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Showing posts with label Qatar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Qatar. Show all posts
Anthony McIntyre ⚽ For years the England national soccer squad has given both detractors and comedians alike abundant material with which to mould mockery by the tonnage. 


The ha ha scripters and LOL designers are never short of work when England take to the showers upon underwhelming their opposition, and exit whatever tournament they are playing in. For almost half a century since Jan Tomaszewski held the Polish pass and headed off an English invasion of his goal mouth, ensuring the boys from Blighty never made it out of the trench and over the top to storm World Cup 1974, I have derived immense satisfaction from seeing them flail, flounder and fail.

It is not the players or the team itself. An avid fan of the English Premier League and a Liverpool fan to boot, I have no animosity towards them, admiring many of them for the sheer joy they serve up throughout the soccer season. I just don't abide by the hyperinflated phenomenon they have been transformed into by the English sports media and fan base alike. The greatest English philosopher of all time, Mediocrities, has gone unnoticed in a country puffed up on its own John Bull.

The irritation that has long sought exit in England's own exit is primed by the phenomenon Man's Search For Insanity. Not how Viktor Frankl phrased it but close enough. Like cultic Christians gathering for the Rapture, supporters and pundits alike every two years join an expeditionary force that leaves the foothills promising to reach the summit in Europe or further afield while leaving all their powers of reasoning at base camp. In their own mind they are favourites and to the rest of the word they are failures. Naked as jaybirds, into the snow they plough, boasting to wave triumphantly at the sceptics and naysayers from the summit. We sit back and duly predict their rapid descent back down. 

Like a rerun of an old movie filmed in Mexico in 1970, it only ever ends one way. Everyone knows the script but the self-professed experts. Like Einstein's lunatic they keep doing the same thing yet expecting a different outcome.

England did not always field teams of donkeys. Many sides were not lacking in talent. The blindspot lay in the inability of the true believers to sense what lay out there, beyond their own shores. The prowess of other teams was understated. The Colonel Blimps of Blighty could see only one thing -  putting Johnny Foreigner to the sword.

But not to hee haw at the combined idiocy of fans and pundits would be a flagellist self-denial, a foregoing of the bragger's trumpet that heralds hubris humiliated. Having been insufferably assailed for weeks on end from the academy of entitlement, blasting the ears with grossly inflated claims, we ridiculers walk on while England walk off empty handed.

Last evening I sat at home watching the France-England quarter final, my wife tolerating my groans.  Earlier in the day Morocco had just beaten Portugal, so whoever emerged victorious from the later game looked a sure bet to make the final. I badly wanted France to win for the sake of my son who, along with his sister, was in a Lyon pub watching the game while wearing the French team's top. I texted him throughout, wincing at each French conceded penalty. He looked very apprehensive when the second, like the first, was needlessly given away. 


The penalty kick - the bane of England's international soccer - arose once more from the depths to pull them under as it submerged again. Defeated not by a French heist but by a Harry Hoist, ultimately they have only themselves to blame. Kane's penalty was nothing short of atrocious. 


Still, on the night the team that played the better soccer went out. The French team looked flat and pedestrian, their defensive capabilities suspect. The English were very unlucky. So they, not the World Cup, are coming home. The trophy is destined for elsewhere and there is no guarantee that its resting place for the next four years will be Paris.

England, when they pick themselves up, must come to accept that they blew it. The referee was poor as were the French, but their fate lay in their own hands.  This England side has quality. Down but not out. they will come again.  If Southgate stays in place and continues to build around the midfield powerhouse of Bellingham and Rice, then England can emerge as champions of Europe in 2024, irrespective of who the opposition is. At present England has the ability to win major tournaments. It doesn't have the nerve to win them. 

⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Out

Peter Anderson ⚽️Well, surprise, surprise, but this World Cup is turning out to be a cracker. 

After all the initial furore around Qatar and its human rights issues, the football is finally making its mark. On Friday night, one of my mates was telling me that his son is working in Doha and that the place is pumped for having the World Cup. Muslims view it as their World Cup, and certainly Saudi Arabia and Morocco are making themselves known. Both their football teams and their fans have lit up this tournament. We can debate Islam's shocking world view till the cows come home, but the Middle-East deserve a World Cup like every other region in the FIFA world. And if Qatar got it through corruption, we should remember that Blatter is gone. Few, with the exception of Blatter's bank manager, are happy about the situation, but it is what it is. Let's get on with the footy.

England got off to a flier, and then flopped against the US . . .  and then got slaughtered by the English press. Nothing new there, then! Southgate left Foden - the one player that you would bet on to open up a tight defence - on the bench. Southgate showed in previous tournaments that he lacks the tactical nous to cut it at this level, and I don't expect England to suddenly start ripping up any trees in Qatar. Quarter finals at best?

Wales on the other hand are already doomed. It is clear that their success was largely down to the influence of Bale and Ramsey. With these two now firmly over the hill, Wales look like a spent force.

The weekend produced some first-class entertainment. Saudi Arabia played Poland off the park but still lost 2-0. The Saudis looked sharp and fit, urged on by a fanatical support buoyed by their victory over Argentina. Argentina then beat Mexico 2-0 in a high-pressure thriller on Saturday night, saving their World Cup, for now at least. Saturday also saw Mbappé showing us what all the hype is about with two goals against Denmark. What a great Saturday on the sofa. I watched three games and all three were top drawer entertainment.

Sunday was nearly as good! Again, I watched three games and none of them disappointed. Morocco tanked an aging Belgian team, roared on by an amazing Moroccan support. Then Croatia put down a marker for World Cup glory by outclassing the impressive Canadians. Croatia looked very good; the other favourites will have taken note. The night was rounded off by Spain drawing 1-1 with the Germans. The Germans looked awful. Playing with the 33-year-old Thomas Muller as lone striker, they never looked like scoring. I have been used all my life to German teams that manage World Cup games super well and then rely on their superb strikers to nick one or two and win the game. I am old enough to remember Gerd Muller and Klaus Fischer, Rummenigge and Klinsmann, Bierhoff and Klose. This German team pose no such threat. Spain were one-nil up and cruising when Germany threw on their unknown number 9, Fullkrug, who duly scored the equaliser and saved the Germans from an early exit. Given Japan's earlier defeat, this group is wide open and the Spaniards missed a glorious opportunity to top the group and send the Germans home.

All in all, a great weekend of footy providing top-quality entertainment. None of the groups are decided yet and some of them will go down to the wire. There is still a slim chance that this World Cup may be remembered more for the football and not for the politics. As it should be.

Peter Anderson is a Unionist with a keen interest in sports.

Cracker

Matt Treacy ✍ In March 2021, at the height of the embarrassing kneeling tribute to the corrupt Black Lives Matters organisation, I pointed out the utter hypocrisy in relation to the soccer association of Ireland (FAI) insisting that League of Ireland and the international teams indulge in that ludicrous and meaningless gesture.


The hypocrisy I alluded to was that the FAI had not made one single comment regarding those who were protesting at the hosting of the World Cup by Qatar due to human rights abuses and the alleged corruption that had seen the event awarded to that country. 

The Norwegian equivalent of the FAI had seriously debated whether to take part in the event if they qualified, and other national teams including the Germans had made some form of protest.

As it happened, Norway’s participation was decided by their not having won a place. That had never been an issue with the FAI team of course, but to compound matters they played Qatar in a friendly match in the Aviva. And yes, of course they kneeled before it.

Who were they kneeling for? Certainly not for the 4,000 slaves who the Global Slavery Index estimated were living as chattels of the Qatar elite in 2018. Nor for the more than 6,000 migrants workers who are believed to have lost their lives during the construction of the stadiums and facilities to host the World Cup.

The FAI are not unique of course. You will find little or no reference to human rights abuses in Qatar if you search the accounts and statements of our own hyperactive commentators on what is happening in Poland or Hungary where the exercise of the sovereign and civil and legal rights is still maintained. One of the reasons for that has been Qatar’s support for Hamas and its alleged role in bankrolling the international Palestinian solidarity movement which of course is run by the left.

Qatar has vast funds at its disposal, and while small in population this provides it with a large degree of clout not only among the extreme Islamist groups and their leftist allies, but through its other donations including to respected bodies such as the Brookings Institute.

The western left has always maintained a hypocritical silence on the abuse and terror directed by this state and other Islamist allies against their own political opposition – including left-wing activists in Gaza, as well as gay people, women’s groups, trade unions and journalists. Then again, much of the left accepted all of that over the generations when it was taking place in the police states of eastern Europe and Cuba.

Qatar and the World Cup provides a fascinating insight into where late-stage rampant consumerism – of which professional soccer and its best known teams and players is one of the leading totems – clashes with the reality of how corporate finance operates. The Qatari ruling class of a small number of vastly wealthy families is a key player in finance and regional politics, as underlined by its ability to “buy” the World Cup, the audience for all of this is conflicted.

That conflict comes not only from the fact that there are slaves in Qatar and that thousands died so that billions of people could watch soccer on their TVs, but that the Islamic nation offends against some of the other totems of western consumerism. Chief amongst those concerns is the whole LBGBT+ thing – as well as the treasured right to get trollied while watching a match.

Both are rights of course. As are the right not to be owned by another person, or to face the prospect of falling to your death every day you go to work. But then, the liberal left has been too busy with pushing extraneous and petty matters in open societies where slavery ended 200 years ago, and which provide full legal and civil rights to construction workers and gay people, to bother overmuch with the actual slavery and terror and abuse of gay people in places like Qatar and China and Cuba and Iran, which in the infantile imagination of your average western leftie are “progressive.”

All of those things will still exist when the World Cup ends and after some soccer player maybe becomes a Warholian 15 minute hero for wearing an armband in front of some billionaire who is laughing at them. They can stop fooling themselves: the complicity is in being there. Resistance is not some virtue signalling after the deed has been done and the bank account topped up.

Matt Treacy has published a number of books including histories of 
the Republican Movement and of the Communist Party of Ireland. 

The World Cup In Qatar Highlights Hypocrisy Of Western Left

 Caoimhin O’Muraile ☭ In 2010 the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) announced to a bewildered football world that the country who would host the 2022 World Cup was to be Qatar. 

It is not the first country which springs to mind when talking about international football. In fact, generally speaking, many people had barely heard of the place. The temperatures out there are more akin to frying eggs than playing a physical game like football. The heat is phenomenal and even in November ranges from 27 degrees to 30 degrees which is why the farce which FIFA call a tournament is being played in the winter, thus disrupting various countries domestic seasons. These temperatures could damage players as sun stroke is a permanent possibility. Respiratory problems could also occur thus keeping players out of the game for some time. Let’s hope not but the possibility exists. I remember the 1970 World Cup in Mexico which was hot enough but all the same playable (many believe the competition and England’s failure to retain the Jules Rimet Trophy cost Harold Wilson his premiership, a long story for another blog) the game is not playable in Qatar.

For supporters, that is those silly enough to go to this hell on earth, the Qataris have been cunning. The country, due to religious reasons, does not sell alcohol but promised that for the duration of the competition fans could purchase drink at certain designated areas of the stadia. This promise, now all tickets have been sold, has been reneged on and supporters will not be able to purchase alcohol at the match. This is not natural - going to a football match and being unable to drink alcohol. FIFA should, and no doubt were, aware of these rules but perhaps hoped the Qataris would be good to their word and allow limited drinking. It is a fucking disgrace. The needs of supporters have been ignored by the hosts all in the name of religion. So, their religion forbids alcohol, OK I get that, so why hold a competition there which is well known supporters of like a drink? Simple answer, money. Qatar is a rich country, meaning the elite are mega wealthy and the majority of people are very poor. The whole concept of selecting this country to host world footballs biggest tournament stinks of corruption from top to bottom.

Now, and more important than any of the above Qatar has a terrible record on human rights. Gay and Lesbian people are banned and have to practice their private lives in secrecy. In Qatar male homosexuality is illegal and carries a heavy fine and/or up to seven years in jail. It can also carry the death penalty for Muslims under Sharia law. The Qatar government does not allow people to campaign for LGBTQ (Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender and Queer) rights and any demonstrations in support of these rights is quickly suppressed. Though the death penalty for Muslims who practice this sexual preference is there, no record exists of it being carried out.

Workers' rights do not exist, neither does health and safety legislation at work. Since the competition was awarded to Qatar more than 6,000 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh to name but a few have lost their lives building the infrastructure for the competition. This includes the very impressive stadia, a metro transport service and a special new airport. All this has been achieved on the backs and blood of slave migrant labour. Between 2011 and 2020 more than 6,500 deaths have occurred in Qatar of migrant workers since the country won, or bought, the right to host the World Cup. Data from the embassies of India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka revealed:

there were 5,927 deaths of migrant workers in the period 2011-2020. Separately, data from Pakistan’s embassy in Qatar reported a further 824 deaths of Pakistani workers in the decade 2010-2020” (The Guardian). 

The actual death toll could well be much higher than these figures because they do not include deaths of workers from a number of countries which send large numbers of workers to Qatar including the Philippines and Kenya. Nick McGeehan, a director at Fair Square Projects, an advocacy group specialising in labour rights in the Gulf said:

A very significant proportion of migrant workers who have died since 2011 were only in the country because Qatar won the right to host the World Cup.

Many workers have not been paid and are forbidden from leaving the country which, for them, is now a prison. Workers were promised lucrative employment in Qatar only to find when they arrived the conditions and pay, if they received any pay, were far from expectations. One man from India paid an employment agency 1000 rupees for a job as a cleaner. He was there one week, found out he could not get out and committed suicide!

It is noticeable to see players like Tottenham’s Harry Kane tried to make a protest, or went through the motions of, in support of LGBTQ people by telling the competition organisers and England he would be wearing a “rainbow” armband showing his support. The Qatari authorities told FIFA any player displaying this sort of emblem would be in breach of their law. Needless to say, England then told Kane he would not be allowed to wear his armband which he dutifully obliged by not doing so. If the player felt such a strong surge of conscience he should have worn the band regardless. This was a superficial show of support for the oppressed minority with no real meaning behind it because the first brush with so-called authority and he backed down. 

All these players with plastic guilt complexes should not have made themselves available for selection by their national team managers in the first place. Perhaps more to the point, all these countries who shout about human rights or lack of in Qatar should have refused to participate in this competition. The truth is, when it comes to money all principles go out of the window, that is if such principles existed solidly in the first place. After all, did many countries on the command of the United States not boycott the 1980 Olympic games in Moscow? This boycott, ordered by President Ronald Reagan, was against the then USSR military presence in Afghanistan, a presence invited by the then Afghan government. Women in Afghanistan were delighted with the Soviet presence because it meant they could now work, which they were banned from doing by the Mujahadin (Muslim fundamentalists) similar to Qatar where human rights are trampled on, including those of women. Oddly enough there is no boycott of the 2022 World Cup, unlike the 1980 Moscow Olympics! Double standards and pure hypocrisy by these, have us believe, freedom loving western countries who support such a regime as that in Qatar by sending teams to compete. Echoes of the 1936 Berlin Olympics possibly?

The World Cup, which should never have been held in Qatar, just goes to prove when it comes to money all bets are off regarding principles and concerns for workers and minority rights including those of women. 

As a football fan myself, even this modern bastardised version of the once great game, will not be watching this farce called the World Cup on principle. It will not make a scrap of difference I know but I will feel better. It will not be on my television, I’d rather watch The Big Match Revisited, old games from the seventies and eighties. If the World Cup was being held in a normal country, then yes it would be something to look forward to. To watch this competition, played in the blood-soaked pitches of over 6,000 workers would, to me, be hypocritical.

Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent 
Socialist Republican and Marxist

FIFA World Cup ⚽ Qatar

Anthony McIntyre  đźŹ´‍☠️ Just in through the door from the chemist, my son is sprawled out on the settee watching some game Mexico is involved in.

Who the opposition is I don't know. On her chair tucked away beside one of this home's many bookshelves my wife is most likely telling some far right hater of refugees where to go. She does a lot of that. 

I turned to face her with my arms folded, back to the TV, and my son took the bait. I am refusing to recognise the World Cup. He groaned and moved to tell me who was playing. My response, a curt no interest. Of course I was winding him up, but thus far have refused to watch a minute's play and have not the slightest intention of doing so.

My wife then said to me imagine Saudi Arabia beating Argentina. I was tempted to say that the Saudis are quite adept at beating people, often to death, but pulled back when I considered that Argentina had also been a high achiever in that particular blood sport. What they both had in common were the fingerprints of the US State Department left at the scene of the crime. Before leaving the room to scribble this, my parting shot was anybody fearful of being chopped up on return to the Kingdom for losing has to stand a good chance of becoming a world beater.

There are some countries represented at the World Cup in Qatar, in which it is dangerous to dissent. Iran is one. Therefore, the public display of solidarity by the Iranian men's team with the women of Iran in their battle against the country's theocracy was in such sharp contrast with the timidity of the England and Wales teams. When ordered by FIFA and their respective Football Associations not to wear the One Love armband, the Three Lions and their Welsh counterparts rather than vent a roar of defiance emitted a meow of compliance. They had bid successfully to become card carrying members of the Groucho Marx club where the motto is Those are my principles. If you don't like them, I have others. After initially promising to wear the now verboten armband Kane and Bale backed down when threatened with a yellow card by FIFA. Here was an opportunity, with cameras from every country across the globe in place, to put it up to an alliance of theocrats and kleptocrats - the bigots of Qatar and the gangsters of Thiefa. Yet, all we got were yellow cowards avoiding yellow cards

Between them, Fifa and Qatari authorities - eager to keep the gravy train on the tracks - have robbed the World Cup of its prestige as the planet's premier sporting event. From the stars to the sewers the drop has been as swift as the retraction of Kane and Bale's undercarriage. 

A risk free stance is placebo protest. If Kane and Bale raise their arms in salute to goals scored it will be a limp wristed affair. A raised hand that could not be held aloft in support of human rights might as well be used for scratching balls. But they would have to go to the Iran dressing room to find them.

⏩ Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Thiefa

Peter Anderson ⚽ And so, it begins. The most controversial World Cup ever is up and running in Qatar. 

The opening game was a howler. Qatar faced Ecuador in the curtain raiser and it was shockingly poor . . .  apparently. I couldn't gather enough interest to tune in. Much like Mackers, I would love to boycott this World Cup, though I know I won't. In fact, I am writing this while the England game is on in the background! A winter World Cup, played in a country with an awful Human Rights record, which greased palms to land the tournament and has exploited migrant workers, is enough to turn any fan off watching this competition . . .  but it is the World Cup and if the footy is good then we will tune in, no matter the stench.

Before a ball was kicked there was already more controversy. Qatar banned beer from the stadiums at the last minute. Despite having 12 years to formulate an alcohol policy, Qatar waited until the last possible moment to shit the bed and give in to the religious nutcases. In one way it is a good decision to save the poor fans from having to drink over-processed American pishwater, but I'm sure the fans won't see it like that, especially as alcohol is still available inside the stadium for VIP fans. For VIP read "rich".

We also had the decision by FIFA to threaten England with a yellow card for Harry Kane if he wore the captain's rainbow armband. Qatar can't even respect football's effort to eradicate homophobia from the game, and FIFA are backing them over the English FA. Despicable! So, at the beginning of the England game we had the England team line up with Kane not wearing his proper armband. The Iranian team then decided not to sing their national anthem in solidarity with the Iranian women's protest. There is an argument that if Russia are banned from world football, then why are Iran playing? At least we saw that protest from the players which was great to see.

The game finished 6-2 to England, no shock there. England will be relieved to have got off to a good start. In tournament footy, momentum is all. England had a shocker of a Nations' League campaign, so there are reasonable concerns from the English press and pundits about their prospects in Qatar. Clearly their centre-backs are not good enough. Maguire, Stones and Dier have had a poor starts to the EPL and didn't play well in the Nations' League, but they have played well in previous tournaments. You would have to expect that the better teams will take advantage of England's weak spot, but a semi-final and a final in the last two tournaments suggest otherwise.

Personally, I will be supporting England and Wales, and hope they both get out of this tricky group. Although it would be better for the EPL if they get put out as early as possible. So, I'm off for my tea and then I'll sit down and watch Wales v the USA and see if I can muster some enthusiasm.

Peter Anderson is a Unionist with a keen interest in sports.

It Is The World Cup

Anthony McIntyre ☠ Beginning with the 1970 World Cup final in Mexico, as a 12 year old, I have watched every tournament. 

It is a form of ritualised devotion, not unlike the observance religiously adhered to by many Catholics when they dutifully attend the Novena in Clonard Monastery year after year. 

The cynic in me is bursting to say that at least my devotion is to something real. The Catholic might retort that there is not much real about this World Cup, pointing to the fraudulent way in which it was gifted to the host Qatar. The Catholic would have a point.

The following tournament I began watching as a sixteen year old teenager in Crumlin Road prison, turning 17 during it. The Netherlands lost and I was disappointed. The Dutch were the team of the competition by far.

On a couple of occasions I was taken right to the wire by the prison regime, just managing to watch the 1978 final staged in Argentina four days before I lost my political status and was delivered into the cruel custody of the H-Blocks. I knew at the time that Argentina under its military dictatorship had an atrocious human rights record and would use the event to project a benign image across the globe. I watched it anyway and rooted for the host side throughout. So engrossed was I that when the Netherlands hit the woodwork in the final, with only seconds remaining of normal time, I almost succumbed to premature heart failure. 

For years after that I never saw or listened to a game of any sort, nor read a match report. All television, radio and newspapers were denied to the Blanketmen as criminals in peaked cap uniform unsuccessfully tried to force into another uniform people who were not criminals. Prison uniform would be worn by the screws, not by us. 

Fortunately my sojourn on the blanket protest was sandwiched in between the Argentine and Spain finals. The 1982 tournament we watched in fits and starts. Much of it depended on whether we were out of the cells on the alternate day roster introduced by prison management post-blanket but while we were still officially Non-Conforming Prisoners. NCP was the term the regime tagged onto us and ran as a binary opposite to management's preferred prisoner, the ODCs - Ordinary Decent Criminals. The main concession was that NCPs and ODCs alike got to watch the final between Italy and West Germany.

By 1986, what we did not see we could listen to on the radio in our cells. That was my last World Cup final in prison. The highlight of the competition apart from Maradona's super goal was Pat Livingstone's response to it. He lay prostrate on his back in front of the English screw manning the gate, arms and legs moving in sync in some form of upside down doggie paddle, cackling and gloating.

I was still a prisoner for the 1990 World Cup but managed to be out on a week's parole and watched the final in the Rose and Crown pub in the Lower Ormeau Road. A disappointing Argentina were dragged into the final by the dogged determination of Maradona. But even he could not overcome the Germans on Italian turf. 

With jail behind me, all future World Cup tournaments were viewed in the comfort of my own home or the pub. Since 2010 I have watched them almost exclusively in the company of my son, as avid about soccer as myself. So, when I didn't go in for today's opening game he told me he couldn't believe that I was depriving myself of a feast of football. I was told that it is what we live for during each four year cycle; it was our last chance to watch Messi and Ronaldo grace the pinnacle of world soccer; I would suffer severe withdrawal symptoms having to wait until Christmas to watch soccer again. All his cajoling failed to persuade me. I simply explained I had no interest in watching any of the Qatar games. 

He is 17 so I don't expect him to closely follow the associated politics. Nor had I the remotest interest in virtue signalling to him. I am happy for him to do what he has done since he was five.

Greasing the right palms had won Qatar the right to host World Cup 2022. Much of the grease had been derived from the sweat of exploited workers who had the job of constructing the stadia and associated infrastructure. It is simply impossible to overlook:

the questions around the voting process where Qatar won its bid and the corrupt FIFA officials at their centre, the treatment of migrant workers who have allegedly died by the thousands while the stadiums were being built, and the lack of LGBTQ rights in the country.

Not watching the World Cup is like a Catholic refraining from Holy Communion after a lifetime of receiving it. I don't even know if I will stick it out - my son let me know during today's game that he missed my company. There was me thinking he would have enjoyed the quietude afforded him by the absence of a grumpy dad who sighs, effs, blinds, and shakes his fist or flips the bird in the direction of the television screen.  Surely, he cannot be experiencing invective cold turkey.

It is hard to take to a game with any enthusiasm when the same sort of institutionalised othering of gay people that is endemic in Qatar was so manifest overnight in Colorado where a gunman consumed with hatred or perhaps Christian love - if there is a difference, I am unaware of it - shot dead five people in a gay club. Qatar's state religion is Islam, which can be every bit as wedded to hate theology as US Dominionism and Christian nationalism.

If I opt to watch any games with my son, it will be because I have relented not repented. Hate theology should be given no quarter. That should have worked out as no Qatar.

⏩ Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre

No Qatar

Peter Anderson ⚽️ With the World Cup in Qatar looming, there have been some interesting opinions on show lately.

ITV did a great documentary last week, highlighting the awful abuse of the migrant workers who built the stadia where the games will be played. They spoke with the family of a Jordanian building manager who took the side of striking workers. The strikers claimed to have not been paid for months. The Jordanian was arrested and jailed for 3 years in a fast tracked and unlawful trial. His family claim that the Qataris wanted him silenced in the run up to the World Cup. The docu also highlighted the shocking lack of rights for women, gays and other minorities and pointed out that Qatar supplies the UK with much of its gas, implying the UK is not doing enough to pressure the Qataris on their awful human rights record.

At this point we get into the realms of moral relativism. Is it the UK's, or indeed FIFA's, job to meddle in Qatar's affairs ? Internation relations and moral relativism are minefields to be argued over in loftier tomes than my column, but it does beg the question if the World Cup should even be played in Qatar in the first place.

Liverpool's manager addressed this question during his weekend presser and as usual he was quite brilliant. Gotta love 'ol Klopp! He berated the journalists for not attacking the original decision with enough vigour back in 2012. Back then the World Cups in Russia and Qatar were announced at the same time. It was obvious that FIFA had obtained back handers from two states eager to launder their dirty images by staging the world's second favourite sporting competition. Questions were asked but not enough opposition was galvanised to reverse the decision. Klopp told the gathered journalists to stop asking managers and players to condemn this or that, we are where we are: Russia got their games and Qatar are about to get theirs.

FIFA's defence is that they gave the games to countries where football needs developing, and that is a righteous policy which worked in the USA and South Africa, but the world and his wife knows the real reason Russia and Qatar got the nod: corruption, pure and simple. In FIFA's defence, it must be a nightmare trying to negotiate the minefield of representing the rights of women, gays and the disabled across the globe in countries with very different morals and values. For example, the ITV docu railed against the Qatari's state-run "gay conversion" clinics, but these also exist in the USA. Having said that, FIFA have lost all the moral high ground by taking bribes. The Blatter years were an absolute disgrace, and I don't think much has changed.

But Klopp's best point was that only one stadium existed in Qatar in 2012, and that many needed to be built. To build 8 large stadia leaves an awful carbon footprint for constructions that will never get used after the games finish. All the stadia would have to be built quickly and cheaply by imported labour. That labour would be poorly paid, relative to Qatari standards, and would have to work in temperatures reaching 50c in summer. This should have been enough to render the World Cup as unplayable in Qatar. But money talks.

So, for Klopp the players and managers are in a bind. The World Cup is going ahead and they have to go, duty calls, but do the pundits and journos? Those two socially conscious ex-football players, Neville and Lineker, seem to think so. They have plenty to say on the rights of UK citizens and the ills of the Tory government, yet seem happy to take the Qatari dollar and to hell with workers' rights. Neville appeared on Have I Got News For You and got absolutely slaughtered. He asked the panel the question: Is it (the world Cup trophy) coming home? And the reply was: Is your reputation! Ian Hislop pointing out that criticising the Qataris while taking their dollars is a tad hypocritical. Neville claimed that he is going to Qatar because it is better to criticise the regime from the inside. We'll see how much criticism he brings forth, but I suspect that it won't be much.

A few weeks out from the start of the World Cup and I have mixed feelings about the whole shebang. In my youth the World Cup was the greatest possible thing imaginable. As I get older the modern world and FIFA are doing their best to taint it. If the football is as good as Russia 2018, there may still be a partial redemption.


Peter Anderson is a Unionist with a keen interest in sports.

Queer That Quatar Was Chosen

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