Peter Anderson ⚽ The big sporting event of this week was the draw for the winter World Cup finals in Qatar. 

With no Irish teams to follow, I didn't take much interest, but the most interesting group is Group B which has England, Iran, the U.S. and the play-off winner between Scotland, Wales and the Ukraine. Mouth-watering indeed! Iran v the Great Satan, England v the Great Satan and potentially England v Scotland. Who can forget Iran's famous 2-1 victory against their enemy at World Cup '98 or the USA's draw with England in 2010, when Rob Green fumbled the US's equaliser? I always support the 5 "home" nations, but considering what the Ukraine are suffering now it will be hard not to support them, if they make it. The other groups look pretty benign, except maybe Group E which features Spain, Germany and Japan which might provide a surprise.

If the draw was far from interesting, the spat kicked off by Gareth Southgate certainly was. The England manager questioned Qatar's suitability to host the event, given the treatment of the immigrant workforce and the country's human rights record. He was promptly told by Qatar 2022's CEO to "pick his words carefully". Lovely, I love a good dust up! Southgate lamented the fact that many England fans are refusing to travel to the country for the games. While I'm sure Southgate will miss them, I doubt anyone else will.

Gary Neville then weighed into the fight on his footy podcast, having recently travelled there on behalf of the FA. He said that while Qatar and Russia had been handed the World Cup in dodgy circumstances during the Blatter era, Blatter and Platini were now gone. Also, that countries like Qatar and Russia needed to host the World Cup if it is truly to be a "world" cup and that opening the world cup up to non-western European/Latin American countries was the right thing to do. He also added that Qatar had been shamed into acting on workers' rights and things were a whole lot better now. As for human rights, he pointed out that a Muslim country has to host the games at some point and few if any are equal to western European standards and sensibilities on this subject.

Moral relativism in sport is always an interesting debate. In Qatar women are denied fundamental rights and homosexuals are treated as criminals. Should we boycott the World cup in support of the women and gays of Qatar, or do we achieve more by going to the games and helping to "open up" their society more to our ideas of tolerance? Boycotts or soft power? The prying eyes of the world caused them to change their labour laws after all.

Whether they bought the games or not, the Russian games have happened and the Qatari ones soon will and I have to reluctantly agree with Neville. I may hate the fact that an intolerant, illiberal country bought the games I love, and I may dislike the idea of a winter World Cup, but a boycott will achieve nothing. Hopefully we will be pleasantly surprised.

Peter Anderson is a Unionist with a keen interest in sports.

Qatar Spat

Peter Anderson ⚽ The big sporting event of this week was the draw for the winter World Cup finals in Qatar. 

With no Irish teams to follow, I didn't take much interest, but the most interesting group is Group B which has England, Iran, the U.S. and the play-off winner between Scotland, Wales and the Ukraine. Mouth-watering indeed! Iran v the Great Satan, England v the Great Satan and potentially England v Scotland. Who can forget Iran's famous 2-1 victory against their enemy at World Cup '98 or the USA's draw with England in 2010, when Rob Green fumbled the US's equaliser? I always support the 5 "home" nations, but considering what the Ukraine are suffering now it will be hard not to support them, if they make it. The other groups look pretty benign, except maybe Group E which features Spain, Germany and Japan which might provide a surprise.

If the draw was far from interesting, the spat kicked off by Gareth Southgate certainly was. The England manager questioned Qatar's suitability to host the event, given the treatment of the immigrant workforce and the country's human rights record. He was promptly told by Qatar 2022's CEO to "pick his words carefully". Lovely, I love a good dust up! Southgate lamented the fact that many England fans are refusing to travel to the country for the games. While I'm sure Southgate will miss them, I doubt anyone else will.

Gary Neville then weighed into the fight on his footy podcast, having recently travelled there on behalf of the FA. He said that while Qatar and Russia had been handed the World Cup in dodgy circumstances during the Blatter era, Blatter and Platini were now gone. Also, that countries like Qatar and Russia needed to host the World Cup if it is truly to be a "world" cup and that opening the world cup up to non-western European/Latin American countries was the right thing to do. He also added that Qatar had been shamed into acting on workers' rights and things were a whole lot better now. As for human rights, he pointed out that a Muslim country has to host the games at some point and few if any are equal to western European standards and sensibilities on this subject.

Moral relativism in sport is always an interesting debate. In Qatar women are denied fundamental rights and homosexuals are treated as criminals. Should we boycott the World cup in support of the women and gays of Qatar, or do we achieve more by going to the games and helping to "open up" their society more to our ideas of tolerance? Boycotts or soft power? The prying eyes of the world caused them to change their labour laws after all.

Whether they bought the games or not, the Russian games have happened and the Qatari ones soon will and I have to reluctantly agree with Neville. I may hate the fact that an intolerant, illiberal country bought the games I love, and I may dislike the idea of a winter World Cup, but a boycott will achieve nothing. Hopefully we will be pleasantly surprised.

Peter Anderson is a Unionist with a keen interest in sports.

4 comments:

  1. Try as I might I can never support England and absolutely will not support the SFA team. There's a chance Australia (the Socceroo's) can still qualify but the fact that they didn't already is a testament to the abysmal and backward way football is set up in Oz. I'm just hoping for a decent tournament even if it is a blatant money grab by FIFA. "Grow the game" my arse, nobody knows where Gaytar bloody is never mind worry about rights!

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    1. I always support the five home nations in international competitions and all British Isles teams in club competitions. But you are right Steve ,this and previous World Cups have been blatant money grabs by FIFA. But hey I will be gorging myself throughout this latest beauty contest.

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    2. there is more enjoyment to be derived from watching England being done over. The excuses and breast beating are huge entertainment. When they lost to the mighty Iceland - you could not pay for a night out like that.

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  2. I just took pride from watching Kalvin Phillips develop into a world class defensive midfielder in last year's Euros. I also admired the England team and Gareth Southgate taking the knee middle finger gesture to Priti Patel and other Brexiteer low lives like Nigel Farage.

    I dislike thoroughly the jingoism and English as British nationalism of too many English fans. But I like the ethos of the team for the reason mentioned earlier. I will also be cheering on the Lionesses and the NI women's team in the women's Euros this June.

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