FIFA World Cup 2022 and Bangladesh

Abstract

The FIFA World Cup is the most exalted sporting event in the globe. Although Bangladesh is not historically a great football-playing nation and has never been any close to the final stage of World Cup qualification, the FIFA World Cup matters so much for Bangladesh. This content analysis is an effort to understand the implications of the FIFA World Cup 2022, held in Qatar, in Bangladesh from the standpoint of the sociology of sport. News, events, opinions and activities published in various national and international online English news portals capturing the connection between the FIFA World Cup 2022 and Bangladesh have been analysed. Findings have been categorised and analysed according to the essence of the major theoretical perspectives in sociology: functionalism, conflict theory and symbolic interactionism. Three theoretical perspectives in sociology offer meaningful explanations about the interface between the FIFA World Cup 2022 and Bangladesh. According to functionalism, the FIFA World Cup 2022 conveyed several beneficial consequences for Bangladesh. But some incidents of dysfunction were also noted. The ways Bangladeshi expatriate workers involved in World Cup-related construction projects were exploited and suffered has been explained by conflict theory. The whole of Bangladesh was inextricably connected with the FIFA World Cup 2022. This factor is explained by symbolic interactionism.