Caoimhin O’Muraile ☭ In 2010 the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) announced to a bewildered football world that the country who would host the 2022 World Cup was to be Qatar. 

It is not the first country which springs to mind when talking about international football. In fact, generally speaking, many people had barely heard of the place. The temperatures out there are more akin to frying eggs than playing a physical game like football. The heat is phenomenal and even in November ranges from 27 degrees to 30 degrees which is why the farce which FIFA call a tournament is being played in the winter, thus disrupting various countries domestic seasons. These temperatures could damage players as sun stroke is a permanent possibility. Respiratory problems could also occur thus keeping players out of the game for some time. Let’s hope not but the possibility exists. I remember the 1970 World Cup in Mexico which was hot enough but all the same playable (many believe the competition and England’s failure to retain the Jules Rimet Trophy cost Harold Wilson his premiership, a long story for another blog) the game is not playable in Qatar.

For supporters, that is those silly enough to go to this hell on earth, the Qataris have been cunning. The country, due to religious reasons, does not sell alcohol but promised that for the duration of the competition fans could purchase drink at certain designated areas of the stadia. This promise, now all tickets have been sold, has been reneged on and supporters will not be able to purchase alcohol at the match. This is not natural - going to a football match and being unable to drink alcohol. FIFA should, and no doubt were, aware of these rules but perhaps hoped the Qataris would be good to their word and allow limited drinking. It is a fucking disgrace. The needs of supporters have been ignored by the hosts all in the name of religion. So, their religion forbids alcohol, OK I get that, so why hold a competition there which is well known supporters of like a drink? Simple answer, money. Qatar is a rich country, meaning the elite are mega wealthy and the majority of people are very poor. The whole concept of selecting this country to host world footballs biggest tournament stinks of corruption from top to bottom.

Now, and more important than any of the above Qatar has a terrible record on human rights. Gay and Lesbian people are banned and have to practice their private lives in secrecy. In Qatar male homosexuality is illegal and carries a heavy fine and/or up to seven years in jail. It can also carry the death penalty for Muslims under Sharia law. The Qatar government does not allow people to campaign for LGBTQ (Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender and Queer) rights and any demonstrations in support of these rights is quickly suppressed. Though the death penalty for Muslims who practice this sexual preference is there, no record exists of it being carried out.

Workers' rights do not exist, neither does health and safety legislation at work. Since the competition was awarded to Qatar more than 6,000 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh to name but a few have lost their lives building the infrastructure for the competition. This includes the very impressive stadia, a metro transport service and a special new airport. All this has been achieved on the backs and blood of slave migrant labour. Between 2011 and 2020 more than 6,500 deaths have occurred in Qatar of migrant workers since the country won, or bought, the right to host the World Cup. Data from the embassies of India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka revealed:

there were 5,927 deaths of migrant workers in the period 2011-2020. Separately, data from Pakistan’s embassy in Qatar reported a further 824 deaths of Pakistani workers in the decade 2010-2020” (The Guardian). 

The actual death toll could well be much higher than these figures because they do not include deaths of workers from a number of countries which send large numbers of workers to Qatar including the Philippines and Kenya. Nick McGeehan, a director at Fair Square Projects, an advocacy group specialising in labour rights in the Gulf said:

A very significant proportion of migrant workers who have died since 2011 were only in the country because Qatar won the right to host the World Cup.

Many workers have not been paid and are forbidden from leaving the country which, for them, is now a prison. Workers were promised lucrative employment in Qatar only to find when they arrived the conditions and pay, if they received any pay, were far from expectations. One man from India paid an employment agency 1000 rupees for a job as a cleaner. He was there one week, found out he could not get out and committed suicide!

It is noticeable to see players like Tottenham’s Harry Kane tried to make a protest, or went through the motions of, in support of LGBTQ people by telling the competition organisers and England he would be wearing a “rainbow” armband showing his support. The Qatari authorities told FIFA any player displaying this sort of emblem would be in breach of their law. Needless to say, England then told Kane he would not be allowed to wear his armband which he dutifully obliged by not doing so. If the player felt such a strong surge of conscience he should have worn the band regardless. This was a superficial show of support for the oppressed minority with no real meaning behind it because the first brush with so-called authority and he backed down. 

All these players with plastic guilt complexes should not have made themselves available for selection by their national team managers in the first place. Perhaps more to the point, all these countries who shout about human rights or lack of in Qatar should have refused to participate in this competition. The truth is, when it comes to money all principles go out of the window, that is if such principles existed solidly in the first place. After all, did many countries on the command of the United States not boycott the 1980 Olympic games in Moscow? This boycott, ordered by President Ronald Reagan, was against the then USSR military presence in Afghanistan, a presence invited by the then Afghan government. Women in Afghanistan were delighted with the Soviet presence because it meant they could now work, which they were banned from doing by the Mujahadin (Muslim fundamentalists) similar to Qatar where human rights are trampled on, including those of women. Oddly enough there is no boycott of the 2022 World Cup, unlike the 1980 Moscow Olympics! Double standards and pure hypocrisy by these, have us believe, freedom loving western countries who support such a regime as that in Qatar by sending teams to compete. Echoes of the 1936 Berlin Olympics possibly?

The World Cup, which should never have been held in Qatar, just goes to prove when it comes to money all bets are off regarding principles and concerns for workers and minority rights including those of women. 

As a football fan myself, even this modern bastardised version of the once great game, will not be watching this farce called the World Cup on principle. It will not make a scrap of difference I know but I will feel better. It will not be on my television, I’d rather watch The Big Match Revisited, old games from the seventies and eighties. If the World Cup was being held in a normal country, then yes it would be something to look forward to. To watch this competition, played in the blood-soaked pitches of over 6,000 workers would, to me, be hypocritical.

Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent 
Socialist Republican and Marxist

FIFA World Cup ⚽ Qatar

 Caoimhin O’Muraile ☭ In 2010 the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) announced to a bewildered football world that the country who would host the 2022 World Cup was to be Qatar. 

It is not the first country which springs to mind when talking about international football. In fact, generally speaking, many people had barely heard of the place. The temperatures out there are more akin to frying eggs than playing a physical game like football. The heat is phenomenal and even in November ranges from 27 degrees to 30 degrees which is why the farce which FIFA call a tournament is being played in the winter, thus disrupting various countries domestic seasons. These temperatures could damage players as sun stroke is a permanent possibility. Respiratory problems could also occur thus keeping players out of the game for some time. Let’s hope not but the possibility exists. I remember the 1970 World Cup in Mexico which was hot enough but all the same playable (many believe the competition and England’s failure to retain the Jules Rimet Trophy cost Harold Wilson his premiership, a long story for another blog) the game is not playable in Qatar.

For supporters, that is those silly enough to go to this hell on earth, the Qataris have been cunning. The country, due to religious reasons, does not sell alcohol but promised that for the duration of the competition fans could purchase drink at certain designated areas of the stadia. This promise, now all tickets have been sold, has been reneged on and supporters will not be able to purchase alcohol at the match. This is not natural - going to a football match and being unable to drink alcohol. FIFA should, and no doubt were, aware of these rules but perhaps hoped the Qataris would be good to their word and allow limited drinking. It is a fucking disgrace. The needs of supporters have been ignored by the hosts all in the name of religion. So, their religion forbids alcohol, OK I get that, so why hold a competition there which is well known supporters of like a drink? Simple answer, money. Qatar is a rich country, meaning the elite are mega wealthy and the majority of people are very poor. The whole concept of selecting this country to host world footballs biggest tournament stinks of corruption from top to bottom.

Now, and more important than any of the above Qatar has a terrible record on human rights. Gay and Lesbian people are banned and have to practice their private lives in secrecy. In Qatar male homosexuality is illegal and carries a heavy fine and/or up to seven years in jail. It can also carry the death penalty for Muslims under Sharia law. The Qatar government does not allow people to campaign for LGBTQ (Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender and Queer) rights and any demonstrations in support of these rights is quickly suppressed. Though the death penalty for Muslims who practice this sexual preference is there, no record exists of it being carried out.

Workers' rights do not exist, neither does health and safety legislation at work. Since the competition was awarded to Qatar more than 6,000 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh to name but a few have lost their lives building the infrastructure for the competition. This includes the very impressive stadia, a metro transport service and a special new airport. All this has been achieved on the backs and blood of slave migrant labour. Between 2011 and 2020 more than 6,500 deaths have occurred in Qatar of migrant workers since the country won, or bought, the right to host the World Cup. Data from the embassies of India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka revealed:

there were 5,927 deaths of migrant workers in the period 2011-2020. Separately, data from Pakistan’s embassy in Qatar reported a further 824 deaths of Pakistani workers in the decade 2010-2020” (The Guardian). 

The actual death toll could well be much higher than these figures because they do not include deaths of workers from a number of countries which send large numbers of workers to Qatar including the Philippines and Kenya. Nick McGeehan, a director at Fair Square Projects, an advocacy group specialising in labour rights in the Gulf said:

A very significant proportion of migrant workers who have died since 2011 were only in the country because Qatar won the right to host the World Cup.

Many workers have not been paid and are forbidden from leaving the country which, for them, is now a prison. Workers were promised lucrative employment in Qatar only to find when they arrived the conditions and pay, if they received any pay, were far from expectations. One man from India paid an employment agency 1000 rupees for a job as a cleaner. He was there one week, found out he could not get out and committed suicide!

It is noticeable to see players like Tottenham’s Harry Kane tried to make a protest, or went through the motions of, in support of LGBTQ people by telling the competition organisers and England he would be wearing a “rainbow” armband showing his support. The Qatari authorities told FIFA any player displaying this sort of emblem would be in breach of their law. Needless to say, England then told Kane he would not be allowed to wear his armband which he dutifully obliged by not doing so. If the player felt such a strong surge of conscience he should have worn the band regardless. This was a superficial show of support for the oppressed minority with no real meaning behind it because the first brush with so-called authority and he backed down. 

All these players with plastic guilt complexes should not have made themselves available for selection by their national team managers in the first place. Perhaps more to the point, all these countries who shout about human rights or lack of in Qatar should have refused to participate in this competition. The truth is, when it comes to money all principles go out of the window, that is if such principles existed solidly in the first place. After all, did many countries on the command of the United States not boycott the 1980 Olympic games in Moscow? This boycott, ordered by President Ronald Reagan, was against the then USSR military presence in Afghanistan, a presence invited by the then Afghan government. Women in Afghanistan were delighted with the Soviet presence because it meant they could now work, which they were banned from doing by the Mujahadin (Muslim fundamentalists) similar to Qatar where human rights are trampled on, including those of women. Oddly enough there is no boycott of the 2022 World Cup, unlike the 1980 Moscow Olympics! Double standards and pure hypocrisy by these, have us believe, freedom loving western countries who support such a regime as that in Qatar by sending teams to compete. Echoes of the 1936 Berlin Olympics possibly?

The World Cup, which should never have been held in Qatar, just goes to prove when it comes to money all bets are off regarding principles and concerns for workers and minority rights including those of women. 

As a football fan myself, even this modern bastardised version of the once great game, will not be watching this farce called the World Cup on principle. It will not make a scrap of difference I know but I will feel better. It will not be on my television, I’d rather watch The Big Match Revisited, old games from the seventies and eighties. If the World Cup was being held in a normal country, then yes it would be something to look forward to. To watch this competition, played in the blood-soaked pitches of over 6,000 workers would, to me, be hypocritical.

Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent 
Socialist Republican and Marxist

29 comments:

  1. Did you watch the World Cup in Russia in 2018 and Argentina in 1978, Caoimhin?

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    1. Yes I did, both of them were veey hot. Unlike Qatar both Mexico or Argentina had the same human rights record which is my major point. The temperature is also a contributing factor, but as I said, the Qataris HR record regarding 6,500 deathes, LGBTQ non existent rights is the major issue. I agree with Roy Keane.

      Caoimhin O'Muraile

      Delete
  2. Caoimhin,
    The heat is phenomenal and even in November ranges from 27 degrees to 30 degrees These temperatures could damage players as sun stroke is a permanent possibility. Respiratory problems could also occur

    Quillers...a VAR Frankie fact check is in order. Can someone open this link and then someone else open this link and both compare notes. Do both of you think football is being played in 'phenomenal temperature ranges from 27 degrees to 30' in Qatar? Into the mix I'll add in Italy 2014 they had water breaks. In this world cup most matches have gone well into Fergie time..

    These temperatures could damage players as sun stroke is a permanent possibility.<-----Over ruled after a VAR Frankie fact check

    The country, due to religious reasons, does not sell alcohol but promised that for the duration of the competition fans could purchase drink at certain designated areas of the stadia.

    VAR Frankie fact check is called for.....

    Unless you are Irish.....This is a few quotes from The Irish Daily Mirror.......

    Supporters will still be able to consume alcohol in designated fan zones, plus in bars like Ronnie’s and Chris’s, and at the Irish Harp in the Sheraton hotel.

    Cork woman Ronnie Griffin, 57, is the only female pub boss in all of Qatar

    Then there is Chris Garvey who runs with his brother Melvin The Shamrock Irish bar, also in Qatar capital Doha, whose pub is in the Magnum Hotel, “Our dad James came from Co Clare and we are a typical Irish Catholic family with six children told the Irish Mirror “There are not enough bars." .....So we have an Irish women and the father of six Irish catholic kids both living in Qatar and both openly selling booze. Not only that, they can't get enough of the stuff and can't get the staff either...

    promised that for the duration of the competition fans could purchase drink at certain designated areas <------Over ruled after a VAR Frankie fact check (although it helps to be Irish)

    For someone who wants the world to know you don't give a fcuk about this WC, you have a lot to say about it. Most has been said before. The whole world knows about the HR abuses in Qatar and have done for years but did nothing and as Kopp said a few weeks before this WC We let it happen. And when this WC is over and Peter is back to talking about the EPL on TPQ, most will have forgotten about the HR abuses in Qatar and they'll move on and pretend they care about the next HR abuse, make the same type of woke vegan arguments because it is the flavour of the month..

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    1. Seems to me, Frankie, you are not too concerned about Human Rights, espcially those of migrant workers. They, the Quataris, bought the fucking right to stage the competition it is suspected by many, not only me.
      Yes I do know a lot about the WC, its this venue I and many others, including Roy
      Keane, object to.

      Caoimhin O'Muraile

      Delete
  3. What I have noticed about this world cup, no violence, no lager louts, some great moments, between the photo shoot and how they played Germany scored two own goals . KSA played a blinder in 2nd half against Messi and his comrades and deserved their holiday. What about how the Ecuadorian fans made their voices heard in front of millions about the beer ban.


    Another VAR Frankie fact check....
    The truth is, when it comes to money all principles go out of the window
    Brendan Hughes couldn't be bought and neither could this person (never heard about them until yesterday)

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  4. Caoimhin,
    Yes I do know a lot about the WC,

    You didn't appear to know much about the heating system inside the stadiums or where to buy beer outside the designated zones. And not everyone can be bought.

    you are not too concerned about Human Rights, espcially those of migrant workers

    If you believe that, it's your belief. I think your argument is 'wank, weak, woke and vegan'. Same as Harry when he takes the knee or any other football player who takes the knee, their arguments are 'wank, weak woke and vegan' too. Let's look at this from a ' weed induced conspiracy theory' (Stevies line) point of view. Why didn't all the socialist football fans take to the streets and march against Qatar getting the WC the minute Qatar handed over their brown envelopes to FIFA? All across this rock on any given day socialists are out marching for all sorts of reasons. Didn't see many march for the migrant wokers in Qatar..........

    What I have read and watched is 'wank, weak woke, vegans' who wear football tops bought in JD Sports/Sports Direct and then they power up , their iphone log onto their social media accounts and lecture the world about human rights and migrant worker abuses while multi-millionaire football players who take either sponsorship money from or wear football shirts made by Nike take the knee before they kick a football......

    Caoimhin I have never bought into consumerism myself. All my devices including my 'de-googled' android SMART phone are 2nd hand /reconditioned. The clothes on my back are not bought from any high street chain store you care to mention who make money from sweat shops. My wardrobe is made up from shirts, jackets and jeans from either my local SVP shop or my local cancer research charity shop. I can't stop child labour in sweat shops but I wont buy into it. At least I know when I buy clothes I know where the money isn't going..

    Let's have a look at HR abuses 'espcially those of migrant workers' from a lived experience level that you think I don't care about. Long ago on TPQ I mentioned I lived in the leafty suburbs of Paris. And for 2 of those years I lived in an over crowded hostel full of migrant workers from North Africa , most classed as 'sans papiers' and they were all being exploited earning very little more than the Notting Hillbillies sang about. Quiet a few were living 3 to a room, each room wasn't much bigger than a prison cell .

    I’d rather watch The Big Match Revisited, old games from the seventies and eighties

    If that makes you happy. Fantastic. Me and a boy named Sue will watch free live footy on TV listening to wank weak woke vegans talk about HR abuses while they get paid loads beaming from Qatar.

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    1. You seem obssesed, Frankie, with the words "wank, weak, woke and vegan", good choice of words, once maybe twice, but constantly? Can I ask, what device are you answering, quite legitimately, the arguments? Glad to hear you dont buy into commercialism, one thing in common, but as for sleeping in a hostel in Paris in a "leafy suburb", better than a park bench which was once my abord for many a night, following Man Utd abroad, we've all been there even fucking Hitler.

      I agree the so-called socialist football fans, equally so called, should have demonatrated against Qatar instead of spouting. By the same token they should have got stuck in on steelworkers, miners and printers picket lines. Instead they sold very intersting, readable and logical newspapers. All very nice to read in or under different circumstances, like times of no industrial unrest.

      As for your first mundane statement about knowledge of the World Cup, I was referring to football historical knowledge dating back to Uraguay 1930. There are many who know a lot more, but it was the football side I was talking of.

      As for your ridiculous use of the words "lager louts" if you had attended games instead of sitting on your arse, at home watching television, hoodwinked by dickhead commentators, you would know most drunkerdness at games comes from pubs, not the odd pint at the ground. Been there seen it wore the T. Shirt, albeit a long time ago now. Similar kind of places you champion in Qatar, yet these are not "lager louts" not that I'm suggesting for a moment they are. It is you who introduced the "lager lout" bit.

      I find your arguments, commercialism aside, as "wank, weak, woke and vegan" to say nothing of boring as you do mine.

      Caoimhin O'MurIle

      Delete
  5. Have you ever been to an English or Scottish football game Frankie? These lager louts you so flipantly refer to, can you please explain what you mean? Do you mean people who like more than one or two pints? If so, count me as one and most people who attend games and meet in the pub before the game. Or do you mean those who are sent out by far right groups, ideologically not dissimilar to the Qataris, to cause mayhem, used by the fascists as street fodder like those who wrecked Lansdowne Road in the mid nineties? If you refer to the latter, and I suspect you do, they are not football fans, football is a cloak of convinience for them, or more to the point their leaderships, to hide behind and not representative of ninety percent of fans. With due respect to your views I suggest you go and have a look, not from your armchair listening to centre right propaganda crap from imbeciles who consider themselves commentators.

    The Qatari regime are not dissimilar in many ways to the fascists, call them fascreliogionists (my word).

    Caoimhin O'Muraille

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  6. The Qatar leadership will be disappointed with all the woke NATO brigade giving off to them about 'human rights'. The irony being both sides supported the 'rights' of ISIS/Syrian Rebels to terrorise Syrians in whatever way they saw fit when the plan was to overthrow Assad.
    P.s it's also ironic that the 'one love' brigade were quite happy to see a certain Russian people banned from the World Cup. Doesn't the hypocrisy make ye wanna puke. Just saying.

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    1. Micko becareful what you say otherwise some might call you a CT....................

      Delete
  7. Oh, an after thought Frankie, I do not see what you living in a hostel in a "leafy Paris suburb," along with some exploited migrant workers, which you seem to consider to be expected, has to do with 6,500,
    minimum, migrant workers losing their lives building these stadia in Qatar. You living in hostel, which I'm sure was an experience, is connected to the point I am, allbeit, "wank, weak, woke and vegan way", trying to make about worker deaths is connected to your Paris experiences because?

    I'm very pleased you buy your clothes at SVP shops, have bought there myself, but it is not a badge of honour.

    Caoimhin O'Muraile

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  8. The language used doesn't annoy me but I think the delay in Frankie's comments going up was because the Blogger algorithm detected it and sent his stuff to Spam.

    A problem Caoimhin in making a principle of this is that when it comes to be hosted by the US different human rights abuses raise their head. A Marxist such as yourself will have a serious ethical problem not watching it in Qatar but watching it in the US. Even setting aside US foreign policy, you need only look at what the Pro-Hate movement did to Roe Wade. Does it have a better policy now on women's rights than Qatar? Reproductive rights are on the decline. Would you be surprised if they were to ban the morning after pill? And the US religious crazies are just as deranged as the Qatari ones. If they get their way in the US, gays would be hanged.

    I haven't watched any of it yet but my son watches them all in the house. Had my lunch there and the Belgian-Morocco match was on. I merely glanced at it. Not something to go tub thumping about.

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  9. To be honest Anthony, I am not a great lover of international football. To me it, and always has, fucks up the domestic game. I used to watch the now obsolete Home International series and, only watched the Irish games in USA. You are right about human rights in the "land of the (un)free" but the main point, though obviously not only one, I was making about Qatar was the 6,500 workers lives lost building this pantomime. This should be of concern to avery trade unionist, as I know it is to yourself, on this planet. Another negative, for me, about the international game is it, uninintentionally I'm sure, inflames national rivalries and can lead to an ugly form of nationalism. I am, like yourself, not a nationalist, national liberation is a different issue, and can see the ugly head of fascism hidden in what passes for supporting a national side. For example, the events at Lansdowne Road back mid nineties, was organised by the BNP and many of those who travelled were not football fans at all they were party members. Actual England fans that night, I noticed on TV wore scarves and tended not to be involved. The fascists had mobilised for that game on the anti-IRA ticket and, alas, their members appeared to outnumber the bonifide England supporters, many who stayed away because of the rumours.

    I'm a United fan, with a preference towards Celtic in Scotland. However, when the two meet I only want one team, Man Utd. The split in 2005 when we formed FC United was a protest, a huge protest at that, against the Glazers. The "Love United Hate Glazer" slogan still exists. Same family so no contradiction there and when United beat Liverpool at Anfield the roar in the pubs around Gigg Lane, Bury when we played there, could probably be heard at the other end of the East Lancs Road.

    Caoimhin O'Muraile

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    1. I love it - the World Cup and Euros. I would go to the Home Internationals when they were played in Belfast. It was the only chance to see England, Scotland and Wales live which for a youngster was a great experience.
      We can always find a reason not to watch something and not watching this tournament is a matter of choice. If others want to watch it, fine. Every game is on in this house as my son watches. I think it becomes an issue if we behave like the pro-hate lobby do in the reproductive rights debate and demand that others do the same as we do. Let choice prevail.
      Ugly forms of nationalism are a manifestation of other ugly forms of group behaviour. City can be pitched against city, the Euro soccer club competitions pitch a team from one nation against another. The world continues to be organised in terms of nation states so competitions between nations is to be expected. I'm not much of a nationalist but have no problem with national teams playing other national teams.

      Delete
  10. Caoimhin,

    I'm very pleased you buy your clothes at SVP shops, have bought there myself, but it is not a badge of honour.

    Why isn't it a badge of honour? If you or anyone else wants to spend money in shops that make money from the sweat of exploited migrant workers, go for it. I will buy my clothes from my local SVP and cancer research shop and I'll be happy knowing the money, I spend, to buy my clothes, goes to help people in times of need, help exploited migrant workers fleeing some war or other. I proudly wear my badge of honour everyday. You or whoever else can wear football tops sponsored or made by nike while having a pint in your local wearing an adidas track suit chatting up a good woman who is wearing something bought in H&M or maybe M&S-Tesco talking about migrant workers and quietly in a corner having a pint will be people like me proudly wearing a badge of honour.

    As for your ridiculous use of the words "lager louts"

    On the Ronaldo piece you said this about the jibbers.... "travelling with a gang (sometimes jibbing) on trains and entering the overenthusiastic stage, often wrongly referred to as hooliganism,

    Larger louts, football hooligans, Brimingham Zulus, Carlton Leach and the ICF, Man Utds infamous 'Inter City Jibbers'......different cheeks of the same arse. During the 80's /90's when you were a happy jibber, the jibbers didn't contain their lager loutish antics to the football terraces but... open this link from a 1994 news report and you'll see drunk Zulus fighting drunk Jibbers at a boxing match.

    if you had attended games instead of sitting on your arse, at home watching television, hoodwinked by dickhead commentators, you would know most drunkerdness at games comes from pubs, not the odd pint at the ground.

    The first Man Utd match I seen was in 1990, I wasn't long in London and they got beat 2-1 by QPR. The first time I seen Man Utd players was 1978 and they were running through a park in Wythenshawe when I was visting an aunt. Back to the Jibbers only having only 2 pints at a football match. On your FCUM piece you told the world....The Police ask pubs not to open incase larger louts get drunk before the game and start 'jibbing' but.....

    .though some publicans defied this, opening a little early to facilitate the huge travelling support. This was done clandestinely and the pubs in question shall remain nameless. .

    So the ICJ had 2 or 3 pints of dutch courage in a bar that was meant to be closed then they jibbed happily to the game and had a few more pints of dutch courage and a few would turn into lager louts on Saturday night. But your gang was the happy jibbers.

    Another negative, for me, about the international game is it, uninintentionally I'm sure, inflames national rivalries and can lead to an ugly form of nationalism.

    Do you look at life through rose coloured glasses? What is the difference between the Zulus and the ICF beating the shit out of each other and international football fans beating the shit from each other? The flag they fight under? It looks the same to me...loutish lager louts jibbing.

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    1. Would rather give to the SVP shops than the big retail stores. Got a brand new Glentoran top in Oxfam while in Dublin on Friday Frankie. There are a couple of SVP shops that specialise in designer stuff.

      Delete
    2. "Would rather give to the SVP shops than the big retail stores. Got a brand new Glentoran top in Oxfam while in Dublin on Friday Frankie. There are a couple of SVP shops that specialise in designer stuff."

      Sometimes the jokes just write themselves!

      Delete
  11. Caoimhin
    I agree the so-called socialist football fans, equally so called, should have demonatrated against Qatar instead of spouting.

    Like yourself for example? You are a self confessed 'Socialist Republican and Marxist', football fan. How many demonstrations did you go to the minute Qatar handed over their brown envelopes to FIFA? What I have heard is a lot of Alf Garnets come out in the past two weeks wave their fists at their computer screens and scream "I am a socialist footy fan and Qatar shouldn't have been given the WC"....

    The Qatari regime are not dissimilar in many ways to the fascists, call them fascreliogionists (my word).

    Caoimhin, on your Is Fascism Being Resurrected? I explained to you how the UK, Stevies south Pacific island are both very much fascist states. The Sex Pistols sang about it in 1977.

    World War 2 and everyones favourite vertically challenged fascist they love to hate. We all know what happened in the death camps and how millions got gassed. What about the Zionist oil and banking cartels who openly sold the gas? Can someone have a skim at the link and someone else have a skim here. And before the Alf Garnets fist wave calling me "an antisemetic CT" you can have a skim at Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Who was the biggest fascist the Zionist oil and banking cartels who openly funded the Nazi war machine, openly sold Zyklon B gas knowing it was being used in death camps to kill Jews among others or a vertically challenged goose stepping mad mad?

    If the Allies were really hellbent on stomping out Hitlers brand of fascism, why didn't they bomb the rail road tracks that led to the death camps. Why did they carpet bomb Dresden but didn't touch the Ford foundation engineering plants that kept Hitlers war machine going. What was the deal with leaving I.G. Farben petrol and gas plants alone that supplied the gas to the death camps. Why didn't the allies bomb those places? My guess is they were too busy making money from peoples misery.. And they sound bigger fascists than Hitler. They (the big club that Carlin told us we'll never be part off), once they had bled Europe dry after WW2 they set up camp in South America under Operation Condor, again paid vertically challenged goose steppers to murder countless more millions while they made more money from peoples misery. and telling the world they are anti fascist and if anyone believes otherwise then they are a fascist.

    clothes at SVP shops, have bought there myself, but it is not a badge of honour.

    I'll leave you with this though about 'badges of honour' bought in my local SVP shop. Up until last Thursday I had never heard about José 'Pepe' Mujica, today I know he was former President of Uruguay from 2010 to 2015, a socialist/marxist. He wears a badge of honour and is proud to do so. I will buy into Pepe's brand of socialist marxism. Yours sounds too 'jibberish'.....

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  12. Anthony,,


    In my local SVP shop, they sell some decent 'retro' gear as well as good quality designer clothes. most of my furniture was bought in my local SVP...I'm not ashamed to admit buying from charity shops. There is some great deals to be found in them..


    Same as the grub I buy, I buy meat from a butcher who sources locally were not only are the workers treated fair but the animals aswell..

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  13. Frankie, clicked on all those links and saw not a scintilla of evidence showing that zionists financed IG Farben. Financial - industrial complexes and the power they wield do not equivocate to Zionist or any form of Jewish global domination.

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  14. My final word on this now becoming boring subject Frankie. I am pleased you, in your wisdom, find my arguments "woke".

    Caoimhin O'Muraile

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  15. Caoimhin

    Frankie. I am pleased you, in your wisdom, find my arguments "woke".

    I find them more Alf Garnet than woke and very selective. You take a stand about Qatar and women's rights, HR abuses but in your recent Ronaldo piece you talked up Geroge Best and Ryan Giggs, in fact you do often anytime you talk about MUFC greats but you never mention or call out both Best and Giggs for their treatment of women....

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  16. Barry,
    Frankie, clicked on all those links and saw not a scintilla of evidence showing that zionists financed IG Farben.

    First thing you need to remember Barry is I.G. Farben is the German division of the American IG Chemical Corporation. Think Facebook-Meta Ireland and Facebook-Meta France, just different cheeks of the same arse and both know what each other is up to....

    The third link was a piece by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency called Behind the Headlines I.g. Farben’s Grim History and how Joseph Borkin an economist a lawyer and historian exposed what IG Farben was doing during WW2 ......

    Auschwitz supplied the labor for the construction of I.G. Auschwitz. Slave laborers were worked to death in the I.G. Auschwitz oil and rubber plants or in coal mines. When they became too weak to work they were immediately put to death with I.G. Farben-produced Zyklon B gas which Farben sold to the Nazis at a profit.

    In Nuremberg, in 1946, a half-dozen I.G. Farben executives were convicted for slavery and mass murder. They were sentenced to jail terms of six to eight years in jail. Another half dozen were found guilty only of “plunder and spoliation” and their punishment was 18 months to five years in prison. And, to cap it all, Fritz ter Meer, the only executive convicted of mass murder, slavery, plunder and spoliation returned to a top executive position in 10 years. In 1956 he became chairman of the supervisory board of Bayer, one of I.G.’s largest components.


    Joseph Borkin and The Crime and Punishment of I. G. Farben.......The second link is called 'a day in history' and how in May 1942 .....

    4,300 Jews are deported from the Polish town of Chelm to the Nazi extermination camp at Sobibor, where all are gassed to death. On the same day, the German firm IG Farben sets up a factory just outside Auschwitz, in order to take advantage of Jewish slave laborers from the Auschwitz concentration camps....


    The first link is called "The Rothschild’s representative at 1913 Federal Reserve, the CFR,+ I.G. Farben".....And it explains what happened in Jekell Island in 1910 who was there and how Zionist oil cartels set up the US FED helped by the Rothchild controlled Bank of England, members of the Fabians and The British Round Table (they also made up the bulk of the CFR---Council on Foreign Relations). When I asked you a few months ago to watch two documentaries by James Corbett you called them "Fake News and a CT" part 1 and part 2 watch them again. They should be on Neflix and shown in schools. The first link takes you a dissident academic Professor Antony C. Sutton who wrote several books on how the ' big club' Carlin spoke about, the same 'big club Dwight D. Eisenhower spoke about in his final speech. The same 'big club' John F. Kennedy spoke about in 1961 to the American Press Club...

    Antony C. Sutton Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution and how P Morgan, Rockefeller in the US, city financiers in the UK, created and sustained their three supposed enemies right from the very beginning: Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany, and FDR’s Fabian socialism.

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  17. Barry
    industrial complexes and the power they wield do not equivocate to Zionist or any form of Jewish global domination

    You need to stop thinking that 'Zionist' boils down to a Jewish global conspiracy. Not all Jews are Zionist and not all Zionists are Jews. There are quite a few Christian Zionist's sitting at the table. Not only did they help create Hitler, fund Stalin allow Pinochet to goose step his way through South America after WW2 but also made Mao.....

    “By about the year 2000 Communist China will be a “superpower” built by American technology and skill.”...................Antony C. Sutton, American Secret Establishment ....1984

    Ask yourself why David Rockefeller praised for Mao’s China despite the mass killings. Again ask yourself why were Mao and Henry the war criminal Kissinger such good friends? My guess is their long lasting friendship stems from Yale.

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    Replies
    1. Frankie, as is the case so often with you, you make tentative, unhistorical claims. You make the leap between the supposed influence of the Rothschilds on the US Council for Foreign Relations and that of "Zionist" oil cartels on the US Federal Reserve to attributing blame to them for participation in the Holocaust because they supposedly financed IG Farben either directly or at distance removed. But you provide no documentary or archival evidence for such claims; just pure supposition based maybe on weed-induced paranoia. This may sound like the proverbial broken record but it is a centuries long antisemitic trope that a cabal of Jews control the world's banking and financial systems. Substituting the word "Zionist" for the word "Jewish" makes no difference to the provenance of and malfeasance behind this Big Lie.

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    2. Frankie,

      Any thoughts why China is behind the manufacturing of Fentanyl wholesale and supplying the Mexican Cartels for trafficking into the US? A new Opium war perhaps?

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  18. Stevie,

    Any thoughts why China is behind the manufacturing of Fentanyl wholesale and supplying the Mexican Cartels for trafficking into the US?

    Simply ...the Chinese produce it cheaper and in bigger quanties than the Mexican drug cartels can make. It is the same reason why so many companies source their products from China . Its cheaper to buy from China than to make whatever in-house.

    A new Opium war perhaps?

    My understanding is the US took more than enough raw opium from their stay in Afghan to keep 'Big Pharma' happy well into the next decade.

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    Replies
    1. Frankie,

      So you don't think the Fentanyl production is State organised in China?

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  19. The Mexican are in all probability buying directly from the Chinese Gov. China is the blue print of how they want the world to be

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