The recent complaints about Qatar hosting the 2022 world cup has ruffled some feathers, namely with the LGBT rights and workers rights. However, for the 1934 World Cup, which was the second World Cup to have ever been played, it was hosted in Mussolini’s fascist Italy.
Backtracking to 1922, Mussolini took over Italy and ruled over it. He was known to be an oppressive and violent ruler. He killed political rivals and made some of his people ‘disappear. Italy at the time was seen as a 1984-esque police state.
He saw that with the World Cup it was an opportunity for him to promote his regime to the world. Furthermore, he was a fan of football as well. He wanted to show off to the world how efficient and well run Italy was under his strict regime.
Even back then, Italy was not seen as a suitable host due to the regime and their aggressive foreign policy. A more liberal country, Sweden was in the running of hosting the 1934 world cup but was lost to Italy. Some even rumoured that bribery was involved for Italy to win.
Giovanni Mauro, the head of Italian football, reportedly told FIFA prior to the vote that the government would cover any losses if Italy were to host such a competition. Even back then, FIFA was renowned for their determination on financial gains. That gave Italy the chance to host the games.
Nasser Al Khater fights back against Qatar World Cup criticism
It is pretty ironic that the media and the ‘woke’ crowd overlooked the history of the World Cup. The World Cup is strictly a football game. Even facist Italy had the opportunity to host the game, hence a controversial country with strict laws isn’t new in FIFA’s books.
Nasser Al Khater then stated that LGBT fans are allowed to display the pride flag and hold hands. However, he did warn that teams should not display any political ideologies and that FIFA will have to place their decisions on the “One Love” armbands.
Furthermore, there will be designated locations for drunken fans to sober up in order to not cause a commotion in the stadium. Al Khater also stated that 95% of the World Cup tickets have already been sold.
When asked about the workers rights in Qatar, Al Khater told SkySports that, “A lot of people that speak about this issue on workers’ welfare … are not experts in the industry. And they’re not experts in what they’re speaking about.
“And I feel that they feel obliged, that they need to speak. I think they need to really read and educate themselves a little bit more about what’s happening on the ground in Qatar.”
Social Media comments on the controversial Qatar rules
— Roxanne 💙💛🐋 (@roXyPS3) October 7, 2022
The poster of the tweet stated that Qatar shouldn’t host the 2022 world cup due to an image describing their strict rules. This was before the Al Khater’s response towards the whole situation. However, there were numerous people defending Qatar as they have different values over westernised countries.
There were other netizens stating that they dont 100% support Qatar’s strict rules but they wouldn’t want to force their narrative on another culture as well. However, it has been proven that the poster was fake news and the official posters actually welcome anyone regardless of who they are for the World Cup.