The 2022 World Cup in Qatar—boycott or watch? Many football fans around the world asked themselves this question. For this reason, an online survey of 1.386 people interested in football from all over Germany was conducted to analyze spectator behavior with regard to the venue for the 2022 World Cup. On the one hand, the study looked at aspects of public image research and, in particular, research into the image of travel destinations. In addition, approaches of “nation branding” and “soft power” were used. Host countries often hope that hosting a mega sporting event will have a positive impact on their public image. However, the results of the online survey show that this is often not the case. It emerged that the vast majority of respondents (83.8%) believe that awarding the tournament to Qatar was not a good idea. Interestingly, however, only 39.0% of participants said that a deliberate boycott of the World Cup made sense. Overall, only just under a third of respondents (32.4%) were consciously boycotting the World Cup. The main reasons given for the boycott were the human rights situation in the host country, the poor working conditions for migrant workers, the lack of freedom of expression and freedom of the press and the general corruption in football.