We’re world class at talking balls..
MOST of the balls in Qatar’s World Cup are spoken by those trying to justify it. This isn’t about football – it’s about hypocrisy.
The Qataris allegedly bought this competition like the shiny super cars they love cruising the desert state highways in. It’s a bauble.
Football isn’t their passion. Money is. And power. The glittering stadiums built on the blood of modern-day slaves aren’t testimony to bringing the beautiful game to a public who can have their lives and futures changed.
The women will still have to get permission from their male relatives (even if it’s their 12-year-old son) to even attend a match. Gay men will still face imprisonment and possibly death if they dare celebrate a goal by flinging their arms round their partner. The non-Arab population will still be cleaning the loos.
The standard defence by millionaires called Gary and/or David of Qatar’s World Cup is it raises awareness of human rights.
That was demolished the instant England and the six other European sides meekly removed their One Love rainbow armbands or face disciplinary action.
All they had to do was stand firm together. What was Qatar going to do? Send them all off? No. And as much as Alex Scott’s gesture of wearing an armband to broadcast was heartfelt, nothing was really going to happen to her, was it?
Look, of course the World Cup has been held in some very dodgy places before – South Africa for one. But football was a genuine passion especially for the once apartheid-controlled townships. There was a belief that it really could do some good. Then there’s the argument that if you’re in a country, you should respect their rules. Would you have respected Hitler’s rules when he was running Germany? A Qatari official has declared homosexuality a “disease of the mind”. Rape victims risk being jailed for having “sex outside of marriage”. How do you even begin to justify those attitudes?
I feel for our young Lions who are playing some decent football. As a kid at the start of your career, how do you turn down a World Cup? But they shouldn’t be in this situation. That die was cast 12 years ago.
A die that has led to the deaths of 6,500 migrant workers tasked with building infrastructure and the seven stadiums now hosting crowds shamefully lacking in female fans.
Jules Rimet still gleaming? No. When One Love is only acceptable if applied to money, it’s tarnished. Forever.