About a year ago I made a decision that I was not going to watch the Men’s FIFA World Cup when the money-making circus rolled around to Qatar in 2022.
I can say right away that
I don’t expect my decision to have the tiniest effect on the global juggernaut.
I know it will barely make a ripple on the cess-pool of social media. However,
my conscience tells me that I must do something.
I believe that to allow a
country such as Qatar that has an appalling record in human rights and a
mediaeval attitude to some members of society is morally wrong. A moral issue
such as this is non-negotiable.
Keep your head down, get
the job done, take the money.
Coaches, too, fear time in the footballing wilderness if they speak out.
Keep
your head down, get the job done, take the money.
It seems that the major TV
companies are keen for content around this issue but don’t want to talk about
the number of construction workers who have died, so interview footballers
instead. The response from players that I have heard the most is that they are
‘just doing their job.’ This old chestnut is a favourite of countless people
through history. ‘I didn’t realise I was persecuting people, I was just doing
what I was told.’ You’ve heard it all before.
There is a suggestion that
we shouldn’t put players in a difficult position by asking them difficult
questions. I have very little sympathy. If someone gives Jordan Henderson a
hard time, he can be consoled by the £7.2 million in wages he gets from
Liverpool this year, plus his appearance fees for England. I’m sure he will get
over it.
Keep your head down, get
the job done, take the money.
If he really felt
solidarity with the people who have been exploited, and the minority groups who
are discriminated against in Qatar, he would donate his fee to a charity.
Keep your head down, get
the job done, take the money.
The second is the joke
that the Western media care at all about it. All they are doing are trying to
make themselves, and everyone else, feel OK about it.
I will not be watching
this World Cup because of the way that Qatar’s laws treat migrant workers like
slaves.
I will not be watching
this World Cup because FIFA is a corrupt institution that should be shunned.
I will not be watching
this World Cup because Qatar has an inhuman attitude to LGBTQ+ people.
Football is a global game
for everybody. It should not have been sold for the biggest bribe.