Careful, FIFA is not happy

[asthfghl]

FIFA on Qatar World Cup: Nations told to stick to football, not politics

Stick to football, you say? Hmmm, interesting. Very interesting.

So you take a bag of money and start handing it out so that everyone can approve your shenanigans. The whole story is that you want to line up your image with that of the attractive countries by hosting a giant sports forum where you can push your wholesale propaganda. You've got the money, so why not?

Yes, you sure want to polish your image, to appear tolerant, peaceful, modern, contemporary. What better way to do that by buying off the football world cup? But suuure, this ain't "politics", no way. Or at least according to FIFA it is not. Because everything that happens around these tournaments is not politics according to them.

FIFA has come under fierce criticism, including from the likes of the BBC (quite well known for being a professionally conservative channel) who, instead of showing the opening World CUp ceremony, showed interviews with critics of the organizers and commenting on the human rights abuses during the construction of the Qatar facilities - something that the Qataris are seriously criticized about, but they've persistently turned a deaf ear on.

Everything about this World Cup is for the purpose of politics, everything. The very existence of such an event in the state of Qatar is 100% politics.

Former FIFA chairman Blatter himself (mind you, a guy not known for being clean of corruption) has said that holding the championship in Qatar was a mistake. He has already spoken openly about the then president of France, Sarkozy, who pushed UEFA president Michel Platini into pressuring FIFA on behalf of Qatar. Before that there had been an agreement to give the World Cup 2022 of the United States, but that was scrapped. Thing is, France was expecting at the time to sell some war planes to Qatar. And that's why both UEFA and FIFA were "pressured" for the tournament to go to Qatar.

But sure, "let's stick to football", eh?

Over 6,000 workers have lost their lives while building the stadiums from scratch (on someone's whim in a country with zero football tradition), and freedom of speech there is a completely unattainable mirage while the opening ceremony and all the accompanying events have passed under the banner of meaningless slogans for peace, dreams (???), for giving a hand to the people in need, etc.

This, according to FIFA, is not politics. Dying workers being treated like slaves is not politics. The lack of human rights in the host country is not politics. What can we expect then in the near future - North Korea hosting a World Cup? Why not? FIFA seems to be sending out "messages" wholesale. And for them nothing is "politics", everything is sport, peace and love. Apparently, Qatar is a great footballing power that deserves the World Cup at their turf, because, well, peace and tolerance and all that stuff. Or maybe they're a country with a strong interest in football? Who knows. or maybe they're a great place that demonstrates all modern moral values that FIFA strives to promote? Of course, they are neither of these things. So why are we being sold the story that this has nothing to do with politics at all?

No, now is not the time to talk about politics, FIFA insists. This is probably not the time to talk about the corruption in FIFA itself, either. It's never the proper time for that. So hush hush, stop talking about that now, will you?

How audacious one must be to give the World Cup to a country that has NEVER been known to have ANYTHING to do with football (and which has had to PAY fans to actually go to the matches) but one that is known for violating human rights on a daily basis - and then to say that no one can criticize you because that's "politics", and politics has no place in sports?

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/nov/18/fans-paid-to-attend-world-cup-by-qatar-have-daily-allowance-cancelled

This is even beyond the level of our very local parliamentarian impudence here on the Balkans. And you know, we're... well, the Balkans.

At the same time, EVEN while the World Cup is ongoing, the Qataris do whatever they please, whenever they pleaes, and still find it normal. At the last moment, they banned beer on the events, and they had previously vowed not to. Allegedly:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/18/sports/soccer/world-cup-beer-qatar.html

At the last minute, they canceled the contracts for the fake fans without warning. At the last minute it turned out that they were going to use the events to stage lectures on Islam in front of the whole world:

https://www.dailypioneer.com/2022/india/zakir-naik-in-qatar-to-lecture-on-islam-during-world-cup.html

Yeah... because they're such a huge football power, Qatar had to pay fans $10 per person and let them into the stadiums for free so they wouldn’t end up with empty stands (what a great message, FIFA). Except it came out in the media and they - again at the last minute - decided to inform the hired "fans" that no, they were not getting paid after all, and their services were no longer needed. That wasn't going to be good for their image, now that they've been caught in the act.

But in the meantime, the idea of inviting an Islamic preacher to preach "a series of religious lectures to fans at the international sports forum" has come to their mind rather quickly, hasn't it? But FIFA hardly considers this political, eh?

These guys do whatever they please, whenever they please, and their biggest selling point is how much money they've poured ($220 billion) into making the World Cup happen (in a country where most people obviously don't care about football), while people in their part of the world are starving.

But FIFA (whose former president has revealed how it all happened) still believes there's nothing wrong with any of that and we should not put politics in football? Whoah.

At the World Cup opening ceremony, led by Morgan Freeman, as one of the world's most famous singers (Jung Kook) was singing to the world at a packed stadium, "Look who we are, we're the dreamers, We'll make things happen because we believe", the BBC was showing footage of an interview with Amnesty International human rights activists about the human rights abuses, with presenter Ros Atkins saying that there has never been another championship with such a negative impact on the environment.

Qatar's government-sponsored Al Jazeera, meanwhile, is pushing something that smacks suspiciously of propaganda, showing construction workers meeting football players with the claim: "If it weren't for this great game, these two groups of people would never have met" Not that this isn't true, but when you have over 6,000 dead construction workers, I don't think THAT's the focus you should be putting on the whole story.

Current FIFA president Gianni Infantino (who believes politics should be kept out of football) has hinted that he feels solidarity with migrant workers... Wow. Annoyed by the level of this bigotry, ex-England captain Alan Shearer reminded that (despite the pompous nonsense of "solidarity"), on THIS very subject, FIFA had been asked to allocate $400m to a compensation fund for the dead and injured during the preparations for the World Cup (over 6,000 dead does sound like a war-time number), but the offer was refused. But yeah.. "solidarity".

To make matters even more ridiculous about this "non-political" World Cup (given to Qatar because of war planes purchase and after who knows how much money being slipped under the table, an event which is also going to include lectures on Islam), its mascot is something that closely resembles the good old ghost Casper... in the state where over 6,000 workers have died building stadiums from scratch, in the middle of nowhere, so that a country with zero football tradition (and worse: no interest in this sport) could polish its image and draw the world's attention so that it could show them whatever propaganda it wants.

But sure. No politics in football, please. Just shut up and keep watching the games, lest you make FIFA unhappy.

Comments

[abomvubuso]

Stopped watching and caring about football a while ago. And this is coming from a former active semi-professional football player. Now I stick to watching/playing rugby. One of my top 5 life decisions so far.

[fridi]

Another story:
Victor Orban, the Hungarian president, recently attended a match of the Hungarian national team wearing a fan scarf showing a map of Great Hungary, a nostalgic revisionist idea of a greater Hungary including territories of neighboring countries. The Romanian and Ukrainian governments have reacted swiftly to protest this act.

Orban just responded, "Let's not involve politics in football".

It was HIM who involved politics in football in the first place.

https://www.euronews.com/2022/11/22/viktor-orban-criticised-for-wearing-scarf-with-greater-hungary-map

[dewline]

Yes, he certainly did. He's made it clear that he hopes to build his own ambitions upon Ukrainian and Romanian bones. Among those of others much closer to home. For starters.

[luzribeiro]

If there's one thing that enrages me to the point of bringing out violent tendencies, it's hypocrisy.

[kiaa]

And there's more. FIFA has threatened team captains with penalties if they dare to wear a band on their arms supporting the One Love cause (an act of support for the LGBTQ community). In response, the German team symbolically posed with their hands on their mouths before the game vs Japan (which they sensationally lost by the way). Germany is now facing retribution from FIFA. And Der Bild, the influential German newspaper insists that the German team should boycott the World Cup.

[airiefairie]

There is awesome stuff on this world cup as well...
https://www.ctvnews.ca/sports/japanese-world-cup-fans-stay-after-match-to-clean-trash-from-stadium-1.6165600