Why Bayern Munich Should Reconsider Winter Training Camp Venue

Bayern Munich returned to Germany on Saturday after an eight-day training camp in Doha, Qatar. This January marked the fourth consecutive year the Bavarians completed their post-holiday training in the balmy Arab country, which has become something of a home away from home.

However great Doha has been for Bayern, the time has come for them to move on and find a new winter destination.

Winter training camps are not just about football; clubs also play ambassadorial roles.

Just as Cologne and Bayer Leverkusen's trips to the United States this winter increased the Bundesliga's recognition and helped build their respective brands in America, Bayern's presence in Qatar had implications off the pitch. For the Munich giants, it was not all about marketing and brand; it was a strong political message that aligned them with some unsavory figures.

In the months leading up to this January, Qatar came under fire over its awarding of the 2022 World Cup and its methods of building infrastructure in preparation for the tournament.

Last June, The Sunday Times revealed that Mohamed bin Hammam, Qatar's leading football official, had paid over $5 million in bribes to ensure the World Cup's hosting in his country. 

Phaedra Al Majid, one of the officials involved in Qatar's bid, had already blown the whistle on FIFA in 2011 by claiming, per ABC News Point, that African officials had received a combined $1.5 million in bribes. She later retracted her claims, per the Guardian, but she subsequently claimed, per BBC, that she had been coerced into doing so.

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FIFA has since dismissed claims of corruption, but its methods of doing so have been dubious at best. The organizing body paid Michael Garcia to investigate it and then published a summary of his findings. Garcia found it to be so inaccurate that he resigned in protest, per The Telegraph. FIFA has refused to release Garcia's entire report, which suggests he found some damning evidence about Qatar's bid.

On top of all the controversy regarding the awarding of the 2022 World Cup, Qatar has come under heavy scrutiny for human rights violations in the process of building to prepare for the tournament. In 2013, Amnesty International published a report that revealed slave labor was being used to develop infrastructure in Qatar for the 2022 World Cup.

The report revealed that 94 percent of the country's workforce were migrant workers, of whom 90 percent had their passports held by their employers.

Of those workers, 56 percent did not have government health cards, 21 percent "sometimes, rarely or never" received their salaries on time, 20 percent were given different salaries than promised and 15 percent worked in jobs other than the ones they'd agreed to.

A November report from Amnesty claimed that Qatar had "not taken credible steps" toward reducing labor exploitation.

According to Amnesty, "more than 1,000 people were admitted to the trauma unit in 2012 having fallen from height at work." The person who revealed that statistic was a representative of the main hospital in Doha, Bayern's Middle Eastern home.

Ahead of Bayern's trip to Qatar, German officials were among the world's most stern critics of the country's corruption. German FA (DFB) President Reinhold Niersbach even proposed an ultimatum for Qatar, per World News.

In December, fellow German and FIFA executive member Theo Zwanziger told Sport Bild he supported that move, according to Agence France-Presse, via Yahoo Sports.

There were murmurs among German politicians about the implications of their camp before Bayern left for Doha, but they have since turned into an uproar. The situation was exacerbated by Bayern traveling to neighbor Saudi Arabia for a friendly match against Al-Hilal.

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Last May, blogger Raif Badawi, who'd been jailed since 2012, was sentenced, per Al Jazeera, to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes with a whip as well as a $266,000 fine for allegedly setting up a "liberal" network and insulting Islam.

Speaking to mixed reporters, per Reuters, German parliamentary representative Ozcan Mutlu was critical of Bayern's decision to play against Al-Hilal on Saudi soil.

"I find this behavior shameful. Unnecessary. There is no honour to have a friendly game in Riyadh when, so to speak, right next to the stadium the blogger Radawi is flogged 1,000 times and has his skin pulled off his back," he said.

The same Reuters article cites a piece in Suddeutsche Zeitung in which German MP Dagmar Freitag underlined the importance of sport in showing leadership in the world.

"Sport has a strong voice but it does not use it at the points where it makes sense and can be helpful," he said. "Footballers don't have to be politicians but they should be aware of human rights conditions and could set examples."

By continuing to carry out their winter training in Doha and traveling to nearby states with similarly horrid human rights conditions, Bayern are not morally superior to FIFA. Their continued business in oppressive states acts to legitimize actions, such as brutality against journalists who dare to break the status quo. It's not something Bayern stands for, and it undermines their ethos as a club.

Next year, Bayern should consider other locales. They recently opened an office in New York, and a camp in Florida, as Leverkusen and Cologne enjoyed this year, would do wonders for their image in America. There are other options on the Mediterranean that would also be more suitable, such as Mallorca. But as it stands, Doha no longer can be taken as an ideal place to set up camp.

Edit: Since the publishing of this article, Bayern have issued a statement on their official website addressing the controversy over their friendly with Al-Hilal.

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