Football!

No, no not U.S. football but soccer.

November 20th the Soccer World Cup begins in Qatar and it is loaded with a lot complaints about human rights violation in Qatar.

European Football Group Demands FIFA Remedy Migrant Worker Abuses
FIFA’s Shut Up and Play Mindset Alienates Fans and Football Associations
Human Rights Watch
By Michael Page
November 7, 2022


Last Sunday, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Working Group on Human and Labour Rights, representing 10 football associations, reaffirmed their support for a remedy fund for Qatar’s migrant workers. UEFA demanded that FIFA, global football’s governing body, “deliver concrete answers” on this issue. This much-needed intervention was likely in part a reaction to FIFA’s letter to qualifying teams last week telling them to “please, let us now focus on football.”

FIFA’s unofficial “shut up and play” policy is especially ghastly viewed against the backdrop of the past decade where thousands of migrant workers were subject to wage theft and families lost sole breadwinners to unexplained deaths. UEFA has rightly recognized Qatar’s promising recent reforms while also demanding remedy given that much of it came too late or was weakly enforced for many workers to benefit.

FIFA has evaded previous calls to commit to remedying migrant worker abuses, and it is possible they are bowing to Qatari pressure. Last week, Qatar’s Labour Minister rejected calls for a compensation fund, while FIFA has for months issued non-committal remarks on establishing a fund to address the organization’s human rights responsibilities. FIFA President Gianni Infantino meanwhile has made a string of remarks whitewashing the serious abuses migrant workers faced building tournament infrastructure in Qatar.

But the world is literally watching. FIFA’s strategy to bury their heads in the sand and buy time until November 20, hoping that the excitement for the game overshadows all other concerns, is failing.

But it is not foreign workers it is also us, LGBTQ players and staff who will be having problems.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Then there is all the other stuff wrong with having it in Qatar…

A Beginner's Guide to Everything Wrong with the Qatar World Cup
Corruption, human rights and worker abuses, the most expensive beer in the world… It's not a great list!
Vice
By Fred Garratt-Stanley
14 November 2022<


The stage is set for the world's first Winter World Cup. Shiny new stadiums, metro links, and infrastructure have been built, but as the world's eyes settle on Qatar, the Arab state continues to be dogged by negative stories. The most controversial World Cup in history, the 2022 tournament has been making headlines ever since FIFA (football's international governing body) named Qatar as hosts in 2010. Corruption scandals, human rights abuses, and sweltering playing conditions have become synonymous with the looming championship.

[…]

Bribery

In May 2015, Swiss authorities raided a Zurich hotel and arrested seven high-ranking FIFA officials. This followed a lengthy FBI campaign to expose a decades-long criminal conspiracy at the top of the game. The crux of the matter? FIFA officials had been awarding votes to prospective World Cup hosts (chiefly Russia and Qatar) in exchange for bribes.

[…]

Migrant worker deaths

When Qatari capital Doha's glittering new stadia are unveiled this November, spare a thought for those who have paid for this tournament with their lives. In February 2021, a Guardian investigation revealed that 6,500 migrant workers had died in Qatar since the World Cup was awarded, mostly men from South Asia. Under the Kafala sponsorship system, which turns employees into indentured labourers unable to leave the country without an exit visa insured by their employer, these workers experienced conditions likened to modern slavery.

[…]

Attitudes towards LGBTQ+ people

Another ethical concern is the persecution of LGBTQ+ people in Qatar, a state where homosexuality is illegal and punishable by imprisonment. Adelaide United's Australian left-back Josh Cavallo, the world's only openly gay top-flight men's footballer, has expressed concern about visiting Qatar, while many LGBTQ+ fans fear a hostile reception. Depressingly, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly suggested that LGBT fans should “be respectful” and show “flex and compromise” if they plan to attend the World Cup. The FA have assured gay English fans that they won't be arrested for public displays of affection (yep, what a grim sentence). But ultimately, travelling fans aren't the main victims — LGBTQ+ Qatari citizens face hostility all year round. Tournament organisers will put on a good show, using flashy architecture and football's unrivalled PR power to politely hoodwink visitors. But once everyone's gone, LGBT Qatari people will continue to suffer.

Then there is the fact that it is in the dessert!

They will be playing in over 100 degrees in the shade!

Then there are the spectators,

England football fans are generally known as a rowdy, topless, lager-guzzling bunch. But they'll struggle to match this reputation in Qatar. Booze will only be served in Doha's four and five-star hotel bars and restaurants, which will inevitably be packed. And even if you reach the bar, you're coughing up £12-15 for an average pint. In fact, Qatar topped the charts in 2021 as the most expensive place in the world to buy a beer.

That is if you can find any beer.

The New York Times says that the beer booths have to be moved!

The message came from the highest levels of the Qatari state: The beer tents must be moved, and there would be no discussion about it.

With the opening game of the World Cup only days away, Qatari organizers have been working hurriedly in recent days to relocate Budweiser-branded beer stations at eight stadiums after a sudden demand that three people with knowledge of the belated change said had come from inside the country’s royal family.

The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss sensitive planning details for the tournament. World Cup officials appeared to confirm the changes in a statement, however. Budweiser said it only learned of the new plan on Saturday — eight days before the tournament’s first game.

The decision to move the beer stations appeared to be rooted in concern that the prominent presence of alcohol at stadiums during the monthlong World Cup would unsettle the local population and thus represent a potential security problem. But it also highlighted an issue that has stalked the buildup to the first World Cup in the Arab world, and that is expected to be contentious throughout the tournament in Qatar, a conservative Muslim country where access to alcohol is tightly controlled.

Ever since FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, awarded the hosting rights to Qatar in December 2010, tournament organizers have grappled with balancing the obligations they signed up to fulfill — which include the sale of alcohol and providing promotional space for Budweiser, one of FIFA’s biggest sponsors — with concerns about upsetting, or alienating, a domestic constituency that has chafed at some of the culture clash inherent in bringing a traditionally beer-soaked event to a Muslim nation.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In a November 10th article on the Human Rights Watch they wrote,

On November 8, Khalid Salman, a 2022 FIFA Qatar World Cup Ambassador, described homosexuality as “damage in the mind” in an interview with ZDF, a TV channel in Germany. He also remarked that being gay is “haram,” which is Arabic for “forbidden.”

[…]

On November 8, Khalid Salman, a 2022 FIFA Qatar World Cup Ambassador, described homosexuality as “damage in the mind” in an interview with ZDF, a TV channel in Germany. He also remarked that being gay is “haram,” which is Arabic for “forbidden.”

Salman’s suggestions are harmful and wrong. The Qatari government should reject this prejudice but has yet to do so. False information can be harmful to lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, including residents of Qatar, who already face discrimination, violence, and state-sponsored conversion practices. Comments like these only fuel existing bias, undermine basic human rights, and further exclude LGBT people from the public sphere. 

In October, Human Rights Watch documented arbitrary arrests and ill-treatment in detention of LGBT Qataris by the Preventive Security Department. As a requirement for their release, security forces mandated that transgender women detainees attend conversion therapy sessions at a government-sponsored “behavioral healthcare” center. Despite sustained pressure, Qatari authorities have refused to repeal laws criminalizing same-sex relations.

Did you see that about us? State-sponsored conversion practices!

Think about this player that was written about in CNN,

After announcing his sexuality last year Cavallo said that he would be “scared” to play in Qatar, where same-sex activity is prohibited.

In response to Cavallo’s fears at the time, Nasser Al Khater, the chief executive of the tournament’s organizing committee, told CNN: “On the contrary, we welcome him here in the state of Qatar, we welcome him to come and see even prior to the World Cup … Nobody feels threatened here, nobody feels unsafe.”

“I know personally, if I go there, I will be protected because I’m in the public eye,” Cavallo told CNN anchor Amanda Davies.

“But it’s not me that I’m worried about. It’s those ones that are messaging me. It’s those people that aren’t in the public eye that are scared to even be themselves and walk the streets.”

“To see that we’re heading to a country that’s criminalizing people like myself … It’s quite concerning,” added Cavallo.

What about the spectators who are not in high visibility as the players? Would you feel safe?

LGBT football fans told to be respectful at Qatar World Cup
BBC News
By Jasmine Andersson
October 26, 2022


LGBT football fans who attend the World Cup in Qatar should show "a little bit of flex and compromise", Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has said.

Speaking to LBC on Wednesday, he told fans travelling from England and Wales to be "respectful of the host nation", where same-sex activity is illegal.

Within hours, the prime minister's official spokesman said LGBT fans should not be expected to "compromise who they are" if they visit Qatar for the World Cup.

Labour called Mr Cleverly's remarks "shockingly tone-deaf".

The Voice of America (VOA) said that some LGBTQ fans are going to stay away...

"As a lesbian woman, it's really hard for me to feel and think that we are going to a country where we don't know what could happen and how we could be safe," she said. "It was a really hard decision."

Nino de Rivera's concerns are shared by many LGBTQ soccer fans and their allies worldwide. Some have been mulling whether to attend the tournament, or even watch it on television.

The U.S. Men's Team (USMT) got a little dig in, though they can't show it in Qatar, the British Guardian wrote,

The US men’s team are showing their support for the LGBTQ community by way of a rainbow-themed logo at their training facility in Qatar as they prepare for this month’s World Cup.

Same-sex relationships are illegal in Qatar, and the host nation has been the subject of criticism for its LGBTQ policies as the World Cup approaches.

[...]

The rainbow badge, which will not be worn by the team during World Cup games, has been routinely displayed by US Soccer as a way to promote a spirit of inclusivity.

“Our rainbow badge has an important and consistent role in the identity of US Soccer,” US Soccer spokesman Neil Buethe told Reuters. “As part of our approach for any match or event, we include rainbow branding to support and embrace the LGBTQ community, as well as to promote a spirit of inclusiveness and welcoming to all fans across the globe.

The design features seven rainbow-colored vertical stripes below “USA” in dark blue letters and is part of the “Be The Change” initiative the team adopted in 2020 with the goal of inspiring action on social justice issues.

So with all these human rights issued why is the World Cup being held in Qatar, it is simple… $$$$ cha-ching $$$$! They out bid everyone else or made an offer they couldn't refuse.

What I would like to see is a player and TV viewer boycott of the games.