As the flagship tournament of the world’s most popular sport, the FIFA World Cup has an unparalleled global reach. As a result, promoting cultural exchange, ensuring the health, security and safety of attendees and providing an inclusive tournament experience were established as the cornerstones of the World Cup in Qatar.
World Cup firsts: social impact
Human rights reporting mechanism
This was the first World Cup at which a dedicated Human Rights Grievance Mechanism was made available to all participants and attendees.
Human rights volunteers
Qatar 2022 also saw the introduction of human rights volunteers. Almost 100 human rights volunteers and team leaders worked across all tournament sites to assess and address the experiences of spectators and local communities.
Audio-descriptive commentary
This was the first World Cup to offer audio-descriptive commentary for blind and partially sighted fans through the internet. The service was available in English and Arabic for all 64 matches, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies.
Sensory rooms
This was the first World Cup to provide sensory rooms for people with autism and sensory access requirements.
Workers’ welfare and labour rights team
This was the first World Cup to establish a dedicated workers’ welfare and labour rights team to oversee the protection of labour rights from the day construction began through to tournament delivery.
First-of-its-kind Workers’ Welfare Standards (WWS)
Hospitality was the first nonconstruction sector to implement the WWS, with a 14% increase in the compliance score across 134 hotels.
Campaigns
Football’s unifying power took centre stage at Qatar 2022, with a series of tournament specific campaigns launched to address important elements of FIFA’s vision–all under the Football Unites the World umbrella.
The Football Unites the World campaign saw FIFA team up with several past and present icons of the game and a range of international partners and organisations to promote and highlight causes such as anti-discrimination, sustainability and education during the showpiece event in Qatar.
In a groundbreaking move, FIFA and three United Nations organisations–the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization–ran separate campaigns during each round of matches at the tournament as part of FIFA’s commitment to use football’s influence to have a positive social impact.
Social campaigns in action
Inclusivity and accessibility
FIFA established requirements to ensure that all of the FIFA World Cup sites and events were accessible. The adapted site designs and operational services made Qatar 2022 a fully inclusive tournament. Stadiums were fitted with accessible infrastructure, including dedicated accessible parking and priority lanes, toilets, routes, resting points, concession lines and seating, while mobility assistance services were provided across all eight stadiums.
A record number of special access tickets were sold at Qatar 2022. Accessibility ticket holders gave the accessibility provision a 4.5/5 satisfaction rating.
Antidiscrimination
All tournament staff, volunteers and private security personnel were trained in the areas of antidiscrimination and cultural sensitivity. Human rights and antidiscrimination assessors attended all matches to support therealtime identification of both prohibited and permissible messages. Each of the 64 matches was observed by two antidiscrimination match observers.
During all matches, the FIFA Anti-Discrimination Monitoring System and the three-step procedure, which is available to referees in the event of serious discriminatory incidents, were implemented.
The NO DISCRIMINATION education, awareness and action campaign was rolled out, with a special focus on International Human Rights Day on 10 December, which coincided with the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 quarter-final matches.
Social media protection service
FIFA and FIFPRO launched a moderation service aimed at protecting players competing at the FIFA World Cup from receiving abuse on social media during the tournament, tracking hate and trying to enforce rules against harmful posts.
Social media protection service at work
major platforms implemented the service (Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/YouTube/TikTok).
comments were scanned for abusive, discriminatory and threatening content.
comments of an abusive, discriminatory or threatening nature were reported directly to the relevant social media company.
team/player accounts opted in for comments to be moderated and hidden on their behalf.