Reclaim the Game!
From the World Cup to the Olympic Games, fans around the world are thrilled by the spectacle of major sporting events. But not everyone involved has reason to celebrate. Politicians and the sports industry are often handed a red card when it comes to important issues like human rights and climate protection.
The 2022 Men’s World Cup in Qatar raises this critique to a new level. The inhumane working conditions and glaring misuse of resources in the run-up to the event, along with the ongoing persecution of queer people in the country, raise fundamental questions about the sustainability of professional football. In this dossier, we take a closer look at Qatar’s rampant exploitation of migrant workers, analyse gender discrimination on the pitch, and ask what Karl Marx would have said about the modern sports industry.
