I don’t understand Lineker and Alex Scott’s stance earlier. For me it’s very #metoo
a couple of years ago, a bunch of Google employees walked out of the Google offices for 5 minutes in protest behind the #metoo movement. 5 minutes protest but walk back into their 6 figure jobs after their uprising.
You can’t have it both ways, and I heard Alex Scott’s rationale for being out there. “I could’ve stayed at home etc etc”.
Why didn’t she?
I’m completely on the same side as both of them re; their opinions, but it’s a bit incredulous they can take money from the bbc, a lot of money, and at the same time preach the moral high ground
I don’t understand Lineker and Alex Scott’s stance earlier. For me it’s very #metoo
a couple of years ago, a bunch of Google employees walked out of the Google offices for 5 minutes in protest behind the #metoo movement. 5 minutes protest but walk back into their 6 figure jobs after their uprising.
You can’t have it both ways, and I heard Alex Scott’s rationale for being out there. “I could’ve stayed at home etc etc”.
Why didn’t she?
I’m completely on the same side as both of them re; their opinions, but it’s a bit incredulous they can take money from the bbc, a lot of money, and at the same time preach the moral high ground
I don’t understand Lineker and Alex Scott’s stance earlier. For me it’s very #metoo
a couple of years ago, a bunch of Google employees walked out of the Google offices for 5 minutes in protest behind the #metoo movement. 5 minutes protest but walk back into their 6 figure jobs after their uprising.
You can’t have it both ways, and I heard Alex Scott’s rationale for being out there. “I could’ve stayed at home etc etc”.
Why didn’t she?
I’m completely on the same side as both of them re; their opinions, but it’s a bit incredulous they can take money from the bbc, a lot of money, and at the same time preach the moral high ground
So they shouldn’t work?
If they feel that strongly about it then no. We all have our beliefs and I don’t doubt that if I peeled my income back far enough, the company I work for has clients I don’t care for. However, as much as I agree with both their opinions, the front of each of them to take the stance that they have, yet still accept a very healthy wage is just wrong. If they feel that strongly about it, they just shouldn’t be there
I don’t understand Lineker and Alex Scott’s stance earlier. For me it’s very #metoo
a couple of years ago, a bunch of Google employees walked out of the Google offices for 5 minutes in protest behind the #metoo movement. 5 minutes protest but walk back into their 6 figure jobs after their uprising.
You can’t have it both ways, and I heard Alex Scott’s rationale for being out there. “I could’ve stayed at home etc etc”.
Why didn’t she?
I’m completely on the same side as both of them re; their opinions, but it’s a bit incredulous they can take money from the bbc, a lot of money, and at the same time preach the moral high ground
So they shouldn’t work?
If they feel that strongly about it then no. We all have our beliefs and I don’t doubt that if I peeled my income back far enough, the company I work for has clients I don’t care for. However, as much as I agree with both their opinions, the front of each of them to take the stance that they have, yet still accept a very healthy wage is just wrong. If they feel that strongly about it, they just shouldn’t be there
Exactly, they are studio based and don’t have to be in the country. The roving reporters, the ones embedded with the teams, the commentators etc, do have to be there to do their job. hypocrites the pair of them.
It generally seems to be the same with people of their ilk; listen to their opinions broadcast from their privileged positions (because their grandparents were "working class" you know), but when it comes to their money, step the fark back.
It must be hard for the people who have been generally dismissive of middle eastern cultures and also of lgbt rights to have to choose which they most dislike. The best position is probably to get on the whole "virtue signalling" bandwagon and ignore the conflicts.
So let's say Lineker and Scott didn't go. I'm working on the basis that all other TV presenters would hold similar views on Qatar and express them. They would also be criticised. So who presents?
Whether the location is a studio in Salford or a box in Doha, they would still be paid.
The Guardian has been able to report fearlessly on the dark side of sport - doping, corruption, rights abuses in big host nations like Russia, China and Qatar - because we don’t rely on shareholders or a billionaire owner with an ulterior motive. That leaves us free from commercial or political influence. Reporting like this is vital for democracy, for fairness and to demand better from the powerful.
Is the Guardian aware of the Charlton dossier and has started investigating fearlessly or do they only report fearlessly on the Premiership or top flight sport?
But we're quite happy to take $5m - and the rest - from multi billionaire Bill Gates for our 'Global Development Webpage'.
I don’t understand Lineker and Alex Scott’s stance earlier. For me it’s very #metoo
a couple of years ago, a bunch of Google employees walked out of the Google offices for 5 minutes in protest behind the #metoo movement. 5 minutes protest but walk back into their 6 figure jobs after their uprising.
You can’t have it both ways, and I heard Alex Scott’s rationale for being out there. “I could’ve stayed at home etc etc”.
Why didn’t she?
I’m completely on the same side as both of them re; their opinions, but it’s a bit incredulous they can take money from the bbc, a lot of money, and at the same time preach the moral high ground
I'm normally a big fan of the BBC but I had to switch off the coverage today.
Instead of us trying to lecture Qatar on what it should be doing better we could perhaps look a bit closer to home and solve our own issues first.
We have people who have come to our country looking for asylum being kept like cattle in 'Processing Centres' in abhorrent conditions which are widely recognised even by our own government as illegal.
We have MP's posting the locations of hotels putting up asylum seekers, which can only be with the intention of whipping up those on the far right to pay those hotels a visit.
We have a government trying to essentially remove the right to protest peacefully, and to all but remove the rights of employees to strike.
My local authority recently posted on social media a list of 'warm banks' where people could go this winter, such is the state of our country that not only are food banks essentially normalised but we now have families unable to eat or heat. Many of those will be nurses, police officers, carers etc who cannot afford to live on the pittance of a public sector salary they receive.
We have a government actively planning for rolling power cuts this year, taking us back to the 70's.
Those in Qatar must look at the UK and be absolutely laughing their backs off at us, thinking we are in any position to lecture them on what's right and what's not.
So let's say Lineker and Scott didn't go. I'm working on the basis that all other TV presenters would hold similar views on Qatar and express them. They would also be criticised. So who presents?
Whether the location is a studio in Salford or a box in Doha, they would still be paid.
I don't get the "hypocrite" argument.
Suggest trying not to air opinions, all the time you're staying in the very hotels, and earning your living while sitting in the very stadiums that caused so much misery to build.
As posted earlier; if they feel that strongly about it, broadcast from a studio in the UK and send a skeleton crew out to the veniews?
I don’t understand Lineker and Alex Scott’s stance earlier. For me it’s very #metoo
a couple of years ago, a bunch of Google employees walked out of the Google offices for 5 minutes in protest behind the #metoo movement. 5 minutes protest but walk back into their 6 figure jobs after their uprising.
You can’t have it both ways, and I heard Alex Scott’s rationale for being out there. “I could’ve stayed at home etc etc”.
Why didn’t she?
I’m completely on the same side as both of them re; their opinions, but it’s a bit incredulous they can take money from the bbc, a lot of money, and at the same time preach the moral high ground
I'm normally a big fan of the BBC but I had to switch off the coverage today.
Instead of us trying to lecture Qatar on what it should be doing better we could perhaps look a bit closer to home and solve our own issues first.
We have people who have come to our country looking for asylum being kept like cattle in 'Processing Centres' in abhorrent conditions which are widely recognised even by our own government as illegal.
We have MP's posting the locations of hotels putting up asylum seekers, which can only be with the intention of whipping up those on the far right to pay those hotels a visit.
We have a government trying to essentially remove the right to protest peacefully, and to all but remove the rights of employees to strike.
My local authority recently posted on social media a list of 'warm banks' where people could go this winter, such is the state of our country that not only are food banks essentially normalised but we now have families unable to eat or heat. Many of those will be nurses, police officers, carers etc who cannot afford to live on the pittance of a public sector salary they receive.
We have a government actively planning for rolling power cuts this year, taking us back to the 70's.
Those in Qatar must look at the UK and be absolutely laughing their backs off at us, thinking we are in any position to lecture them on what's right and what's not.
We don’t have the death penalty still for homosexuals and allow women to wear whatever they choose to. We also don’t bus in thousands of migrant workers into the country to work in 40 degree heat so they never see their families again.
So I’d say even with our immigration problem we’re doing a lot better human rights wise than they are.
The whole ‘we need to look at ourselves first’ is the laziest take so far from people. Like we wouldn’t be allow to criticise countries like Russia or North Korea because we have Tories in charge. Give me a break.
I don’t understand Lineker and Alex Scott’s stance earlier. For me it’s very #metoo
a couple of years ago, a bunch of Google employees walked out of the Google offices for 5 minutes in protest behind the #metoo movement. 5 minutes protest but walk back into their 6 figure jobs after their uprising.
You can’t have it both ways, and I heard Alex Scott’s rationale for being out there. “I could’ve stayed at home etc etc”.
Why didn’t she?
I’m completely on the same side as both of them re; their opinions, but it’s a bit incredulous they can take money from the bbc, a lot of money, and at the same time preach the moral high ground
I'm normally a big fan of the BBC but I had to switch off the coverage today.
Instead of us trying to lecture Qatar on what it should be doing better we could perhaps look a bit closer to home and solve our own issues first.
We have people who have come to our country looking for asylum being kept like cattle in 'Processing Centres' in abhorrent conditions which are widely recognised even by our own government as illegal.
We have MP's posting the locations of hotels putting up asylum seekers, which can only be with the intention of whipping up those on the far right to pay those hotels a visit.
We have a government trying to essentially remove the right to protest peacefully, and to all but remove the rights of employees to strike.
My local authority recently posted on social media a list of 'warm banks' where people could go this winter, such is the state of our country that not only are food banks essentially normalised but we now have families unable to eat or heat. Many of those will be nurses, police officers, carers etc who cannot afford to live on the pittance of a public sector salary they receive.
We have a government actively planning for rolling power cuts this year, taking us back to the 70's.
Those in Qatar must look at the UK and be absolutely laughing their backs off at us, thinking we are in any position to lecture them on what's right and what's not.
We don’t have the death penalty still for homosexuals and allow women to wear whatever they choose to. We also don’t bus in thousands of migrant workers into the country to work in 40 degree heat so they never see their families again.
So I’d say even with our immigration problem we’re doing a lot better human rights wise than they are.
The whole ‘we need to look at ourselves first’ is the laziest take so far from people. Like we wouldn’t be allow to criticise countries like Russia or North Korea because we have Tories in charge. Give me a break.
We absolutely exploit migrant labour in a very similar fashion to Qatar.
Granted we don't exploit it to build world cup stadia however if you think the conditions those flown in to work 16 hour days picking fruit and veg are any better than what those in Qatar experience you are mistaken. We have also had our fair share of migrant deaths in workplace accidents, including very recently, so Qatar does not stand alone on that either.
Other posters have perhaps captured it more eloquently than me but I feel there is a lot of hypocrisy regarding the coverage of this world cup. Qatar is of course not perfect and some of the issues you referred to above are of course abhorrent, however I don't remember nearly as much coverage in previous world cups where host nations have had very tetchy human rights records.
I don't see what good a lot of the coverage is achieving in terms of lecturing Qatar and telling them how terrible they are, of course those in public facing roles can and should use their influence to highlight and instigate change and the World Cup should have taken front and centre in terms of influencing Qatar to make meaningful change. However it feels like a lot of the coverage is aimed at criticising everything that is wrong in Qatar without actually delivering any change, and Qatar has essentially just doubled down if anything.
It will be interesting when the USA hold the world cup to see if the media coverage is the same given there are many things accepted over there that would never be accepted here and in Europe.
I don’t understand Lineker and Alex Scott’s stance earlier. For me it’s very #metoo
a couple of years ago, a bunch of Google employees walked out of the Google offices for 5 minutes in protest behind the #metoo movement. 5 minutes protest but walk back into their 6 figure jobs after their uprising.
You can’t have it both ways, and I heard Alex Scott’s rationale for being out there. “I could’ve stayed at home etc etc”.
Why didn’t she?
I’m completely on the same side as both of them re; their opinions, but it’s a bit incredulous they can take money from the bbc, a lot of money, and at the same time preach the moral high ground
I'm normally a big fan of the BBC but I had to switch off the coverage today.
Instead of us trying to lecture Qatar on what it should be doing better we could perhaps look a bit closer to home and solve our own issues first.
We have people who have come to our country looking for asylum being kept like cattle in 'Processing Centres' in abhorrent conditions which are widely recognised even by our own government as illegal.
We have MP's posting the locations of hotels putting up asylum seekers, which can only be with the intention of whipping up those on the far right to pay those hotels a visit.
We have a government trying to essentially remove the right to protest peacefully, and to all but remove the rights of employees to strike.
My local authority recently posted on social media a list of 'warm banks' where people could go this winter, such is the state of our country that not only are food banks essentially normalised but we now have families unable to eat or heat. Many of those will be nurses, police officers, carers etc who cannot afford to live on the pittance of a public sector salary they receive.
We have a government actively planning for rolling power cuts this year, taking us back to the 70's.
Those in Qatar must look at the UK and be absolutely laughing their backs off at us, thinking we are in any position to lecture them on what's right and what's not.
We don’t have the death penalty still for homosexuals and allow women to wear whatever they choose to. We also don’t bus in thousands of migrant workers into the country to work in 40 degree heat so they never see their families again.
So I’d say even with our immigration problem we’re doing a lot better human rights wise than they are.
The whole ‘we need to look at ourselves first’ is the laziest take so far from people. Like we wouldn’t be allow to criticise countries like Russia or North Korea because we have Tories in charge. Give me a break.
All those topics home and abroad are worthy of critique. Why should we confine our thinking to national boundaries?!
(However, let's not make the thread so political it has to be moved to the HoC group!)
Sir Dave Powell, you're wrong about that reference.
Halal meat is served in this country and its not a problem. We don't have a particular limit on it and over here, it is not frowned upon to serve it to religious folk.
Alcohol is and was a problem for the Qataris long before the world Cup.
Alcohol changes people's behaviour and there can be consequences. They don't like it.
Halal meat is just food.
We all know the alcohol ban is stupid boring and wrong, but I don't see any point in making incorrect comparisons.
Wondering why the greatest global sporting event has been hijacked by "identity politics". I swear there is a sizeable number of "fans" who don't have any interest in football at all and are, instead, in their toxic basements doomscrolling and dominating the discussion because enjoying anything is simply impossible to them. . If it is to be the World Cup of social justice I just can't see what event could ever have been held anywhere in the world since time began. #bloodoneveryoneshands
Sir Dave Powell, you're wrong about that reference.
Halal meat is served in this country and its not a problem. We don't have a particular limit on it and over here, it is not frowned upon to serve it to religious folk.
Alcohol is and was a problem for the Qataris long before the world Cup.
Alcohol changes people's behaviour and there can be consequences. They don't like it.
Halal meat is just food.
We all know the alcohol ban is stupid boring and wrong, but I don't see any point in making incorrect comparisons.
They were aware that Budwieser was a major sponsor the WC for nearly 25 years when they bid for it. Last week they supposedly had no problem with the arrangements as they stood.
They are taking the piss, so I see no problem with taking the piss out of them.
Taking the p*** out of them is probably not a good game plan. If the erstwhile offices of Charli Hebdo are anything to go by. The solution to the whole problem of migrant worker deaths, hostilities to the LGBTQI community, women's rights, prohibition etc is simple ... FIFA makes it clear ~ at the bidding to host stage ~ that anti-Islamic values must be upheld by all bidders (anti-islamic meaning ~ rights for women, homosexuality is permissable, allcohol consumption is promoted everywhere and drunk everywhere etc) this will be much better in the long run and we won't be where we are tonight. Listening to Lineker and Shearer and friends whining about everything under the sun EXCEPT football in a squirmfest.
I don’t understand Lineker and Alex Scott’s stance earlier. For me it’s very #metoo
a couple of years ago, a bunch of Google employees walked out of the Google offices for 5 minutes in protest behind the #metoo movement. 5 minutes protest but walk back into their 6 figure jobs after their uprising.
You can’t have it both ways, and I heard Alex Scott’s rationale for being out there. “I could’ve stayed at home etc etc”.
Why didn’t she?
I’m completely on the same side as both of them re; their opinions, but it’s a bit incredulous they can take money from the bbc, a lot of money, and at the same time preach the moral high ground
I'm normally a big fan of the BBC but I had to switch off the coverage today.
Instead of us trying to lecture Qatar on what it should be doing better we could perhaps look a bit closer to home and solve our own issues first.
We have people who have come to our country looking for asylum being kept like cattle in 'Processing Centres' in abhorrent conditions which are widely recognised even by our own government as illegal.
We have MP's posting the locations of hotels putting up asylum seekers, which can only be with the intention of whipping up those on the far right to pay those hotels a visit.
We have a government trying to essentially remove the right to protest peacefully, and to all but remove the rights of employees to strike.
My local authority recently posted on social media a list of 'warm banks' where people could go this winter, such is the state of our country that not only are food banks essentially normalised but we now have families unable to eat or heat. Many of those will be nurses, police officers, carers etc who cannot afford to live on the pittance of a public sector salary they receive.
We have a government actively planning for rolling power cuts this year, taking us back to the 70's.
Those in Qatar must look at the UK and be absolutely laughing their backs off at us, thinking we are in any position to lecture them on what's right and what's not.
All of that is bad, very bad.
But that doesn’t mean people can’t spend energy bringing about awareness towards Qatar’s issues.
I don’t understand Lineker and Alex Scott’s stance earlier. For me it’s very #metoo
a couple of years ago, a bunch of Google employees walked out of the Google offices for 5 minutes in protest behind the #metoo movement. 5 minutes protest but walk back into their 6 figure jobs after their uprising.
You can’t have it both ways, and I heard Alex Scott’s rationale for being out there. “I could’ve stayed at home etc etc”.
Why didn’t she?
I’m completely on the same side as both of them re; their opinions, but it’s a bit incredulous they can take money from the bbc, a lot of money, and at the same time preach the moral high ground
So they shouldn’t work?
If they feel that strongly about it then no. We all have our beliefs and I don’t doubt that if I peeled my income back far enough, the company I work for has clients I don’t care for. However, as much as I agree with both their opinions, the front of each of them to take the stance that they have, yet still accept a very healthy wage is just wrong. If they feel that strongly about it, they just shouldn’t be there
Exactly, they are studio based and don’t have to be in the country. The roving reporters, the ones embedded with the teams, the commentators etc, do have to be there to do their job. hypocrites the pair of them.
Journalists shouldn’t go to a country to report on it then.
The group of ‘Qatar’ fans in purple at the game yesterday had been shipped in from Lebanon. Actual Qataris all disappeared mid second half. Football mad they are.
I don’t understand Lineker and Alex Scott’s stance earlier. For me it’s very #metoo
a couple of years ago, a bunch of Google employees walked out of the Google offices for 5 minutes in protest behind the #metoo movement. 5 minutes protest but walk back into their 6 figure jobs after their uprising.
You can’t have it both ways, and I heard Alex Scott’s rationale for being out there. “I could’ve stayed at home etc etc”.
Why didn’t she?
I’m completely on the same side as both of them re; their opinions, but it’s a bit incredulous they can take money from the bbc, a lot of money, and at the same time preach the moral high ground
I'm normally a big fan of the BBC but I had to switch off the coverage today.
Instead of us trying to lecture Qatar on what it should be doing better we could perhaps look a bit closer to home and solve our own issues first.
We have people who have come to our country looking for asylum being kept like cattle in 'Processing Centres' in abhorrent conditions which are widely recognised even by our own government as illegal.
We have MP's posting the locations of hotels putting up asylum seekers, which can only be with the intention of whipping up those on the far right to pay those hotels a visit.
We have a government trying to essentially remove the right to protest peacefully, and to all but remove the rights of employees to strike.
My local authority recently posted on social media a list of 'warm banks' where people could go this winter, such is the state of our country that not only are food banks essentially normalised but we now have families unable to eat or heat. Many of those will be nurses, police officers, carers etc who cannot afford to live on the pittance of a public sector salary they receive.
We have a government actively planning for rolling power cuts this year, taking us back to the 70's.
Those in Qatar must look at the UK and be absolutely laughing their backs off at us, thinking we are in any position to lecture them on what's right and what's not.
We don’t have the death penalty still for homosexuals and allow women to wear whatever they choose to. We also don’t bus in thousands of migrant workers into the country to work in 40 degree heat so they never see their families again.
So I’d say even with our immigration problem we’re doing a lot better human rights wise than they are.
The whole ‘we need to look at ourselves first’ is the laziest take so far from people. Like we wouldn’t be allow to criticise countries like Russia or North Korea because we have Tories in charge. Give me a break.
We absolutely exploit migrant labour in a very similar fashion to Qatar.
Granted we don't exploit it to build world cup stadia however if you think the conditions those flown in to work 16 hour days picking fruit and veg are any better than what those in Qatar experience you are mistaken. We have also had our fair share of migrant deaths in workplace accidents, including very recently, so Qatar does not stand alone on that either.
Other posters have perhaps captured it more eloquently than me but I feel there is a lot of hypocrisy regarding the coverage of this world cup. Qatar is of course not perfect and some of the issues you referred to above are of course abhorrent, however I don't remember nearly as much coverage in previous world cups where host nations have had very tetchy human rights records.
I don't see what good a lot of the coverage is achieving in terms of lecturing Qatar and telling them how terrible they are, of course those in public facing roles can and should use their influence to highlight and instigate change and the World Cup should have taken front and centre in terms of influencing Qatar to make meaningful change. However it feels like a lot of the coverage is aimed at criticising everything that is wrong in Qatar without actually delivering any change, and Qatar has essentially just doubled down if anything.
It will be interesting when the USA hold the world cup to see if the media coverage is the same given there are many things accepted over there that would never be accepted here and in Europe.
The whole point of Qatar buying this world cup (and yes they did buy the world cup) is so that the area can be sportswashed.
They're using the guise of hosting an international tournament so their nation and the area can be normalised and accepted in the wider world. The journalists are holding them to account and not removing the context in which they want these games to be hidden away from.
It's why you see Newcastle and Man City owned by Arab nations. It's why you have international friendlies hosted in Dubai. They want you to forget about their terrible human rights records and accept them as rich affluent nations.
They want their treatment of migrant workers hidden while we all stare at the marvel of the stadiums that will never be used again.
They want you to ignore the fact that homosexuality is banned while they look the other way for a few weeks so the western tourists can pretend that the nation is showing 'progression'.
They want you to ignore the fact that women are lower than second class citizens and have their outfits chosen by them, while tourists think it's simply about 'respect for the culture'.
Anyway I look forward to these same arguments when Saudi Arabia buy the tournament for 2030.
Comments
a couple of years ago, a bunch of Google employees walked out of the Google offices for 5 minutes in protest behind the #metoo movement. 5 minutes protest but walk back into their 6 figure jobs after their uprising.
You can’t have it both ways, and I heard Alex Scott’s rationale for being out there. “I could’ve stayed at home etc etc”.
Why didn’t she?
Whether the location is a studio in Salford or a box in Doha, they would still be paid.
I don't get the "hypocrite" argument.
Instead of us trying to lecture Qatar on what it should be doing better we could perhaps look a bit closer to home and solve our own issues first.
We have people who have come to our country looking for asylum being kept like cattle in 'Processing Centres' in abhorrent conditions which are widely recognised even by our own government as illegal.
We have MP's posting the locations of hotels putting up asylum seekers, which can only be with the intention of whipping up those on the far right to pay those hotels a visit.
We have a government trying to essentially remove the right to protest peacefully, and to all but remove the rights of employees to strike.
My local authority recently posted on social media a list of 'warm banks' where people could go this winter, such is the state of our country that not only are food banks essentially normalised but we now have families unable to eat or heat. Many of those will be nurses, police officers, carers etc who cannot afford to live on the pittance of a public sector salary they receive.
We have a government actively planning for rolling power cuts this year, taking us back to the 70's.
Those in Qatar must look at the UK and be absolutely laughing their backs off at us, thinking we are in any position to lecture them on what's right and what's not.
Suggest trying not to air opinions, all the time you're staying in the very hotels, and earning your living while sitting in the very stadiums that caused so much misery to build.
As posted earlier; if they feel that strongly about it, broadcast from a studio in the UK and send a skeleton crew out to the veniews?
Granted we don't exploit it to build world cup stadia however if you think the conditions those flown in to work 16 hour days picking fruit and veg are any better than what those in Qatar experience you are mistaken. We have also had our fair share of migrant deaths in workplace accidents, including very recently, so Qatar does not stand alone on that either.
Other posters have perhaps captured it more eloquently than me but I feel there is a lot of hypocrisy regarding the coverage of this world cup. Qatar is of course not perfect and some of the issues you referred to above are of course abhorrent, however I don't remember nearly as much coverage in previous world cups where host nations have had very tetchy human rights records.
I don't see what good a lot of the coverage is achieving in terms of lecturing Qatar and telling them how terrible they are, of course those in public facing roles can and should use their influence to highlight and instigate change and the World Cup should have taken front and centre in terms of influencing Qatar to make meaningful change. However it feels like a lot of the coverage is aimed at criticising everything that is wrong in Qatar without actually delivering any change, and Qatar has essentially just doubled down if anything.
It will be interesting when the USA hold the world cup to see if the media coverage is the same given there are many things accepted over there that would never be accepted here and in Europe.
(However, let's not make the thread so political it has to be moved to the HoC group!)
Wondering why the greatest global sporting event has been hijacked by "identity politics". I swear there is a sizeable number of "fans" who don't have any interest in football at all and are, instead, in their toxic basements doomscrolling and dominating the discussion because enjoying anything is simply impossible to them. . If it is to be the World Cup of social justice I just can't see what event could ever have been held anywhere in the world since time began. #bloodoneveryoneshands
FIFA makes it clear ~ at the bidding to host stage ~ that anti-Islamic values must be upheld by all bidders (anti-islamic meaning ~ rights for women, homosexuality is permissable, allcohol consumption is promoted everywhere and drunk everywhere etc) this will be much better in the long run and we won't be where we are tonight. Listening to Lineker and Shearer and friends whining about everything under the sun EXCEPT football in a squirmfest.
But that doesn’t mean people can’t spend energy bringing about awareness towards Qatar’s issues.
This is not an either or situation.
Infantino
Again
* Other adjectives are available
Sounds like a complete blag, you'd never believe it. Typical scousers.
And then........
They're using the guise of hosting an international tournament so their nation and the area can be normalised and accepted in the wider world. The journalists are holding them to account and not removing the context in which they want these games to be hidden away from.
It's why you see Newcastle and Man City owned by Arab nations. It's why you have international friendlies hosted in Dubai. They want you to forget about their terrible human rights records and accept them as rich affluent nations.
They want their treatment of migrant workers hidden while we all stare at the marvel of the stadiums that will never be used again.
They want you to ignore the fact that homosexuality is banned while they look the other way for a few weeks so the western tourists can pretend that the nation is showing 'progression'.
They want you to ignore the fact that women are lower than second class citizens and have their outfits chosen by them, while tourists think it's simply about 'respect for the culture'.
Anyway I look forward to these same arguments when Saudi Arabia buy the tournament for 2030.