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Thoughts on the Qatar World Cup [1]

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Date: 2022-11-19

With a little over 12 hours or so before the first match of the 2022 World Cup Finals begins in Qatar, I honestly feel conflicted over whether to watch or not.

I’ve been a soccer fan for years now, dating back to the early 90’s (on the club side, Liverpool; country side, the United States) and every four years I always look forward to the footballing world’s biggest event. Even with all the corruption inherent within FIFA and its’ regional organizations, I could always take solace from the idea that “as long as the football’s good, that’s all that matters….”

Then two events happens that began to shatter that almost-dreamy attitude: Qatar receiving the 2022 WCF and Russia hosting the 2018 finals. How two countries with not much, if any, footballing history and abysmal human rights records could get one of the world’s biggest sporting events made me start to think about a lot of different things; it also, I must confess, made me take a closer look at the world around me and the injustices within. (I can take solace here in remembering that in this period, I broke away from both the Republican Party and conservatism after over 2 decades of both).

Now with the World Cup right in front of us, the confliction is this, one that’s been bouncing around my Appalachian mind for a while): can I watch/follow the games along, knowing the problems surrounding Qatar (the nomination/awarding of the event, its’ abysmal human rights/LGBTQ records, its’ maltreatment of migrant workers, etc.) and not feel guilty doing so?

Part of me wants to say “Nope, not watching.” And I suspect a lot of people will do that (there was an article over at the Guardian by German star Philipp Lahm that was along those lines) but I will probably keep an eye on events there (certainly during the three USMNT matches in the Group Stage) all the while making sure to point out all the problems inherent in the event being held there to start with.

At the very least let us hope that the powers-will-be will see the error of awarding the event to Qatar (and Russia beforehand) and will ensure that it doesn’t happen again. That said, good luck to the United States and to all the teams playing the Beautiful Game in what are certainly not-so-beautiful circumstances.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/11/19/2137359/-Thoughts-on-the-Qatar-World-Cup

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