Category: FIFA and the World Cup

• Was the 2022 World Cup Scripted for Messi?

  Argentina's 2022 World Cup triumph delivered the fairy-tale finish to Lionel Messi's career — and immediately drew claims that FIFA and the officials had engineered it. Theorists pointed to refereeing decisions, VAR calls and Argentina's penalty count as evidence of a "scripted" tournament, though no proof of manipulation has ever emerged.

• World Cup Draw-Rigging Theories

  A recurring belief holds that FIFA's World Cup draws are secretly fixed — most famously through "hot and cold balls" that allow officials to identify them by touch, or through subtly marked balls — to engineer commercially or politically favourable groups. The theory is unproven and rejected by FIFA, but high-profile coincidences and the sport's repeated corruption scandals keep it in wide circulation.

• The Qatar 2022 World Cup Bid

  FIFA's December 2010 decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar triggered enduring allegations of vote-buying and bribery. Subsequent United States Department of Justice indictments alleged that bribes were paid to football officials to secure votes for the bid, while critics framed the tournament as "sportswashing" of the host's human-rights record. Qatar and FIFA have consistently denied wrongdoing in the bidding process.

• The 1978 World Cup and the Argentine Junta

  Argentina hosted and won the 1978 FIFA World Cup while ruled by a military dictatorship responsible for thousands of forced disappearances. Long-standing allegations claim the host nation's decisive 6–0 win over Peru — the result it needed to reach the final — was arranged through bribery and political pressure, and that the tournament was used as propaganda to distract domestic and international attention from state terror.