WORLD CUP WORRIES
A former Federation of International Football Associations boss says awarding the World Cup to Qatar was a mistake.
I don’t agree. Sepp Blatter may be right, as far as the Qatari government and FIFA are concerned, but I think the decision has been a blessing for Qatari citizens and migrant workers who claim their rights are being abused.
In the run-up to the event, it has become common knowledge that same-sex relationships are criminal offences in the Islamic state, and that people convicted of the charge are sometimes executed. That was the case before Blatter and FIFA chose Qatar to stage the competition, but the outside world either didn’t notice, or didn’t care. Football’s worldwide appeal has changed that.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International says hundreds of thousands of migrant workers have suffered human rights abuses and thousands have died while building stadiums and other infrastructure for the tournament. Again, similar abuses existed before football drew attention to them.
This is the first time the World Cup will be staged in the Middle East and it is the first time European leagues have had to suspend their regular seasons to accommodate the competition. The big European clubs aren’t happy, but that seems a small price for them to pay for all the good that has already come from the build-up coverage of the event.
For example, the criteria used to select host countries has been altered to include social issues. Which means, in future, countries hoping to benefit from the World Cup will have to sort out their own behaviour before making bids if they hope to succeed.
That doesn’t mean, however, that FIFA is now a socially responsible organisation. The governing body recently sent a letter to Ghana, Senegal, Cameroon, Egypt, Morocco and the other 27 nations that qualified asking them to “focus on the football” instead of the competition’s controversial build-up.
The Confederation of African Football has thrown its support behind that letter, but CAF President, Patrice Motsepe, also said; “We recognise that football has over the years been an important tool for bringing together and uniting people from different races, language groups and religious backgrounds.
“The World Cup is an important global sporting event that brings together people from different countries and continents for the development and celebration of football worldwide and the advancement of humanity.” So, CAF wasn’t exactly calling for an end to the protests. And they haven’t ended.
The FIFA letter has been criticised by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and LGBTQ+ campaigners. It has also motivated ten European football associations to issue statements saying, “...human rights are universal and apply everywhere”, and it has kept these issues alive in the press.
Meanwhile, protests have been planned by players, ten team captains will wear ‘One Love’ armbands to promote diversity and inclusion, and Denmark will wear plain uniforms because their kit provider does not wish to be visible in a tournament it claims has cost thousands of lives.
So, once again, football and the coverage it generates appear to be fuelling positive social developments. And one of them may be that many fans, including me, are realising there are more important things in life than winning football matches… or even The World Cup.