Mirth wrote:
The fact that it's the same line of reasoning that noted shit stirrer Piers Morgan uses should be reason enough to pause for thought.
It's not a question about just hosting the World Cup - someone has to and every country is flawed in that respect. Rather it's about a regime blatantly sportswashing their reputation without assuming any other responsibilities thanks to FIFA in this instance. For the record, the Premier league is no better.
1) The LGBT issue is not about people holding different views. That's to be expected - societies are dynamic and complex and the last thing that you need to see is the New York Times telling them that their bigots. There are several countries that are working it through and have the right to make their own judgements without intervention. However, when it comes to imprisoning people, the likes of Qatar are very much in the minority - plenty of non-Western countries (including most of South America, China and India) do not imprison people for the sexual preferences. And of that, very few are as wealthy as Qatar and that wealth should come with added responsibility.
2) Treatment of migrant labour - again, the Gulf States are uniquely bad at this given their relative wealth. There's plenty of poorer countries that have hosted international tournaments where workers are treated with more dignity and kindness, particularly if they're overseas citizens. The fact that Qatar claim to be the flag bearer of developing countries and cry racism when they've been amongst the worst actors should be condemned by everyone.
Come on Mirth you know better than this - a good point is a good point, even if a horrible prick like Morgan is the one making it.
Doesn't need saying that homosexuality shouldn't be outlawed but what does that have to do with the World Cup? There's not a single gay footballer playing in the tournament anyway so everyone's good aren't they. Fans never mattered to any FA let alone FIFA, even so if a gay couple flew to Doha and spent a couple thousand on some shit budweisers no one there will bat an eyelid.
The migrant labourers who died building the stadia are the real argument to me, no matter how horrible the other crimes committed by Qatar are. Qatar should've lost the right to host the WC when first reports came out but of course that never was going to happen. And as horrible as it is to agree with Piers really there's no one really with any right to host the world when you're fully honest about it.
No worries though, after Qatar in 2026 it'll be in the US and 2030 apparently Israel Bahrain and UAE have made a joint bid 😆
