The world will be watching as Qatar hosts the 2022 World Cup ... for better or worse
DOHA, Qatar — The clock in the middle of Doha's scenic bayside promenade, which has been counting down to kickoff of the first fall World Cup, will hit 100 days on Saturday. To Malcolm Bidali, that was cause for neither celebration nor despair.
"I don't think the World Cup in Qatar is a bad thing," he said flatly. "Every country deserves hope to host the World Cup."
Even a country that imprisoned and fined Bidali for speaking out on widespread labor and human rights abuses? One in which homosexuality is against the law, press freedoms are restricted and the mildest public protest can result in a prison sentence?
"Here's the thing," Bidali said from his home in Kenya, where he returned after being released from a Qatari jail cell last summer. "If anyone wanted to do anything about anything, they would have done it the moment [a Qatar World Cup] was announced. That was 2010. People could have come out and said, 'OK, let's boycott this thing.'
"But now it's too late. Migrant workers would face retaliation. Qatar will say, 'Oh, we've lost the World Cup because of you migrant workers.' So it should definitely go on. But I think people
