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Opinion

How should football protest Qatar 2022?

25th July, 2022
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25th July, 2022
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In June, England captain Harry Kane had discussions with fellow international captains as to how the teams set to play at the upcoming World Cup in Qatar should best object to the human rights abuses currently being supported and enforced by the host nation.

Those conversations were well founded, with football about to enter a realm that is, frankly, an insult to what FIFA claims to have at the heart of its organisation: inclusivity and diversity.

Sadly, it will be the second FIFA World Cup in succession with such concerns, after Russia 2018 reminded the global community of the Neanderthal views held by the host nation.

Most alarming of all is the simple fact that the social and political concerns around the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi should have provided enough ammunition for football’s governing body to withdraw their offer to Russia to host the 2018 tournament.

Cowardice prevailed and Russia’s World Cup went ahead amidst raising and immense concerns around its views on LGBTQIA+ people, the fundamental human rights of citizens that are meant to be protected by the United Nations, and the overarching dark cloud of the systematic abuse of performance-enhancing drugs that has subsequently been proven to have taken place in Sochi.

While the clear dismissal of the notion of fair play exercised by the hosts in those 2014 Games should have been more than enough for FIFA to relocate the 2018 World Cup, especially considering the IOC had the fortitude to ban a formal Russian team from competing at the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang South Korea, FIFA went ahead with a World Cup that now looks, in retrospect, like an enormous mistake.

(Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

After the handing down of wet lettuce-leaf punishments to Russian athletes and officials in the aftermath of Sochi, many were permitted to participate in the delayed Tokyo 2020 games under the guise of something distanced from the nation itself.

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A similarly weak approach was taken by FIFA, with Russia permitted to host the greatest show on Earth, despite it sitting less than comfortably with most.

One wonders whether the gift of hindsight and Russia’s current invasion of Ukraine would have FIFA currently regretting its decision to permit its showpiece event to be held in a place of such tyranny and injustice.

Cynically, I feel that is unlikely, particularly if the finances added up and all invested parties were content with the outcome. Thus is FIFA.

And now, a nation that decrees homosexuality as an evil, demands visitors adhere to their somewhat backward and restrictive way of life without question, and insists that people resist the urge to express any form of love outside the most conservative and traditional sense, will host the World Cup.

It’s a situation in direction conflict with FIFA’s flying of the pride flag at its Zurich headquarters during the month of June.

Qatar has brought on the ire of millions, with not only its stance on issues around which the majority of the globe has moved far beyond in the last 40 years, but also the obvious abuses that have led to the deaths of thousands of workers involved in the construction and refurbishment of the stadiums that will host the matches come November.

Kane is right to seek out the advice and counsel of such men as France’s Hugo Lloris and Denmark’s Christian Eriksen, as well as any other international players with whom he has contact. Bar the odd individual, the football world has been united in the taking of a knee in response to continued racism against people based on nothing more than the colour of their skin.

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Qatar presents a similar opportunity, with the wearing of rainbow-coloured captain’s armbands, players unveiling politically motivated messages on their under-clothes after scoring, and a consistent message of dissent being delivered by players and coaches in their interactions with the media as all possible methods by which the wider football world can express its dissatisfaction.

No doubt the local authorities will make every attempt to deter any such protests, yet the voice of the global football community will prevail if it is powerful and united. It is sad that the responsibility falls to the fans, players and countries motivated by justice, human dignity and equality.

If only FIFA had any idea what those three things actually are.

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