THE 2022 QATAR WORLD CUP

78% of people who voted on the BBC Sports Poll agreed that the Qatar World Cup was the best world cup of the 21st century. Seeing Messi crowned champion was a special moment for fans around the world, whilst England faced heartbreak once again. However, the tournament was full of controversy from human rights abuses, corruption and homophobic abuse.

The Qatar World Cup was highly criticised due to Qatar’s stance on same-sex relationships. Qatar became the first Arab nation to host a FIFA World Cup, and one of the most debated issues was FIFA’s decision to award hosting rights to a country that prohibits homosexuality by law. The official religion of Qatar is Islam and so Islamic law is entwined within the country’s constitution. Under the Penal code of 2004, same-sex intercourse is criminalised with a maximum sentence of seven years. The public broke out in outrage as they felt the host nation was non-inclusive. This was heightened when former Qatari footballer and ambassador for the tournament Khakis Salman described homosexuality as “damage in the mind” during an interview with German media. Football fans and commentators expressed how Qatar does not reflect the ethos of football. In an attempt to reduce the promotion of this issue, they removed LGBTQIA+ symbols from the fans entering the stadium, such as rainbows and clothing which portrayed a similar message. FIFA released a statement asking nations to “focus on the football” weeks before the tournament was due to start. This received high levels of criticism from organisations, fans, pundits and commenters from around the world. Many teams planned to protest by wearing onelove captains’ armbands, but were persuaded against this, as any player showing such a symbol would be threatened with an immediate yellow card.

As we have seen, the decision for Qatar to host the World Cup was controversial, but questions were raised again after the death of migrant workers and further human rights abuses. The Qatar World Cup set a record for the highest infrastructure expenditure in FIFA history. It is estimated the Qatari government spent over $200 billion. This money was put towards eight new stadiums, accommodation, and new roads in the capital city Doha, where all 64 games were played.

The record of worker’s rights abuses and deaths of the workers has significantly ruined the reputation the of 2022 FIFA World Cup. The World Cup created a plethora of job opportunities (due to the need to create the infrastructure in time for the tournament) and thousands of migrant workers travelled to capitalise on this. Many came from developing countries like Nepal and Bangladesh. Many of these migrant workers were victims of labour rights abuses,living in poor conditions, with some workers reporting they were misled around the nature of their employment. Lots of companies operated a system called 'Kafala', which required them to sponsor workers to enter the country, but also prevented them from leaving their jobs without permission from their employers. Some thought they had engineering jobs but were forced into manual labour, other had their passports confiscated and many lived in cramped conditions. Over the last decade, there has been increased pressure from other nations to see reforms over labour laws in Qatar, including the abolition of the ‘Kafala system’ and an increase to the minimum wage. There are claims thousands of migrant workers died in Qatar but the official death total is unknown. Anindependent investigationfrom Amnesty International in 2021 claimed that as many as 15,000 migrant workers had died in World Cup-related circumstances. Meanwhile, aninvestigationfromThe Guardianin the same year claimed a total of 6500 deaths. However, fact-checkers have deemed the results of these investigations to bemisleadingas they are based on official figures from Qatar. In comparison,eight workers diedduring the construction or refurbishment of 12 venues at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. Due to the horrific abuses toward migrant workers, there were thousands of calls to boycott this World Cup. Despite many arguing it was perhaps one of the best tournaments for football, there is a big question as to whether the 2022 Qatar World Cup should have ever happened. FIFA has come under lots of scrutiny for allowing a nation like Qatar with extreme human rights laws to have ever been granted the right to host such a prestigious tournament. Hopefully, we will begin to see a change in the laws needed for such competitions so these tournaments can become inclusive for all.

Muhammad ibn Musa alKhwarizmi (780-850 AD)

Hecreatedacomprehensiveguidetothe numberingsystem,whichhederivedfromtheIndian Brahmisystemandusedonly10digits(zerotonine, theso-called'Arabicnumerals').Al-Khwarizmi likewiseutilisedthewordvariablebasedmath('aljabr')todepictthenumericaltaskshepresented,for example,adjustingconditions,whichhelpedinafew everydayissues.

Jabir ibn Hayyan

Jabirwasachemist,whomadeithisjourneyto makegoldfromdifferentmetals,andfoundsolid acids,forexample,sulfuric,hydrochloricandnitric acids.Aquaregis(royalwater),avolatilemixtureof hydrochloricandnitricacid,istheonlysubstance thatcandissolvegold,andhewasthefirstto discoverit.Jabircreatedalkalisthatinteractedwith theiracidiccounterpartsinordertocontrolthe monsterhehadcreated.Thisinteractionisnow referredtoasneutralisationinmodernchemistry.

Al-Battani

DespitehavingbeenfirstconceptualisedinOldGreece, Al-Battanifurthercreatedgeometryasafreepartof science,creatingconnections,forexample, tanø=sinø/cosø.HisgoalwastobeabletofindMecca fromanywhere,whichwouldhelpMuslimsperform Muslimritualslikeburialandprayer,whichrequire participantstofacetheholycity.Hewasanastronomer also,havingshowedthatthefarthestdistanceoftheSun fromtheEarthvariesand,asaresult,eclipsesthatoccur onayearlybasisoftheSunarepossibleaswellastotal eclipses,puttinglifeincompletedarknessforaperiodof time.

H

asan Ibn al-Haytham

Al-Haithamisviewedasoneoftheorganisersbehind currentoptics.PtolemyandAristotleestimatedthatlight eithersparkledfromtheeyetoenlightenitemsorthat lightradiatedfromobjectsthemselves.Al-Haitham,on theotherhand,proposedthatlightreachestheeyevia raysemanatingfromvariouspointsonanobject. ThelawsofrefractionwerediscoveredbyIbnal-Haytham afterhecarriedoutathoroughinvestigationintohow lighttravelsthroughvariousmaterials.Helikewisedidthe initialexaminationsonthescatteringoflightintoits constituenttones