With the World Cup countdown entirely underway, and many fans expected to fly out for Messi, Ronaldo and Neymar’s last tournament, it’s more important than ever to hold FIFA accountable for allowing Qatar to host the biggest football tournament in the world. As the international teams begin to show their support for gay and human rights, lines between FIFA and its footballers are being drawn before the estimated 5 billion tune into the event.
What should be common knowledge by now, is the continuous violation of human rights and homophobic standing of the host country. FIFA have spent the last year defending their decision to not only move the tournament to November due to the high temperatures of Qatar, but protect the Qatari World Cup ambassador Khalid Salman, who has attacked the LGBTQ+ community throughout his interviews. The ambassador recently doubled down on his country’s standpoint that homosexuality is a “damage in the mind”, confirming once and for all that the country “will not change” for the incoming world cup supporters. Salman was once again criticised on the 8th of November for an interview, where he stated that homosexuality is “haram”, or forbidden, because it’s a “damage in the mind”. He has later claimed these comments were taken out of context but remains steadfast against the LGBTQ+ community.
The country “will not change“
Khalid Salman.
Qatar have also been investigated for human rights violations at their construction sites. A new report suggests that migrant workers were employed to build the stadiums. Fire alarms were sounded to evacuate these workers from the premises, so they were unable to complain about their treatment to FIFA officials, the report by Equidem Research and Consulting said. A Nepalese migrant employed at Lusail Stadium said: “The company rang the fire alarm on purpose. When people heard this alarm, everyone came out. These fire drills were given regularly so people would gather in prescribed open spaces. After that, managers would bring out the buses and take us away.” (Taken from an interview with the Daily Mail).
With this in mind, many international teams have found their own way to protest the World Cup. The Swiss FA released the Swiss official world cup squad video with two men holding hands, directly opposing the ideals displayed by Khalid Salman. They tweeted the video with the caption “what Switzerland and our national team are about”, further removing their country from the explicitly homophobic agenda of Qatar. The Danish team took their protest one step further, deciding to create their world cup kits in a monochrome design that mostly hid their national badge and the designer of the kit. Hummel (the Danish sportswear brand who provide the jerseys) stated: “we don’t wish to be visible in a tournament that’s cost thousands of people their lives” in reference to the migrant workers who died building the stadiums. The team also wished to wear training jerseys that said, ‘human rights to all’, which FIFA banned. They claimed the message was too political, in an attempt to further shield their world cup from controversy.
FIFA continues to avoid the concerns of the population, instead pleading for those around the world to ‘focus on the football’. However, this standpoint has not been seen in the lead up to the world cup and will most likely continue to rightfully overshadow the event that is set to make Qatar 17 billion dollars.