Qatar World Cup: Accommodation worries for football fans

The first edition took place in 1992 and the last edition was played in 2017. In March 2019, FIFA confirmed that the tournament would no longer be active owing to an expansion of the FIFA Club แข่งขันบอลโลก in 2021. In late May, the US Department of Justice announced a 47-count indictment with charges of racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy against 14 people.

However, in April 2022, a senior security official overseeing the tournament stated that there were plans to confiscate pride flags from spectators—allegedly as a safety measure to protect them from altercations with spectators that are anti-LGBT. Fare network criticised the report, arguing that actions against the LGBT community by the state were of a greater concern to those attending the World Cup than the actions of individuals. Concerns have been raised about the rights of members of the LGBT community who attend the tournament, as homosexuality is illegal in Qatar, and also punishable by death for Muslims under Sharia. After Qatar was chosen as host, Blatter was criticised for jokingly telling a reporter inquiring about these concerns that gay attendees "should refrain from any sexual activities". In March 2021, an investigative report published by The Guardian used data from embassies and national foreign employment offices to estimate migrant worker death toll since World Cup was awarded to Qatar. Between 2010 and late 2020 over 6,500 migrant workers from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka have died in Qatar.

The 2014 FIFA World Cup was hosted by Brazil, the first held in South America since Argentina 1978, and was the first occasion where consecutive World Cups were held outside Europe. On 10 January 2017, FIFA approved a new format, the 48-team World Cup , which consists of 16 groups of three teams each, with two teams qualifying from each group, to form a round of 32 knockout stage, to be implemented by 2026. A biennial World Cup plan was first proposed by the Saudi Arabian Football Federation at the 71st FIFA Congress on 21 May 2021 and prominently backed by former Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger and national federations in Africa and Asia. On 3 December 2015 two FIFA vice-presidents were arrested on suspicion of bribery in the same Zurich hotel where seven FIFA officials had been arrested in May.

On 10 January 2017, FIFA confirmed the 2026 World Cup will have 48 finalist teams. In the 2015 FIFA corruption case, Swiss officials, operating under information from the United States Department of Justice, arrested many senior FIFA officials in Zurich, Switzerland. They also seized physical and electronic records from FIFA's main headquarters.

In November 2021, Australian footballer Josh Cavallo, who came out as gay in October 2021, said he would be afraid to travel to Qatar to play. Nasser Al Khater, head of the tournament's organising committee, replied that Cavallo would be "welcome" in the country. On 7 June 2015, Phaedra Almajid, the former media officer for the Qatar bid team, claimed that the allegations would result in Qatar not hosting the World Cup. In an interview published on the same day, Domenico Scala, the head of FIFA's Audit and Compliance Committee, stated that "should there be evidence that the awards to Qatar and Russia came only because of bought votes, then the awards could be cancelled." Five of FIFA's six primary sponsors, Sony, Adidas, Visa, Hyundai, and Coca-Cola, have called upon FIFA to investigate the claims. The Sunday Times published bribery allegations based on a leak of millions of secret documents.

The rotation policy was introduced after the controversy surrounding Germany's victory over South Africa in the vote to host the 2006 tournament. However, the policy of continental rotation did not continue beyond 2014, so any country, except those belonging to confederations that hosted the two preceding tournaments, can apply as hosts for World Cups starting from 2018. This is partly to avoid a similar scenario to the bidding process for the 2014 tournament, where Brazil was the only official bidder. The FIFA Confederations Cup was a tournament held one year before the World Cup at the World Cup host nation as a dress rehearsal for the upcoming World Cup. It is contested by the winners of each of the six FIFA confederation championships, along with the FIFA World Cup champion and the host country.