human rights for all? no, sorry. Equal rights regardless of orientation? Nope, that doesn’t work either.
FIFA is true to its line, and what can be said about it?
Do it anyway. They can go to hell.
Today I feel like myself.
A group of European soccer federations have decided that even though FIFA has joined forces behind the One Love slogan, they will allow their team captains to wear rainbow armbands during the World Cup to at least do something to demonstrate against the lack of LGBTQi+ rights in the host country. Qatar.
A few hours before the match, they were told that it could cost a warning, before the start of the match, Harry Kane risked getting a yellow card. Strictly speaking, this is doubtful, but FIFA strongly disagreed.
“We cannot put our players in a position where they risk being warned or even sent off,” the statement read. One might argue that the risk is marginal compared to, say, being a man who loves men in this part of the world, but the message resonates with the way football usually deals with things like this: sport first, then afterwards.
Human deficiency disease
You can understand that, just as you basically understand FIFA.
Atmosphere.
I wrote this text before, just over a year ago. Then it was UEFA who said no to allowing organizers during European Championships to light up their stadiums in rainbow colours, and that’s when Gary Lineker tweeted his own suggestion:
jYou should do it anyway. Foolish. Do it anyway, they can go to hell.
Believing that human rights is a political position, believing that a fundamental right regardless of sexual orientation is a policy—it is, as I wrote during EM, a disease of human deficiency, a grief for humanity. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t politics. It’s a controversial position in many places in the world (during the European Commission it was mostly about Hungary), if it wasn’t, there wouldn’t be any reason to demonstrate. England, Denmark and others wanted to protest just that, that in Qatar they do not see women or migrant workers or LGBT people as people with the same rights as everyone else.
It lacks any kind of credibility
My understanding of FIFA or UEFA rests on the fact that they claim to be politically and religiously neutral, and that they would find themselves in a difficult position if they were forced to take a stand on a number of different political or religious markers in connection with their arrangements. What is indisputable (“the rights of the people of Palestine”) is explosive to the other. It’s easier to say no to everything, this attitude is understandable.
The problem here is that FIFA lacks any kind of credibility, whether in this matter or in any other matter dealing with human rights. The World Cup is being held in Qatar because they paid the most, FIFA is partly to blame for every accident or death that led to it when the infrastructure was to be quickly arranged. Fifa has chosen its path, it is filled with bundles of dollars and nothing else.
I see the Iranian national team balancing on a tightrope against men and women fighting for their future, no one singing the national anthem and the question of who they represent outweighs the question of whether they play 3-5-1-1 or something else. . What does FIFA want to tell them? Today I feel like Ali Khamenei?
I still wonder
These, the volumes, are the surface of yet another struggle between the old world and the new, between the footballing great powers of Europe and the organization that governs world football. We live in a time of transition between the old and the new, and as with the European Premier League initiative, it makes everything clearer and more explosive. Should we get it like this? Can we really trust UEFA and Fifa? Is it possible to create a football family that has been allowed to become so dysfunctional?
During a World Cup again, in South Africa twelve years ago, I found myself in the middle of a demonstration when poorly paid non-union workers were shot with rubber bullets and tear gas as they demanded their rights. The FIFA members then said that they absolutely respected workers’ rights, but found it unacceptable for them to disrupt matches.
I wondered then, and I still wonder, what situations FIFA could eventually consider without panicking.
My suggestion never worked, but shame on anyone who gives up. Dear FIFA, what do you think of this:
Human rights – but with reason.
Tuesday’s matches in the World Cup
11.00 Argentina and Saudi Arabia 14.00 Denmark and Tunisia 17.00 Mexico and Poland 20.00 France and Australia