It was, at least from half a world away, an excellent afternoon for soccer. Both quarterfinals Friday went to extra time and ended in thrilling penalty kicks. For FOX, it was perhaps the single best day of World Cup action since it acquired the event, and pushed the nagging questions about the tournament’s host into the rearview mirror.
Those questions will now burst back into the open following the shocking death of reporter Grant Wahl, who collapsed while covering the latter of Friday’s two games. It is entirely possible that Wahl’s death was the result of natural causes. When star NBC News reporter David Bloom died at just 39 covering the beginning of the Iraq War 19 years ago, it was not the brutality of war that killed him, but a blood clot. Wahl had been ill and even visited the hospital earlier this week.
Yet it is impossible to discuss Wahl’s death without noting the context in which it occurred. Arguably the most public critic of the Qatar World Cup, he was detained by security forces in the first week of play for wearing a rainbow shirt to a game, a protest against Qatar’s laws criminalizing homosexuality. His brother said Friday night that Wahl had received death threats as a result and that he believes there was foul play: “My brother was healthy. … I do not believe my brother just died, I believe he was killed.”
There will be no real answers as to what happened in the short amount of time left in this World Cup, but it seems highly likely that the death of a prominent American journalist and critic of Qatar will overshadow the remainder of the tournament — at least in America. FOX has incurred a great deal of criticism for avoiding non-sports topics during the World Cup, but they will have to discuss Wahl’s death on-air and it is difficult to imagine that conversation completely avoiding the backstory.
If Wahl’s death was not just a coincidence, then the next question becomes how much longer the corporate and media worlds continue to indulge FIFA and the IOC in not just on doing business with authoritarian states, but staging their most important global events there — and taking an entire globe of fans, players and reporters into potentially dangerous territory.
The next men’s World Cup is set for North America in 2026, a make-up to FOX (which was awarded rights without them going up for bid) as the network was surely displeased over having to schedule games around the NFL this time around. Without assurances that future tournaments will be held in nations with at least some commitment to small-d democratic norms, how can organizations feel confident about sending staffers into potential danger? What if the 2030 host is Saudi Arabia, a nation that has earned a reputation for brutality toward journalists? What if FIFA decides to give Russia another turn down the line? Surely after Brittney Griner, Vladimir Putin will want to get his hands on another athlete.
The industry has been not-so-oddly quiet about the recklessness of FIFA and the IOC, largely because nobody really believed that anything would actually happen. Perhaps nothing happened this time other than a terrible coincidence. In the event that this was not a coincidence, the question becomes how much longer the money outweighs all else. This is not a moral question but a practical one. If these organizations are irresponsible enough to continually gather the world in dangerous places, it is simply not good business to work with them.
To be frank, even if this was just a terrible coincidence, the above holds. There is an element of playing with fire. If somehow this is not the case of finally getting burned, it is simply a matter of time.
