Qatar’s World Cup denounced for ‘washing’ country’s image

By EDDIE PELLS
AP National Writer

Qatar’s decision to launch itself into hosting the 2022 World Cup was a head-scratcher from the start. Why, some wondered, would a Middle Eastern emirate with fewer than 3 million people and little soccer tradition want to host the sport’s biggest event? Skeptics say the country wanted to use the prestige of the World Cup, which starts Sunday, to remake its image as a natural-gas producer with a shaky human-rights record. They viewed the move, which will cost the country some $220 billion, as a classic case of “sportswashing” — using sports as a forum to cast a country or company as different than many perceive.