What connection lies between sports and politics? Ideally, the answer should be absolutely none, but our world has found a way to unite the two. Most people use sports to escape from the hectic world, but an unhealthy parallel has been forming between sports and politics, disrupting the peace of sport-lovers.   Now that the FIFA 2022 World Cup has concluded, many say it has been the most fun sporting event witnessed in recent history. But with the excitement came the negativity and political side of the event through the media discussing Qatar and its controversies. 

The world cup kicked off excitingly but was quickly overshadowed by the Qatar human rights issues. Press released tons of details surrounding the thousands of deaths of migrant workers while building the World Cup stadiums. Intense labor in brutal conditions led migrant workers to die during construction, bringing Qatar’s everlasting human rights issues to light. Although Qatar is utterly wrong in this situation, the constant news of the unfortunate circumstances made viewers feel guilty for appreciating the sport, knowing that people died in the process.

More political controversies came to light, too. Qatar has strict laws against the LGBTQ community. Many fans were unaware, which caused chaos when people were trying to enter the stadium with rainbow-colored clothing showing support for the LGBTQ community. Two German fans were stopped and restricted from entry, leading the German national team to cover their mouths in a team photo protesting FIFA’s censorship. More players were threatened with yellow cards if they wore OneLove LGBTQ armbands, revealing FIFA’s issue with player censorship, again taking away from the event itself. Although censorship and exclusion of LGBTQ fans are morally incorrect, the negative attention took away from the sport. The more players and fans contribute to political issues, the more it takes away from the event itself. 

Whether we should take all politics out of sports is still in question, and nobody really knows the answer. However, after this fantastic experience, I know that when political agendas leak into arenas, the true purpose of sports --  unity and peace -- is chipped away.