>> people treating it as something special. Same for FIFA

Formula 1 racing had a similar "fraud" scheme where a lot of countries invested in racing circuits which were left unused then[1]. I remember the politics, media manipulating people into believing they earn billions of dollars in PR for their government investing in circuit construction.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Formula_One_circuits

> Mock people wearing Qatar shirts, just as you would someone promoting homeopathy.

I don't this ending well. First of all, the athletes should not get involved in any of this politics stuff. Second, it is well known that all the World Cup and Olympic Games tournaments post 1990 (at least) were awarded based on corruption, even the 2006 World Cup hosted in Germany. So, I don't see any reason to single out the Qataris.

Why should an athlete not get involved in "any of this politics stuff"? They are individuals as well and have as much right to political speech, thought, and action as every other individual on the planet.

They may have even been granted a platform where their speech can be more effective because of the respect and attention that many in the world pay those athletes.

Censorship, voluntary or otherwise, should be routinely rejected.

Have you not read about what is going on in Qatar??

Of course I have. But where do we stop? Should we also ban the USA from organizing a future World Cup tournament because of its disastrous foreign policy which has caused unnecessary deaths numbering more than 1 million people in the last 15-20 years? Should we ban Russia from hosting the 2018 World Cup because of its Ukraine policy? And so on and so on.