This Is How Germany Led a ‘Counter-Attack’ Against the World Cup in Qatar

The mix of politics and sports is making a strong show at the World Cup in Qatar, which kicked off on November 20 and runs until December 18, 2022, as a major event in the Middle East and Arab and Islamic countries.

Qatar, which represents Arab and Islamic countries and peoples, has enjoyed this global carnival and has fought and continues to engage in multiple battles with regional and international parties that hated to see Doha in this mega event.

Germany is one of the most prominent countries that met Qatar’s great success in organizing the World Cup through a “counter-attack,” which mobilized its government and media against Doha under flimsy pretexts.

This has raised questions about why Berlin is involved in this campaign against the culture and values of Qatar and the Arab and Islamic world, despite its silence about controversial countries such as China and Russia hosting other sporting events.

 

German Attack

While the world was watching the opening ceremony of the 2022 World Cup inside the Al Bayt stadium in the Qatari capital, Doha, the German channel ZDF engaged in attacking the Qatari authorities.

In an unprecedented move, the state channel hosted, during its broadcast of the opening ceremony of the World Cup, an official of the international human rights organization Human Rights Watch instead of hosting sports analysts as usual.

The channel showed a video report on violations in the construction of stadiums and discrimination against homosexuals.

It was remarkable that there was great indignation inside the studio with the appearance of the participation of the famous American actor Morgan Freeman at the opening ceremony.

Prior to that, on October 27, 2022, German Interior Minister Nancy Weisser attacked a Qatari official after he criticized the campaign to promote homosexuality at the World Cup.

In statements to German television, she commented on the statements of a former Qatari football player, one of the ambassadors of the 2022 World Cup, Khalid Salman, saying: “We are facing terrible expressions.”

She stepped up her attack, adding, “Qatar’s hosting of the World Cup is very difficult for the German government.”

She reinforced her racist rhetoric by saying: “There are standards that must be adhered to, and it is better not to give the honor of organizing tournaments to such countries,” which many considered a racist and superficial discourse that deserves condemnation.

In response, on October 28, 2022, Doha summoned the German ambassador to it, informing him of its total rejection of the minister’s “unacceptable, reprehensible, and provocative statements to the Qatari people.”

The Qatari government said that “the Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the German ambassador to the country and handed him an official protest note, in which it expressed Qatar’s disappointment and total rejection and condemnation of the statements of the German Interior Minister regarding Qatar’s hosting of the World Cup.”

It added in a statement that “the Secretary-General of the ministry, Ahmed bin Hassan Al-Hammadi, handed over this protest note,” demanding “clarifications regarding these statements.”

The Qatari government considered the German official’s behavior contrary to norms and traditions and unfair to a region that has been suffering from an unjust stereotype for decades.

It was the first time Doha had ever summoned an ambassador to protest a statement by an official in his country about hosting the World Cup.

Although these campaigns have been repeated since their selection to host the World Cup in 2010, they reverberated significantly just before the start of the World Cup, with Germany at the forefront of the attackers.

 

FIFA Intervenes

The German attack against Qatar was not limited to Arabs and Muslims, but Western voices also denounced this arrogant rhetoric.

Foremost among these voices was FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who came out at a press conference on November 19, the day before the opening night of the World Cup, to comment on the matter.

Infantino criticized the way many strange media outlets treated Qatar.

“How many of these European companies who earn millions and millions from Qatar or other countries in the region—billions every year—how many of them have addressed migrant worker rights? I have the answer: none of them,” he said.

“The one-sided moral lesson is just hypocrisy.”

The international official stressed that “As Qatar is a sovereign country, it does not need advice or interventions about workers’ rights. Many international institutions have recognized that labor rights standards in the State of Qatar are similar to labor rights standards in Europe. Thus, it is better to stop the criticism and focus on improving the conditions of its immigrants.”

The press conference came a day after DFB President Bernd Neuendorf announced on November 18 that “Berlin will not support Infantino’s re-election in 2023 as FIFA president.”

Neuendorf claimed this was due to “FIFA’s handling of human rights issues in Qatar.”

 

‘Gay Team’

On November 23, Germany sought to pass on biased messages during their first World Cup match against Japan.

The German players put their hands over their mouths when taking the group photo before kick-off.

German media claimed the move was “in protest against FIFA over its ban on wearing the homosexuality badge in stadiums.”

Ironically, Germany lost the match to Japan 2-1, which activists attributed to the German government’s distraction of players with issues outside the framework of football.

Activists linked the German defeat to the political messages that the German government wanted to convey through its team, and the hashtag “gay team” topped most Arab platforms.

Germany had demanded that slogans be placed in support of homosexuality in the Qatar World Cup, while media reported that Doha refused an entry of the German team’s plane to its airspace due to slogans raised in support of homosexuality.

Not only that, but the German interior minister herself circumvented Qatar’s laws governing the World Cup and appeared wearing the perversion support badge on her arms after taking off her coat in the stands of the match stadium.

In response to the minister’s provocative behavior, which activists described as “Western arrogance,” the Arab fans who came to watch the match at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha put the Palestinian keffiyeh on their arms.

 

Dimensions of Disagreement

Observers believe that the German escalation against Qatar in the World Cup, which Doha has long worked to host and prepare, is due to deeper political reasons.

Since May 2022, German-Qatari disputes have clearly escalated due to stalled talks of long-term agreements to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Doha to Berlin.

At the time, Germany was reluctant to accept Qatar’s terms of signing agreements for periods of at least 20 years to secure the huge volumes of liquefied gas it needed to reduce its dependence on Russian gas.

Qatar has set conditions, including a destination condition, which prevents Berlin from reshipping gas to other parts of Europe, a condition opposed by the European Union as well as Germany, which has already been angered by the condition.

The European website Euronews reported on May 9 that Qatar, the world’s leading exporter of liquefied natural gas, has been strongly intransigent in its negotiations with German companies.

Germany, the economic locomotive of the old continent, has hoped to ease the challenges the EU faces in its ambition to diversify away from Russian gas.

This has created a gap between the two countries, although large-scale economic cooperation continues.

Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund invests $20 billion in Germany, holding stakes in car giant Volkswagen and Deutsche Bank.

The extent of the contradictions in the German position and its hypocrisy in this regard is illustrated by the fact that Berlin has done nothing and has quietly engaged in previous sports competitions in controversial countries such as China and Russia that have committed horrific and real human rights violations.

Like its participation in the Winter Olympics held in China in February 2022, Berlin did not talk at the time about human rights and the absolute repression by the Chinese Communist Party against the Uyghur Muslim minority.

Before that, it participated in the 2018 World Cup in Russia without making any noise as it did in Doha due to its economic interests and its involvement with Moscow in the procurement and construction of Nord Stream gas pipelines.

 

Unethical Pragmatism

In his reading of the scene, political researcher Dr. Mohammed Al-Abbasi said, “Germany set the biggest example of rotten pragmatism regarding its fierce attack on Qatar before the start of the 2022 World Cup, under the pretext of workers’ and homosexual rights.”

Abbasi added to Al-Estiklal: “The situation in Russia was much worse, and Russia’s file in terms of human rights is not compared to Qatar or many countries, yet the European Union, and Germany itself, turned a blind eye to all this, for the sake of common interests at the time.”

He continued: “This is the same reason that made Germany attack Qatar. Look for the word ‘interests.’ It wanted to provide liquefied gas from Doha and make itself the center of launching that gas to Europe, and when Qatar refused, Germany turned over and found an opportunity to attack Qatar in the great international forum.”

On the other hand, Abbasi points out that “the white European man now considers himself the patron of modern values, of absolute freedom in everything, down to homosexuality and pornography, and claims that everyone should fully believe in this new religion in the era of globalization.”

On the contrary, Abbasi pointed out that Germany is one of the largest arms exporters to authoritarian governments and regimes that participated in killing their people and igniting proxy wars.

He continued: “You will find German weapons stained with blood from the Middle East to the jungles of Africa, and then they tell you about rights and freedoms that are fragmented out of context, and everyone knows that they are to pass special and narrow interests, in unparalleled blackmail operations.”

The political researcher stressed that “Qatar is a country that is aware of its interests and preserves its identity, and given the nature of its small and conservative society, the melting of this society represents a danger axis for the state as a whole, not just the ruling regime.”