FIFA created this sick joke of a Qatar World Cup… begging us to look away now is laughable

Dear President and Secretary General,

The FIFA World Cup in Qatar is now upon us and excitement over the world’s most important football festival should increase worldwide as we count down the days to kick-off in Doha on Sunday 20 November.

I would like to commend you both for your latest effort to silence dissent around the organization of a tournament awarded 12 years ago in that beautiful carnival of corruption and embezzlement. You must be very proud.

I sincerely applaud you for writing a letter to try to castrate the opposition instead of hacking up your critics with a saw, a tactic which, as you know, has been favored by one of our club owners in the Premier League.

Your restraint, in such difficult circumstances, is appreciated.

Your letter to each of the 32 participating teams asking ‘please let’s focus on football now’ struck a chord with me and many others. I’d love nothing more, I promise you, than to focus on football and leave everything else at check-in in Gatwick next week.

But the truth is that FIFA, the organization you run, has made that impossible. The truth is that this tournament was born out of corruption. The truth is that the stadiums and infrastructure were built by modern slaves.

The truth is that holding on at this time of year is a betrayal of players who don’t have time to recover from injuries sustained in the middle of their domestic seasons. The truth is that it is being staged by a regime that is staunchly opposed to the diversity you claim, so laughably, to adhere to.

And the truth is that, instead of the excitement growing worldwide, as you imagine in your letter, that excitement is still being polluted by the sewage emitted by the legions of public relations firms hired to attempt this tawdry spectacle. to polish. For many, excitement has turned into ambivalence and even indifference.

Part of what you’ve done by hijacking the World Cup in this way is to give international football another blow in its ongoing struggle to withstand the incursions of the club game.

Awarding a summer tournament to a desert state was dismissed as a sick joke when the decision was made in December 2010, and although it has since been shelved until winter, it now remains a sick joke. It humiliates FIFA and it humiliates the world game and no amount of letters will change that.

You ask that football isn’t “dragged into every ideological or political struggle that exists”, but it was FIFA that dragged football into this struggle and it was FIFA that dragged the rest of us as well.

Decisions have consequences. The organization should have known when awarding the 2022 World Cup to Qatar that this was not a controversy that would ebb after a few weeks. FIFA made this. Don’t ask us to look the other way now. It’s much too late for that.

I hope the football in Qatar 2022 is great. I hope there are inspiring storylines that revolve around the greatness of Lionel Messi and the rise of new stars like England’s Jude Bellingham. I hope there are goals and moves and passes and saves and dramas that we will cherish for years to come.

But I also hope that we don’t forget the human rights issues surrounding this tournament once the first ball has been kicked. Newcastle have had a great start to the season in England, so suddenly everyone seems to have forgotten that they are funded by one of the most repressive regimes in the world.

That should not happen in Qatar. Don’t insult us – supporters and media – by telling us to shut up about other things. Those who have pointed to the injustices of the tournament being awarded to Qatar have long become accustomed to attempts to silence them. Some have told football reporters that if they don’t like the regime, they shouldn’t beat the tournament.

Suggesting that you shouldn’t report on an event because you disagree with the regime of the state hosting it is an easy, stupid argument from idiots. Journalists – yes, even sports journalists – should be there to highlight the bad as well as the beauty.

Telling journalists to stay home if they disagree with the tournament being held in Qatar is just another part of the growing effort to silence coverage of things some people would rather have ignored . By the way, while you’re at your keyboard, you may both have to write a letter to whoever pays supporter groups, including 40 fans from England, to attend the tournament with instructions to convey positive messages about the experience, sing certain upon request. songs and report critical social media posts.

You say in your letter that you want the World Cup to “welcome and embrace everyone”, but you will no doubt agree with me, the instruction on the social media posts in particular has rather sinister connotations and goes against that wish.

As for the songs the English fan group has been asked to sing, I’m curious if the desired repertoire includes recent favorites such as ‘Southgate Out’, the special ‘No Surrender’ version of our national anthem and the old staple. , ‘Ten German Bombers’.

Why someone involved in the organization of the tournament should pay spies to report on the behavior of fellow fans is something I hope you seek clarity on. How that kind of dynamic will encourage us to focus on football is something else that I think deserves your investigation.

And when you’re done with that letter, why not write another one to the 32 teams. Don’t try to silence them this time. Don’t make it a requirement. Make it an apology. Tell them you’re sorry. Tell them FIFA made a terrible mistake. Tell them you learned your lesson. Tell them football won’t be betrayed like this again.

Yours, Oliver.

FA right to refuse half-time interviews for Southgate

As you might expect, I am generally in favor of greater access for journalists to key players in the sport, but I find it difficult to object to the FA’s refusal to make Gareth Southgate available for halftime interviews during the English matches at the World Cup.

Half time is often a critical phase of the game, the only chance the manager gets to talk to his players during the game, the best chance he has to influence the course of the game.

There is no justification for him to spend that time talking to the media. In addition, the ‘content’ that broadcasters receive in that context is probably rushed and almost worthless.

Interviews before and after the game are a different story, but let’s give the managers a break during halftime.

Farrell needs more protection

I read my colleague Nik Simon’s brilliant and poignant interview with Dylan Hartley last month, in which Hartley said he was haunted by the fear that he was suffering from early stage dementia. And last week I saw the news that Owen Farrell had been put back into the England team to face Argentina on Sunday, a fortnight after suffering what was described as a ‘cruel’ knockout when playing for Saracens against Exeter.

No protocols have been broken, but that doesn’t mean Farrell shouldn’t have had more time to recover. A cursory search for previous head injuries reminds him that he also suffered a concussion seven months ago while playing for his club. It also reveals a brain surgeon expressing concern over heavy shots Farrell took to the head during the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.

How many similar injuries has the England captain suffered? I don’t know. But I think he’s accumulating trouble for himself. Like many players, he is too brave and stubborn for his own good. How long will it be before we see an interview with him warning against doing what he did? How long will it take for the sport to properly protect its players?