When the term ‘respect our culture’ is used, I take it to mean that whilst in the home and/or presence of others, certain behaviours should be adopted as to not cause offence to them.
Like most of us and out of sheer respect for the people in my company, I’ve said many a grace around dinner tables, removed footwear before entering friends’ homes and been peripherally involved in religious and cultural practices in a host of situations over the years.
Flouting such courtesy would be the greatest of insults; something most of us avoid by acting respectfully towards the people with whom we are sharing space and/or interaction.
As the days count down to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the hosts have asked us all to consider the same and arrive, should we be travelling to the tournament, with a keen awareness of what is expected in the nation.
Speaking in Berlin on May 23, The Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani said, “Everybody is welcome in Doha. We do not stop anyone from coming to Doha with any different backgrounds, or any different beliefs.”
He continued, “We will not stop anybody from coming and enjoying the football. But I also want everybody to come and understand and enjoy our culture. We welcome everybody, but also we expect and we want people to respect our culture.”
Feel free to read the word culture in the above extract as code for bigoted views against the LGBTQIA+ community, that fly in the face of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.
Despite the rhetoric, certain Qatari hotels have deemed that accepting reservations from known same-sex couples is not a practice in which they will participate.
Brandishing a rainbow flag at matches is likely to be followed by a quick confiscation and foreign visitors to Qatar publicly expressing their love towards a partner could well face harassment and/or violent responses from locals.
The admission of Major General Abdulaziz Abdullah Al Ansari confirms such a possibility, expressed as he discussed the potential reactions of both the Qatari community and the officials charged with monitoring fans during the event.
His reasoning behind the anticipated reaction to a fan possessing and displaying a rainbow flag is utterly astonishing and somewhat counterintuitive, claiming that the snatching of the symbol is, “Not because I really want to, really, take it, to really insult him, but to protect him.”
It appears the Major General is well aware of the hatred and reaction likely to emanate from some in his country, as he continued and reasoned that such behaviours are in fact protectionist and not aggressive in nature.
“Because if it’s not me, somebody else around him might attack (him) … I cannot guarantee the behaviour of the whole people. And I will tell him: ‘Please, no need to really raise that flag at this point.”
(Photo by Alexander Hassenstein – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
These potential reactions to seeing diversity in Doha reflect the broadly held and legally supported views within a country where homosexuality, gender change and same-sex marriage remain illegal.
Yet this is the very same nation deemed appropriate by FIFA to host the footballing world in November.
Many around the globe still struggle to see past the thousands of workers killed and unaccounted for in the process of building and refurbishing stadiums in order for Qatar to be ready for the greatest show on earth.
The two disgraces combined will see FIFA present the most awful and ironic portrait of Qatar to the rest of the world, something even more saddening considering recent efforts made by the governing body to embrace diversity and engage with pride month.
How FIFA can adorn its head office in Zurich with the colours of the rainbow flag in June and then five months later invite us all to a place where people can be imprisoned or worse, were they to show affection towards the person they love, is utterly offensive.
I have decided not to travel to Qatar. Not in protest, just on principle. A number of Welsh fans have expressed the same view and logic suggests there will be political points made by some fans, determined to hold the Qatari government to account, for views that are completely out of step with modern thinking.
How the security details in stadiums and the local authorities choose, or are ordered to respond to any such expressions of protest, will be interesting.
Frankly, I am concerned for friends of mine who will be there, knowing that for some, the biting of tongues when it comes to such a fundamental human issue is not their best skill.
Thankfully, the football will be as magnificent as ever and covering it back in Australia will be more than enough for me this time around.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
No one wants the Olympics any more Brisbane got it by default.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
What your saying is rubbish, the money from South America and North America is nowhere near what you get from Europe. They just have the option of putting games in the day time to be at night in Europe. Qatar time zone is hardly different to Europe, you look to be getting soft in the head.
Ferno
Guest
BTW, Sydney Olympics was so corrupt as any WC, according to John Coates https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/may/01/sydney-olympics-were-bought-to-a-large-extent-said-australian-official-john-coates In some year we'll know Brisbane's was as well. Australians are not better than anyone.
MarkfromCroydon
Roar Pro
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. FIFA have given Australia the womens World Cup even though our government discriminates against people on the basis of their sexual orientation and their religion. Polyamorous people cannot marry the people they love. People of certain religions cannot marry as per their religious beliefs. We are in no position to criticise Qatar.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
This modern slave labour trade has been going on for ages and started in the UAE. Your information is clearly incorrect, the 6500 figure is not the figure for the world cup stadiums but for the whole of Qatar over about 10 years . The big question is why is it being highlighted for the world cup, and why not before and why not for UAE the country that started this system. The 30 million migrant workers in the Middle East they have 10000 deaths per year. So the death rate seems to be just a high in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
Thats totally wrong, Blatter was pushing for Australia, he voted for Japan in the first round because he didnt want them embarassed because he thought no one else would vote for them, then he voted for the US thats why Japan went from 3 to 2 votes. Platini was Qatars slave, through and through, the French president did a deal with a Qatar, mainly to do with gas but also lead to PSG being made a qatar backed super club. Qatar had the votes but through the ruling out of Tamari and Adamu thanks to journalists pranking them they were then uncertain and made a new srategy. The pattern of votes for the 2022 world cup clearly indicates that some of Qatars men voted for Korea and Japan to get rid of Australia. Also a lot of the delegates indicated they would vote for Australia to Lowy , that was the genius of the Bin Hamman strategy they knew Australia would not get first round votes from Japan and Korea, but the Japanese and Korean delegates would then vote for them once Japan and Korea went. They got their guys to promise their votes to What happened in 2011 , Bin Hamman wanted to take over the presidency from Blatter, the person who he used to bribe people to vote for, indicates clearly that Bin Hamman was never part of team Qatar or wanted the world cup there. They get rid of Blatter and Qatar world cup stays that says its all. Whatever you say about Blatter and his blind eye to corruption, as far world cups there was never any reason for a world cup in the USA, in fact the advice at the time was totally against it, without Blatter the world cup would never have gone there. Blatter was instrumental putting a world cup in Japan/Korea and his biggest project was a world cup in South Africa which failed in 2006 but got up in 2010. Qatar would cup was never part of Blatters ideals which while he overlooked corruption was spreading the world cup around to the people not an oil rich wealthy minority.
Nick
Roar Guru
Which part offended you?
Nick
Roar Guru
The voting public are responsible for the direction of the court.
Redondo
Roar Rookie
Stuart I look forward to your next article in which you condemn the 2026 World Cup because it will be co-hosted by the USA. I mean, no country comes near the USA's record for unjust war-mongering and the killing of innocent civilians, mostly foreign. It's even a poor model for its treatment of its own citizens. Guess who said this: "The rest of the world, almost unanimously, looks at America as the No. 1 warmonger. That we revert to armed conflict almost at the drop of a hat -- and quite often it’s not only desired by the leaders of our country, but it’s also supported by the people of America. We’ve also reverted back to a terrible degree of punishment of our people rather than the reinstitution of them back into life. And this means that we have 7.5 times as many people now in prison as when I left the governor’s mansion. We’re the only country that has the death penalty in NATO; we’re the only country in this hemisphere that has the death penalty, and this is another blight on our country as far as unwarranted, unnecessary and counterproductive violence are concerned." Former US president Jimmy Carter said that. He might know a thing or two too - last time I checked the stats the USA had bombed 29 countries since WW2. I don't want to defend Qatar, but I do wonder how people so neatly partition their ethical outrage. I've heard barely a peep about the USA co-hosting the 2026 World Cup.
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
esmereldaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! hold up thats from the hunchback of notre dame, wrong movie lol
Redondo
Roar Rookie
Nick - thanks for that thoroughly offensive post. You need help.
Cpaaa
Guest
What has "rainbow" flag got to do with football anyway? I didnt see any Italian flags in the A-League whilst Del Piero was here. I bet i wont see any Portugal flags in Melbourne this season either. Actually this FA has a total ban on all flags from across the world in our domestic competition. We cant acknowledge the foundations of football, past and present, in this country with a flag at football games and yet you bring up the topic of a non-country flag at a world cup??? Be careful when it comes to criticising humans rights. Your wage, your home, your ability to work should not be taken for granted when comparing the rest of the world. This article was typed on a laptop with parts from Africa that were most likely mined by the people with zero choices. Your clothes, branded or not, most likely from some Asian sweat shop by people that work the hardest for the least and in a country with extremely poor human rights conditions. Look in the mirror Stuart if you want to make change otherwise it just sounds like western privilege.
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
dont know whether you picked it up, but when our lads played against Peru, the temp was 33 degs celcius, and it cooled down to 28 in the stadium by the end of the match. And that's with air con!! The only benefit in that is that the European teams are going to struggle, whereas for us, it's a freakin' home game. the collective are correct though, this WC should not have been given to Qatar, but hey, have we seen that grub Blatter in front of a court. Not likely, he's living in a compound somewhere nice, eating his corn flakes with champagne.
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
I agree with you Chris, and from a security perspective, Australia is right at the top of the list. If we do a good job with the Women's WC, dont count us out.
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
no, that grub Blatter did.
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
For a country that is the "land of the free, and the home of the brave", their court system seems anything but impartial. Right to the top, if you go to court, dependent on your case, your political preference and your religious preference, you can walk free or be sentenced to death. Unbiased something that does not exist in the US it seems
Ppp
Guest
I don’t know, waiting in a long line to get into an American stadium is going to make people very nervous….
Ppp
Guest
Enjoy the WWC, that and the occasional AFC tournament are as good as it will ever get
Ppp
Guest
Or a certain country whose name rhymes with liner….
Choppy Zezers
Roar Rookie
Roe or Wade?