Episode list

With the announcement that the 2018 and 2022 World Championships will be awarded together, a rigorous battle between the nations for the lucrative sporting event begins. Secret services, PR agencies and entire state apparatuses are involved. Nine applicants are vying for the 2022 World Cup and thus for the favor of the FIFA Executive Members. Research and criminal investigations show today that some football officials saw this award as an opportunity to recklessly profit from the World Cup award. The result: allegations of corruption and investigations to this day. Episode 1 traces the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to the desert emirate and provides an insight into the awarding practices of the World Football Association.

The host of the World Cup, Qatar, has been criticized primarily for its treatment of guest workers. FIFA could have made decent work a condition for awarding the World Cup, but it didn't. Massive human rights violations have been documented since the stadiums and other infrastructure were built for the World Cup. Extortionate agency fees, wage robbery and thousands of dead workers whose causes of death are still unclear to this day.

Hosting major sporting events is state doctrine in Qatar. The aim of this doctrine is to lead the country into the future and to secure it in terms of defense policy. The central element of the strategy is the 2022 World Cup: for these reasons, too, the application was based in Qatar at the highest political level. Since the World Cup was awarded, the country has increased its investments in the sport, for example it is a sponsor of Bayern Munich, FIFA and UEFA, and also owns Paris St. Germain. Above all, the acquisition of the French club has changed football in Europe significantly. Episode 3 shows how Qatar is trying to polish the country's image in the world with billions in sport, while critics are being silenced and persecuted.

"It will be the best World Cup ever," FIFA President Gianni Infantino has been certain for months. The Swiss, who has lived in Qatar since the beginning of the year, is the closest ally of the desert World Cup. The aim of the World Cup organizers is clear: any criticism must be nipped in the bud. PR campaigns have been running on behalf of Qatar for months to promote the World Cup as a success story. Episode 4 documents the months leading up to the World Cup, the actions of FIFA and the Qatari World Cup organizers, and how the world's largest sports tournament is handled in the area of tension between massive human rights violations and playing with the ball.