in temperatures up to 120 degrees, crammed into crowded, squalid residential camps near the venues they were building.
“They’re like anyone else in the world,” Mustafa Qadri, founder of the Equidem organization, which investigates labor abuses, told CBS News. “You want to have a better life than your parents. You want your children to go to college to have a better life than you. So, you’re desperate for an opportunity.”
Opportunity presented itself when Qatar’s bid with international soccer’s governing body FIFA controversially won, and the Arab nation was awarded the 2022 World Cup.
Qadri said that has made it a tournament “dependent on migrant workers, because they’re cheap. And migrant workers are cheap because they’re being exploited.”
He told CBS News that he was arrested in Qatar while researching conditions for the migrant workers there, which he said included forced labor, workers going unpaid for months at a time, and unsafe work sites — with deadly results.
“I think hundreds of workers have died to make this World Cup possible,” Qadri said, though he admits it’s impossible to determine a precise figure.
Emran Khan came from Bangladesh to find his opportunity in Qatar, but he told CBS News that he found himself working shifts of up to 48 hours straight on buildings including Lusail Stadium — where the World Cup final will be held.
Hassan Ammar/AP
“I had no choices,” he said. “Workers had no choice. No rights.”
He told us he was paid about $350 per month — half of what he was originally promised, but if he made any complaints against the contractor who hired him, “they just say ‘go back, pack your clothes and go back’” to Bangladesh.
Budhan Pandit left his home in Nepal to build roads in Qatar. He had been sending money back to his family, before he was killed in an accident last year.
Family handout
His widow Urmila told us in a video call from her home that her family received no compensation, just her husband’s body. They’ve fallen deeper into poverty, she said, and sometimes can’t afford food.
Labor and human rights groups want Qatar to set up a fund to compensate injured and unpaid workers, and the families of those who have been killed.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have demanded that FIFA and Qatar both sign up to a $440 million workers’ compensation fund.
“The legacy of this World Cup 2022 depends on whether Qatar remedies with FIFA the deaths and other abuses of migrant workers who built the tournament, carries out recent labor reforms, and protects human rights for all in Qatar — not just for visiting fans and footballers,” Human Rights Watch researcher Rothna Begum told French news agency AFP.
This month, Qatar rejected that suggestion of a compensation fund as “publicity stunt.” The country has claimed to be the a victim of a “smear campaign” based on Western arrogance and “misinformation” since it won the bid to host the championship.
Qadri said it was “really conflicting… knowing that we’re going to watch our teams that we love play, and at the same time, this is all made possible because of this incredible exploitation.”
Mustafa said it was “really conflicting… knowing that we’re going to watch our teams that we love play, and at the same time, this is all made possible because of this incredible exploitation.”
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