To think it's bonkers that having the Cup in Qatar

[Jux]

Will make any difference to anything other than giving the dosh to Qatar and Qatari business.

It made no difference to human rights abuses when we had the Olympics in China so why does anyone expect this to be any different?

Exactly it’s not simply a matter of a different culture.

Women, LGBTQ people, migrant works (and workers generally I think) are all treated in a way that’s completely unacceptable in Qatar. You can’t just say “that’s my culture”.

Im absolutely gutted that first time Wales is in the WC it’s overshadowed like this.

Albeit I know countries like Russia and China have hosted similar profile events before and we all went along with it.

People in Qatar have different beliefs and a different culture, but surely they can still host sporting events?

are you a football fan? if not it may be difficult to understand.
But for me: (human rights abuses aside) it is about completely and utterly ignoring perfectly competent nations who put in a bid, and who have a tradition of playing football with leagues, cups and so on in favour of a country that literally had to build all the stadiums because they don't even play the game.

Frankly? I'm quite happy FIFA finally really outed themselves as the corrupt, football ruining fuckers they are to everyone not just people who had been paying attention to it. It is one thing to accept bribes to have it in Germany, France or Russia* but Qatar? Fuck that.

It is perfectly ok for a country to have their own laws and customs around human rights. We don't have to go there and adhere to them. we have allowed ourselves to be too reliant on Qatar for any boycott of the WC by fans to make any difference anyway. But for me? nope.

*I wan't happy with Russia, but at least they already had a league and a national team. AFAIK Qatar doesn't have that. If they do, it isn't well developed enough to host because of not having the infrastructure.

How am I making this a problem for black players to solve?

Does the human rights thing not affect black players too?

Stop fishing for racism. I am merely pointing out the rank hypocrisy of attending a world Cup where such human rights abuses exist.

It's been a disaster for Qatar. They're gonna lose 200 billion on it. And they have sportwashed their deplorable behaviours or attitudes, it done the opposite and highlighted the many issues over there. You can still buy tickets to games where normally they're sold out by minute one.

I absolutely cannot stand Qatar/Saudi/Iran and any similar countries. They use the pretence of religion and distort it to control their population, mainly women.
It's not even what our religion is about (yes I'm Muslim). It's just utter misogyny disguised as religion.

I can't stand football especially the Premier League anyway, it's all built upon money and corruption.

Virtue signaling is truly a very white person Trait !

I have never seen any outcry nor any daily news reports on any of the crimes committed by the west in Iraq or Afghanistan .

46,000 were killed in Afghanistan ,
As a direct result of the US air strikes .

110000 Iraqi civilians were killed by the Joint US and UK invasion from the years 2003 to 2009.

Prior to the invasion , over a Million died due to the Sanctions imposed by the West .

They're gonna lose 200 billion on it.

I wouldn’t worry about them.

they are a tiny country sitting on one of the worlds largest Natural Liquid Gas reserves and practically the whole of Europe are trying to sign deals with them , The Qatari governments won’t give them an answer till spring 2023, that might give you an idea why the anti Qatar campaign is on 24/7 in UK and German media .

Surely racism, homophobia, misogyny etc are for everyone to tackle if they have the means and or the platform? Black people couldn't solve racism alone, gay people can solve homophobia alone and women can't solve misogyny alone. They need others to stand with them. It's pretty sad to say everyone should stand with and support black people in the fight against racism but homophobia and misogyny aren't black peoples problem so they're not interested in them - surely?

I'd have no problem with England not being allowed to host due to monkey noises and other racist stuff at matches, that is disgusting and pathetic behaviour. But it doesn't compare to people dying from being treated as slaves. We're talking slavery that is still happening here and now, I'd have thought that anyone and everyone would be extremely angry that that is still going on. Also the danger to gay people, it's like a split society where gay people have little rights and have to constantly be careful or they could be in prison or worse. Surely everyone would be against that too?

Where do I say it’s for black players to solve??? It is on ALL the players (and coaches etc.) to take a stand. Fans should boycott too. So far Harry Kane is planning to wear yet another armband and apparently can’t think of any more effective protest.

Absolute joke and an insult to football.

Saudia Arabia the home of football.

Producing the world’s best footballers.

🙄🙄🙄 💶💶💶

Totally underwhelmed for it. And it’s disrupting our league football season too.

I have never seen any outcry nor any daily news reports on any of the crimes committed by the west in Iraq or Afghanistan .

Unless you are monitoring every social media comment, and every offscreen utterance of everyone who has even hinted at boycotting this world cup (are you?) this is utter piffle.

I also agree with pp: just because some people have woken up to this and are being noisy, but don't reach your high standards of activism/comment in other areas, doesn't make them wrong.

Lots of people doing small things will make the changes possible/happen, not a very few people doing everything 100%.

FWIW i have seen a lot of criticism and info about Iran over the last few weeks, RAWA are still active and noisy about what's going on in Afghanistan. And so on and so on. You can't see everything and you can't follow everything, that is clear and nobody should be criticised for picking one thing over another (and again: are we all binning our phones because of how the metals are mined? no. But increasing numbers of us are buying second hand to make a contribution to reducing the worst practices. As an example)

Quick mention of the players: I was all for continuing to take the knee, and would have been happy if it had been adopted where i live. But each club/player/league has to make their own decisions. Players train for years to get to the top of their career (playing for country is what a lot of them aim for). It is not up to them to bow out just because people who control the game made bad decisions.
I would be happy if they would wear rainbow laces and so on. Aren't the Danish team planning something in place of shirt sponsors?

Jürgen Klopp made a good statement about this recently.

The only good thing about it is that it's highlighted the corruption at FIFA. I guess Qatar thought they would just get great publicly and kudos from hosting the world cup; which has backfired somewhat. As this has to go ahead, I'll be happy if every conversation about this world cup talks about human rights abuses. People died creating the stadiums.

I understand why the players are going; but entertainers; commentators etc they are choosing to be part of something ugly. Ian Hislop summed this up so well when he took on Gary Neville

And it’s disrupting our league football season too.

meh. Several countries have a break at winter, and smaller leagues to allow for this. Not having a break, and having a massive league and an overfull calendar is down to the FA and the clubs. And why not have it in global-north winter? Australia could host it well, IMO, sports mad country with their own leagues and national team. Why should it be in their winter if that came to pass?

It's bonkers for many reasons including the human rights issues.

You and other posters keep saying players are happy to take a knee but not boycott Qatar.

My point is that taking a knee was borne in direct response to racism against black people.

You're now expecting those players (who already contend with racism and monkey chants) to stand up to the likes of the FA and FIFA and boycott Qatar.

How is that fair?

It is a bit weird that there is so much "boycott Qatar " about when human rights abuses in other places tournament's are played don't generate nearly so much debate.

I mean, we do all buy from China don't we? And their human rights record is every bit as bad (I've been trying not to buy from China and its virtually impossible).

Radio silence on the point about China. As always.

And as it's Uyghurs (Muslims) that are being ethnically cleansed by the Chinese, much of MN and the world really doesn't give a shit.

I wasn't impressed with the Winter Olympics being in Beijing either. I think that FIFA/ IOC should consider human rights and press freedom before awarding major sporting events

Radio silence on the point about China. As always.

when the olympics were awarded and when they were on there was plenty of comment in the press and on social media. Some of us have spent a few days writing to our govt (not in UK) asking them to bring up HR abuses when on the next visit to China.

FIFA is corrupt. We know that. We can choose when and how to make our protests.

no no we never talk about the Uyghurs or Rohingya Genocide here ,
I don’t think people are that interested .

I'm referring to the posters here being radio silent on China.

We can choose when and how to make our protests.

Of course, but it's very convenient isn't it.

Coffeepot72 · Yesterday 22:56
People in Qatar have different beliefs and a different culture, but surely they can still host sporting events?“

Culture is no excuse for homophobia, misogyny and human rights abuses.

I am using it as one example of fairly low-cost virtue signaling. I gave another example - coloured arm bands for one cause or another. I’m not criticizing these actions in themselves. Just pointing out that as soon as a concrete action involves players risking money/prestige rather than just generating a bit of publicity, they are too cowardly to do anything.

To be honest I don’t follow football closely enough to know that only black players took the knee (is that what you’re saying)? But if so, there’s another example of people not doing anything that might inconvenience them or cost them money if they don’t have a personal stake in it. Why was it on black players to make that protest alone? If one person in the team is facing an onslaught of racist abuse, the whole team could e.g. stop playing until the abuse stops.

@MrsSkylerWhite of course not but they are pretty hard to avoid. Is Qatar so much worse than most other countries? Worse than the majority of countries who are Fifa members?