2022 FIFA World Cup

• 1. Introduction

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  The 2022 FIFA World Cup ended on the 18th of December, Qatar's National Day, with a final that many observers called the greatest match in the tournament's nearly century-long history. Argentina and France played to a 3-3 draw after extra time, with a hat-trick in the final from Kylian Mbappé and two goals from Lionel Messi, before Argentina took the trophy on penalties. But the tournament was remarkable long before that final whistle. It was the first World Cup held in the Middle East, the first staged outside the traditional months of May, June, and July, and the most expensive sporting event ever organised, at an estimated cost of over $220 billion. The questions that would follow it home were just as large: how did Qatar get to host a World Cup in the first place, who built the stadiums, and what really happened on the pitch across 64 matches in 29 days?

• 2. How Qatar Won the Bid

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  On the 2nd of December 2010, the 22-member FIFA Executive Committee gathered in Zürich, Switzerland to vote on who would host the 2022 World Cup. Five bids remained: Australia, Japan, Qatar, South Korea, and the United States. Qatar won in the fourth round of voting, beating the United States 11 votes to 8. Two executive committee members had already been suspended before the vote over corruption allegations. The decision was graded internally by FIFA as carrying "high operational risk", and it drew immediate criticism from media commentators who linked it to the broader FIFA corruption scandals that would culminate in the 2015 FIFA corruption case. Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter later stated twice that awarding Qatar the hosting rights was a "mistake". In August 2018, Blatter claimed Qatar had used "black ops" to secure the bid. Court documents reported in September 2023 showed a transfer of $300 million to people who voted on the host selection. A Netflix documentary series called "FIFA Uncovered" featured allegations from Phaedra Almajid, a former media officer for Qatar's bid, who claimed that three African football officials were each offered €2.3 million in exchange for their votes. Al Thawadi, who led Qatar's bid, denied those allegations entirely.

• 3. Building a Tournament

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  Seven of the eight stadiums used at the tournament were built from scratch between 2010 and 2022; the eighth, Khalifa International Stadium, was heavily renovated. All five stadium projects launched initially were designed by the German architecture firm Albert Speer & Partners. The largest venue, Lusail Stadium, which held 88,966 spectators and hosted the final, broke ground on the 11th of April 2017 and was completed on the 21st of November 2021. Stadium 974 in Doha was designed to be the first temporary stadium ever used at a FIFA World Cup, built from 974 shipping containers and intended for dismantling after the tournament; as of November 2024 it still stood abandoned on its original site. The stadiums were equipped with cooling systems intended to lower internal temperatures by up to 20 degrees Celsius. Qatar's Supreme Committee described plans to donate upper tiers of the stadiums to countries with less developed sports infrastructure after the event. Concerns about migrant workers building that infrastructure drew sustained international attention. Amnesty International used the phrase "forced labour" to describe conditions, while The Guardian reported that workers had their identity papers taken away and were not paid on time. Surveying 1,000 workers shortly before the tournament, 86% said that labour reforms had improved their lives. Between 2015 and 2021, Qatar adopted new labour reforms including a minimum wage and the removal of the kafala sponsorship system, though Amnesty International maintained that actual working conditions had not significantly improved.

• 4. Firsts and Records on the Pitch

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  France's Stéphanie Frappart became the first female referee to officiate a men's World Cup match when she worked the Costa Rica vs Germany group-stage fixture on the 1st of December. She was joined by Rwanda's Salima Mukansanga and Japan's Yoshimi Yamashita, plus three female assistant referees, Neuza Back, Kathryn Nesbitt, and Karen Díaz Medina. Iranian goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand suffered the tournament's first concussion substitution, a rule change that allowed dedicated substitutions for head injuries without reducing a team's regular quota. Qatar themselves became the first host nation to lose their opening match, fell in two games, and finished as the first home side ever knocked out after three group-stage losses. Morocco's run through the knockout rounds carried history in a different direction: they became the first African nation and the first Arab nation to reach the semi-finals of a World Cup. Their 1-0 quarter-final victory over Portugal, sealed by Youssef En-Nesyri, and subsequent 4th-place finish represented the best World Cup result ever achieved by an African or Arab team. Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo scored a penalty against Ghana to become the first man to score in five different World Cups. The tournament set a record for goals in the 32-team format, with 172 total and every participating team scoring at least once.

• 5. Argentina, Messi, and the Final

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  Argentina's opening group-stage result looked catastrophic: Lionel Messi scored a penalty against Saudi Arabia in the first half, but second-half goals from Saleh Al-Shehri and Salem Al-Dawsari produced a 2-1 Saudi win that media described as one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history. Argentina recovered, won their remaining group games, and navigated quarter-final and semi-final penalty shootouts before reaching the final against defending champions France. In the final itself, Argentina led 2-0 after a Messi goal and an Ángel Di María strike. France did not register a shot until after the 70th minute, but substitute-driven pressure and two Mbappé goals within two minutes of each other drew them level. Messi scored his second goal in the 108th minute of extra time, only for Mbappé to convert a second penalty in the 115th to force a shootout. Argentina scored all four of their penalties and won 4-2. It was Argentina's third World Cup title and their first since 1986, and they became only the second team (after Spain in 2010) to win the tournament after losing their opening game. Argentine captain Messi was voted the tournament's best player, winning his second Golden Ball. Teammates Emiliano Martínez won the Golden Glove and Enzo Fernández took the Young Player Award, making Argentina the winner of four of the major individual prizes.

• 6. Mbappé and the Records He Rewrote

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  Kylian Mbappé finished the tournament with eight goals, enough to win the Golden Boot ahead of Messi's seven. His hat-trick in the final made him only the second player in history to score three goals in a World Cup final; the first was Geoff Hurst for England in the 1966 final. Mbappé also became the first player to score in two consecutive World Cup finals since Brazil's Vavá, who scored in both the 1958 and 1962 finals. Despite those records and 8 goals from a player on the losing side, France had actually been the defending champions entering the tournament, having beaten Croatia 4-2 in the 2018 final. France's run to a second consecutive final made them the first defending champions to reach the semi-finals since Brazil in 1998. The Silver Ball for second-best player went to Mbappé, with Croatia's Luka Modrić taking the Bronze Ball. France's Olivier Giroud collected the Bronze Boot with four goals; in the group stage, Giroud's goal against Australia tied him with Thierry Henry as France's all-time top scorer.

• 7. Controversy and Cultural Context

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  Qatar is the smallest nation by area ever to have hosted a FIFA World Cup; the next smallest, Switzerland, hosted in 1954 and was more than three times larger while managing just 16 teams instead of 32. The estimated hosting cost of over $220 billion was disputed by Qatari officials including organising CEO Nasser Al Khater, who put the figure at $8 billion, attributing the rest to general infrastructure development since 2010. On alcohol, which is restricted to non-Muslim guests at selected luxury hotels under normal Qatari law, organisers planned to allow sales at stadiums and fan villages, but in the months before the tournament those plans were reversed. Designated "sobering-up" zones were created as an alternative. LGBT fans faced a more uncertain situation; Qatari officials initially said rainbow flags would be allowed, but those statements were later walked back, and homosexuality remained illegal in the country. Swiss media outlet SRF Investigativ published an investigation on the 2nd of November 2022 describing an espionage operation called Project Merciless, which allegedly involved hacking the emails and phones of FIFA officials and critics of Qatar, including their family members. A cyberattack traced to a server linked to Indian hack-for-hire firm Appin targeted Peter Hargitay, a Zurich-based FIFA consultant for Australia's World Cup bid, starting on the 5th of January 2012. The total prize pool for the 2022 tournament was $440 million, $40 million more than the 2018 edition, with the champions collecting $42 million and even group-stage exits earning at least $9 million per team.