Qatar 2022......

Football, really, is the least of it. Even so, for those who still think the most troubling aspect of holding a World Cup in Qatar is the heat or the date, there have been sobering developments in the Gulf.
To be precise, 43 of them. Across 27 pages, it is spelled out: 43 individuals, charities, government-backed organisations, senior public figures, newspapers, television platforms, all linking Qatar directly and in detail with the fermentation of terror. And this isn't a document cooked up by the CIA or MI5, no act of wartime justification or dodgy western dossier.
This came as part of a press release from Qatar's regional neighbours —Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain — to support their decision to break off diplomatic relations and blockade borders.

They have closed the only land route into Qatar, they will refuse to allow use of their sea ports or airspace. If it wasn't for FIFA and the supine, greedy West, those harbouring terror on the peninsula would barely have any friends left.
The '43 designations' which 'specifically address threats posed by Qatar linked and based Al Qaeda terrorism support networks' may seem to have little to do with a football tournament more than five years away. We'll get to that. But don't think of it as a remote crisis or just another quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing. Let's make it real for you. Let's make it really real.
One of the designated is Abdel Hakim Belhaj. In 2004, he was accused by Spanish security authorities of complicity in the Madrid bombings, which killed 192 and injured 2,000. Spain claimed Belhaj had been in contact with members of the cell prior to the attack.
According to the report, he later became 'military commander and a leader of Al Qaeda's Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG)'. In 2007, Ayman al-Zawahiri, then Al Qaeda's second in command, called him 'the Emir of the Mujahideen' when announcing the merger of Al Qaeda and the LIFG.
Despite this, in 2010, Qatar permitted Belhaj to move to its capital Doha after his release from a Libyan prison. During the Libyan uprisings in 2011, Belhaj commanded the Tripoli Revolutionaries Brigade, a Libyan militia armed and trained by Qatari special forces units. And fighting with Belhaj in western Libya was Ramadan Abedi and his son, Salman.
On May 22, 2017, Salman Abedi walked into the foyer of the Manchester Arena following a concert by Ariana Grande and detonated a bomb, killing 22.

So there it is: a direct link between Qatar's fostering of terror and a murderous attack on British soil. This is the country that FIFA's members must indulge in 2022.
Now on to the football. One of the organisations designated in the report is the Qatar Centre for Voluntary Activity (QCVA). It is claimed its secretary-general provided official Qatari government support and supervision for fundraising initiatives led by United States and United Nations-sanctioned Qatari Al Qaeda supporters.
The QCVA operates under Qatar's Ministry of Culture and Sports. It has announced it will prepare volunteers to support the World Cup.
Also designated, Abd al-Rahman bin Umayr al-Nuaimi and the Eid charity he founded. 'The US Department of the Treasury described al-Nuaimi as providing millions of dollars to Al Qaeda in Iraq.
'He also provided hundreds of thousands of dollars to Al Qaeda members in Syria, al-Shabaab members from Somalia, and to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula via a charity in Yemen. In December 2016, he issued a public call for support in the form of weapons, men, and money for jihadist militants in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.'
And here's what they say about al-Nuaimi's charity. 'The Qatar-based Eid charity has a history of working with and supporting organizations and individuals associated with Al Qaeda.

'It falls under the oversight of the Qatari Regulatory Authority for Charitable Activities and the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs [and] appears on a list of official charitable organizations endorsed by Qatar's government.'
And why should al-Nuaimi be of interest to us? One of his previous roles was head of the Qatar Football Association. FIFA cannot pretend their own ties to Qatar do not intersect with the promotion of terror.
Sport has been a significant vehicle in widening Qatar's influence, whether hosting (2006 Asian Games, 2019 IAAF World Championships, 2022 World Cup), sponsoring (Barcelona, Glorious Goodwood) or owning (Paris Saint-Germain, Qatar Racing).
In a society with such an influential elite, it is unimaginable that complex paths will not cross. In 2012, for instance, Abdulaziz bin Khalifa al-Attiyah was arrested in Lebanon for providing financial support to Al Qaeda militants in Syria. In 2013, al-Attiyah solicited donations for fundraising initiatives led by sanctioned Al Qaeda facilitators.
He has used social media to express support for Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, and endorse al-Nusra Front attacks in Syria. Al-Attiyah previously served as the head of the Qatar Billiards and Snooker Federation and was a member of the Qatar Olympic Committee. He was appointed to this role by Qatar's Emir, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the most powerful man in the country and, effectively, FIFA's World Cup host.
One immediate ramification of the blockade is to slow progress on World Cup construction sites. There are nine stadiums being built, each requiring significant local infrastructure. A nation currently stocking up on food may soon run short of building materials, with sea ports closed and increased logistical issues for Qatar Airways, a significant FIFA commercial partner.

FIFA's position, meanwhile — like that of British racing, which has a £100million sponsorship deal with Qatar Investment & Projects Development Holding Company — is strictly head in the sand. FIFA's only response to the new designation report is a bland, irrelevant statement saying it is in regular contact with the Qatar 2022 local organising committee.
It isn't good enough, this pretence. Qatar is a patriarchal, hierarchical society. The people charged with organising a major event are from the same elite ranks as some of those named in the designation report.
Take away the young and the elderly. Take away the common man. Take away women. What is left is the smallest sliver of Qatari life, empowered to run the country, to decide who has a platform, who is offered shelter, who is supported, endorsed and financed.
What the report makes plain is the designated and those who know them are not outliers in Qatari society. Often, they are at its heart. By endorsing Qatar, FIFA and football endorses them, too.
And consider this: if the other Gulf states are prepared to jeopardise the biggest event ever staged in the region, how much more do they know, but cannot yet say?

Martin Samuel.

It's a bit too long to read but you've got Saudia Arabia, UAE, Egypt and Bahrain having a go and they are hardly the best on human rights and any rights whatsoever.

lets see if Fifa continue to endorse Terrorism because they are putting the whole football world in immediate danger by endorsing this countries hosting of the 2022 world cup. Every day it draws nearer the threat of a catastrophe looms larger.

Topdawg wrote:It's a bit too long to read but you've got Saudia Arabia, UAE, Egypt and Bahrain having a go and they are hardly the best on human rights and any rights whatsoever.

Lazy bastard....it's 5 paragraphs!

Too busy today mate.

Look, so many countries sponsor terrorism with the good ole USA being at the top of the list. But I don't really want to get involved with a geo-political argument on a footy forum!

Then don't.

It's about footy.

The OP is a lot about terrorism though

He had to lay the back story to expose the absurdity of FIFA continuing to blindly ignore what's going on over there. The mention of the Motor racing is a good point too, throw enough money at people and line the pockets of certain influential people in organisations and they will ignore anything, greedy bastards.