The football world cup in Qatar 2022: sportswashing and event preparedness

This article starts from Weick and Sutcliffe's five principles for "mindful management" and uses these on the phenomenon of sportswashing and on the football World Cup in Qatar in 2022. The application of the principles to the preparedness and crisis management of the football organizations FIFA and the Norwegian Football Association (NFF) shows that 1) the various stakeholders must have a competence and preparedness so that they can detect unacceptable deficiencies and errors on the part of the organizers of championships at an early stage, 2) that it is still uncertain whether human rights and the implementation of new regulations for migrant workers will continue to be football's focus, 3) that past corruption and crime in FIFA and human rights abuses in the host country Qatar have so far grabbed the attention away from football's "raison d'etre", 4) that it may be possible to prevent and deal with unfortunate events and crises if one develops a more "resilient" or resistant organisation, and 5) that including the football expertise of the various nations and democratizing decision-making processes has the potential to reduce corruption.