Will the 2022 World Cup be Relocated?

The demands to relocate the 2022 Men’s FIFA World Cup tournament from Qatar to another country are being reignited amid a report obtained exclusively by Fox News that casts doubts on the integrity of the Gulf state’s reporting of COVID-19 cases.

“An internal memo… conducted by a leading construction company in Qatar working on FIFA World Cup projects raised concerns that many of its laborers who were infected, died, but were not reported as COVID deaths,” the London-based Cornerstone Global Associates wrote in its report.

The 10-page document titled “COVID-19: Will FIFA World Cup 2022 go ahead in Qatar?” notes that “by the middle of August 2020, Qatar has suffered the world’s highest coronavirus infection rate in the world per head of population.”

Cornerstone said, “Qatar claims only 201 deaths from Coronavirus, suggesting a mortality rate of 0.17%... a mortality rate grossly under-estimated.” According to Johns Hopkins University, Qatar has suffered at least 216 total deaths and 126,339 total cases

Qatar has faced allegations that it bribed FIFA officials to secure the World Cup. In April 2020, the US Department of Justice issued an indictment, alleging that 3 South American members of FIFA’s 2010 executive committee accepted bribes to vote for Qatar to host the 2020 event.