In one sense, the Qatar World Cup is not as much of an outlier as it may seem. Repressive governments have long used the tournament to burnish their image, the golden glow of the trophy temporarily dazzling those at home and abroad to injustice, cruelty, and abuse.

In 1934, Benito Mussolini lured the tournament to Italy and used it as a sort of festival of fascism. In 1978, it went to Argentina at a time when the right-wing military junta of Jorge Rafael Videla was waging the “Dirty War” and murdering tens of thousands of its own citizens. The final at the Estadio Monumental was held a few blocks away from the Navy School of Mechanics, where political prisoners were tortured — so close that, according to survivors, they could hear the crowd cheer.

In 2018, the World Cup traveled to Russia despite well-documented human rights abuses there, laws discriminating against LGBTQ people, and the spiraling authoritarianism of Vladimir Putin. Four years later, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, FIFA has banned the Russian national team from all competitions, with images of Gianni Infantino, the FIFA president, grinning inanely alongside Putin at the 2018 final at the Luzhniki Stadium a lasting testament to the organization’s amorality.