The World Cup itself is ‘fundamentally unsustainable,’ but Qatar’s claims are particularly egregious.
[Source Photos: catalby/iStock/Getty Images Plus, Christopher Pike/Bloomberg/Getty Images Plus] By Talib Visram5 minute Read
Qatar’s upcoming World Cup has already been a human rights disaster, as the rapid construction of multiple stadiums has caused the reported deaths of 6,750 migrant workers since 2010 when FIFA awarded the tournament to Qatar. And there’s yet another controversial issue for soccer fans to face: its devastating environmental impact.
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Wherever they take place, World Cups generally produce high emissions due to the construction of stadiums, hotels, and updated infrastructure—plus the air travel of soccer teams and millions of spectators from around the world. But Qatar is claiming its November tournament will be the first-ever carbon-neutral World Cup. In response, an anti-carbon advertising campaign has conferred on the organizers of this year’s Men’s FIFA World Cup an ironic Bad Sports Award because of its greenwashing. The campaign calls Qatar’s claims dubious, casts doubt on its offset programs, and criticizes its fossil fuel sponsors.
Run by British think tank New Weather Institute, Badvertising is a campaign that pushes back against the advertising of fossil fuels and other high-carbon projects. It has recently started to highlight how these are promoted in sports advertising, which can be even more effective because of fans’ emotional connection to their teams, according to Freddie Daley, a research associate at the Centre for Global Political Economy at the University of Sussex.
The New Weather Institute’s inaugural Bad Sports Awards are a way of “making [entities] look as silly as they are,” says Daley, who’s also involved with the Badvertising campaign. New Weather Institute received nominations from across the world—everything from hockey franchises in North America to rugby teams in Australia. But the judging panel, which included climate scientists and advocates, decided to extend the most prestigious award—the overall winner of the Bad Sports Awards for Greenwash and Sportswash—to FIFA