ENGLAND PLAYERS MUST NOT HIDE FROM QATAR’S HORRORS

THE road to Qatar 2022 begins for England at Wembley on Thursday. Before a single step is taken, Gareth Southgate’s players will drop to a single knee in support of Black Lives Matter.

In Qatar, the Gulf state that will host the next World Cup, many black and minority lives have been lost during the construction of stadia and tournament infrastructure.

A report in the Guardian recently claimed 6,500 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have died in Qatar’s inhumane working conditions since they won the right to host the World Cup 10 years ago.

So it is hard to see how the two things sit comfortably side by side. A group of footballers coming together in support of black welfare while at the same time beginning a qualification process towards a sporting tournament built on a foundation of ethnic exploitation and death.

If that sounds rather dramatic then it isn’t really. Our footballers made the decision to cross the line between sport and politics when they embraced the BLM cause and now they are standing face to face with one of the realities of that call.

In Norway, the issue is already being discussed. Six top-flight clubs have called on the Norwegian FA not to send a team to the World Cup. Tromso, the first club to make the stand, have described the situation in Qatar as horrifying.

It seems inevitable that such a conversation is heading our way, too. Our clubs are unlikely to get involved — the bigger picture is not a Premier League speciality — but that doesn’t mean questions will not be asked by those capable of seeing beyond the borders of a football pitch.

England will send a team to Qatar, presuming they qualify.

We know that. There will be no grand gesture by our FA, no dramatic stand taken. But that does not mean our players must go there in ignorance, humming blissfully along to the tunes playing in their headphones. They are supposed to be better than that now. That is what they tell us.

When the players of Sheffield United and Aston Villa became the first to take the knee before a game last summer, it was not meant to provide a solution to a problem. It was meant to indicate that our footballers are not blind to the injustices of the real world. It was supposed to signal the start of a conversation.

Nobody is suggesting now they should not follow their dreams and try to win a World Cup. Nobody is telling them to turn their backs on Qatar. Nevertheless, if their commitment to Black Lives Matter really does go deeper than a gesture made on a football field before kick-off then they must have a look at the place they are aiming to get to next year and understand what it is exactly that happens there. World Cup organisers will dispute the Guardian’s numbers. The number of deaths linked directly to stadium construction is much smaller. There have also recently been some reforms regarding issues such as labour rights. But the death and discrimination is there all the same. It’s in the pages of reports by the United Nations and Amnesty International. It is inescapable. So there needs to be a dialogue in this country about who has suffered and why in the name of the 2022 World Cup and, as they continue their stated aim to ‘eradicate racial prejudice’, the first words really need to come from Gareth Southgate’s England players. If they don’t speak up then what does the act of taking the knee really mean? Ian.Ladyman@dailymail.co.uk