FA can’t get tough on Oatar human rights... they’ve already done a deal

HARRy KAnE may get a shock if he talks to the Football Association about a protest at Wembley this week over human rights in Qatar.

They’ve got a deal, you see. A memorandum of understanding, it is called. Signed in February 2018 by then- chairman Greg Clarke on a visit to Doha.

‘The FA is pleased to commit to this knowledge-sharing partnership with the Qatar Football Association,’ said Clarke.

‘We have a long history of collaboration with various national associations to share knowledge and experience to support the development of football. For Qatar, developing the game across the country is a key objective as they approach the hosting of the FIFA World Cup in 2022.’

not much mention of the conditions for migrant workers there, you may notice. not much talk of the modern slavery of the kafala system, or the report from Human Rights Watch that alleged hundreds were dying every year building Qatar’s World Cup.

And that’s strange because those accusations came in September 2017, just five months before Clarke (below) left Doha with his precious memorandum.

After norway, Holland and Belgium began agitating on human rights, however, the FA sensed the changing mood.

‘There is still much more to be done,’ it intoned sagely in a statement addressing workers’ rights last week.

And why might that be? Perhaps because organisations like the FA have spent many years creeping around Qatar, desperate for favour and influence, which acts as tacit endorsement of the by-any-means-necessary nature of this tournament and its infrastructure programme.

Instead of protesting or making a stand, or at least remaining aloof, the FA, with their piece of paper, decided on a course of appeasement — sorry, collaboration — and are only reacting now because it’s proving such a bad look. As for knowledge sharing, what a meeting that must have been. A country that has never qualified for a World Cup it hasn’t bought, sitting down with one that hasn’t won a major tournament in close on 55 years. All the people worth bunging to win a bid are dead, in prison or in hiding, and goal-line technology has scuppered the idea of getting a Russian linesman in to steer the final your way. It’s hard to see what either side has got to offer in terms of intelligence. So whatever message, if any, the players choose to send out before kick-off against Poland will be rather undermined by Clarke’s agreement. Check out foreign broadcast rights for domestic leagues and major UEFA tournaments and it is clear to see Qatar as good as owns football on the European continent anyway.

So the FA are far from alone. The Champions League, the Europa League, the Premier League, Ligue 1, La Liga, the Bundesliga, Serie A — Qatar is helping finance them all.

YET the FA want to play both ends. Pious statements on one sheet of paper, memorandums on another and, in reality, they do nothing. They are not influencing from the inside, not challenging from outside, and if at last they have found the smallest voice, it is far too late for many.

Once again, they may try to T- shirt the bad guys into submission and they’ll probably come up with a catchy slogan for commentators to parrot, too.

But it’s the understanding that counts.