Qatar World Cup

John Doe1

I mean, the last one was in a quasi-dictatorship with homophobia part of it core so the precedent has been set.

I think the next World Cup should be in a Congolese Coltan mine or a converted Bangladeshi sweatshop

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119867934#Comment_119867934

This is what people tend to brush over: rainbow flags in Moscow four years ago wasn't the safest thing you could do and Poland staged 2012 with allegedly the worst record for LGBT rights in the EU.

Next one is the US - where four states only outlawed slavery last week and a fifth still has it on the books.

EOQRTL

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119866818#Comment_119866818

What makes Beckham's actions most sickening is the fact taking a moral stance wouldn't have effected him whatsoever. He's a multimillionaire anyway and wants for nothing. Utter sh1thouse of a man.

q2ice

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119814035#Comment_119814035

Off topic and surprised anyone has not asked but what is the story with the mans left hand? The vein is so big it looks like there is something alive under the skin. 😬😳

Edit: purely curious as to what could cause it. Poor circulation? IV drip side effects? ?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119858437#Comment_119858437

Does anyone have any other documentary suggestions?

Watched through all of the one above and there was some good info but way too much padding and dubious editing. Could have been condensed a lot more. There were some funny parts at the start.

Big takeaways were:

France 1998 was bought

Germany 2006 was bought

South Africa 2014 was bought

Russia 2018 was bought

Qatar 2022 was bought

France applied political pressure to secure the vote for Qatar in return for economic gain.

rob316

It's absolutely disgusting this is happening, but I will be watching every moment of it, it's the world cup like. I didn't choose Qatar to host it, just like the players and coaches, don't feel guilty about watching it.

Qatar can try to wash their image as much as they want with shite hawks like Beckham but the dogs on the street know this is a bought world cup by a backwards **** hole human rights abusing dictatorship.

dasdog

The football World Cup in a tiny desert nation of immigrant workers and shameless ex-pats. It's in your face corruption. Michel Platini should do the honourable thing and fall off a balcony.

I've been watching WC's since 1986 and have very faint childhood memories of Spain v Northern Ireland in 1982. 

This is the first I will not watch.

Sleepy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119863950#Comment_119863950

No, not applying different standards to myself, I'm recognising that different actions can be judged differently:

Working in Ireland without a mobile phone is a very difficult thing to do and tbh, I've only learned of Fairphone as a result of this thread. When my current mobile dies I'll be asking work to source one of their handsets to replace it. I'm not going to judge anyone for the fact they have a mobile that likely has component's which haven't been ethically sourced when I wasn't even aware myself that it's possible to choose a better alternative until recently.

Likewise, if someone is sent to visit Qatar or the UAE for a work trip by their employer I'm not going to judge them for it: it's not of their choosing and it's possible they're not in a position to refuse without losing their job.

Choosing to visit these countries for a holiday, to support a sports team or to go work there as an ex-pat aren't the same thing imho. It's a decision one has freely made to ignore human rights abuses for one's own entertainment or because it's financially advantageous to do so. It's easily avoided.

EOQRTL

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/nov/10/world-cup-stadium-workers-had-their-money-stolen-and-lives-ruined-says-rights-group

I don't want to hear that knob Beckham talk about human rights, equality, taking the knee or any other cause he may latch onto in the future. Just stay quiet and accept the money and don't pretend you give a hoot Beckham.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119868038#Comment_119868038

After his motorcycle documentary cringefest, I lost whatever remaining respect I had for him.

joseywhales

I will probably watch highlights of the slave cup. I think broadcasters can do moral coverage of the competition but it requires them to do pieces on the conditions and deaths of the migrant workers and to highlight the issues as they cover it. Like when they introduce a new stadium they could through out some stats about who died during construction , what countries they come from and the abuses they suffered etc, then show us the football. It would be fascinating to see how the qataris react to intense criticism during their slave cup.

thefallingman

I just want to watch football, i will switch off any woke broadcasters wetting themselves to be "seen" as highlighting issues

joseywhales

I am comfortable seeing the true impact of the competition as I watch it, I don't need some corporate broadcaster to sanitize the event for me and pretend like we all live in a utopia. They should show the good with the bad, then we can decide ourselves how we feel.

Choochtown

https://benderslikebeckham.com/

Fr Tod Umptious

I'll be watching.

Because at the end of the day I have realized that I really don't care about those workers, or the people oppressed in Qatar.

Just like I don't care about the travelers in the halting site.

Or the Syrian refugees in the hotel the other side of town.

Or the guys who are longer term unemployed because they were born and live in a vicious circle they can't get out of.

Because if I did really care about the travelers or the refugees or the unemployment I'd be doing something about it, not sitting here tut tuting about the likes of Beckham.

TipsyMcStagge

I'm old enough to remember Irish construction workers dying on unsafe building sites in England fellas been scraped up off the ground and the days work going on afterwards t'would have been going on around the time of the 1966 World Cup aswell. T'would seem to me that the main problem here is that it is middle Eastern people doing the exploiting now.

Elon Musk

Fixed World cup, expect either Qatar or Iran to win it

Overheal

I will never hear the end of this.

https://www.espn.com/soccer/united-states-usa/story/4802991/usmnt-to-push-be-the-change-message-in-qatar-berhalter

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119872255#Comment_119872255

You really think rte, itv or the bbc are going to do that?

rob316

The blame of this lands squarely on Jack Warner and Platini. Warner held the most influential position in FIFA due to the size of his confederation and sold Qatar the WC. Not even Blatter wanted Qatar win as he knew it would bring the house of cards down.

TelHai

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119873885#Comment_119873885

Great. So on one hand the left tells us we need to respect other cultures etc - on the other they want all other cultures to be the same as the one they've created.

Other cultures = good if they uphold left wing views. They're bad if they have different views to the dominant left wing culture.

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119874917#Comment_119874917

What?

TelHai

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119874958#Comment_119874958

A bit over your head yeah?

Let's respect other cultures. They are different, have different beliefs and we don't need to go over to Qatar waving LGBT flags.

One eyed Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119871696#Comment_119871696

For sure, different actions can be judged differently, and different people are bound to have different standards, so your judging your own and other people’s actions by your standards, is no different than them doing the same thing.

The only person tying themselves up in all sorts of anxious knots is yourself, and that’s not a criticism of you personally at all btw, it’s an observation of your commitment to your principles that you’d go so far as to ask your employer to provide you with a fair phone which costs about the same as a second hand iPhone… which is fine, you do you and all, but other people who don’t feel the same guilt about their actions aren’t likely to follow your lead. That’s all I’m saying.

ArmaniJeanss

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119874086#Comment_119874086

Yeah, in hindsight it was so stupid. They could have just played a long game and given it to Russia 2018 and USA 2022. That would have completely cleared the decks for Asia-only bids for 2026 and then they could have easily given it to Qatar without too much fuss (it would still have looked dodgy but no-one of significance like the FBI would have bothered looking too closely just because Japan, South Korea and Australia get a bit miffed).

It would have meant waiting an extra 4 years for the big money. But greed and wanting the pay-off immediately etc. And once they'd declared/claimed that the Qatar bid was supposedly better than the USA bid, they were heading for a whole world of pain.

trashcan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119864580#Comment_119864580

I’ll admit it, you had me for a second there 😝👏👏

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119874990#Comment_119874990

Slavery etc. is culture?

Hillmanhunter1

Accommodation has arrived. Two giant cruise ships have docked at Doha:

Richard Hillman

Tbh I don't really care about Qatars internal laws. Their country, their rules. They seem pretty happy with it.

What I do have a problem with is that Qatar has absolutely no business hosting a tournament like this. It's a country of 2.7m people. Most of which are transient workers from India/Pakistan/Nepal, who are there to do a bit of work for a few months and go home. 40% of the Country are Arabs. So we're talking about just over a million people that actually live there permanently. This is akin to Latvia or Estonia hosting a world cup, except they actually have a record and history of playing football.

This hasn't been highlighted yet but the first 2 weeks of the tournament will be dominated by talk and the sight of empty seats and atmosphereless stadiums. The Qatari's know that this is going to be a problem and have started paying fan groups to attend, such as the much disliked England Band. FIFA are claiming ticket sales are ok but I would imagine those tickets through their portal. About 50-60% of tickets actually goes to fans and then the rest to sponsors and FA's which are the ones that end up on the black market.

Qatar hosted the World Athletics Championships in 2019. It was widely regarded as one of the worst major sporting events ever hosted. The athletes were greeted with empty seats and golf applause when achieving their lifelong dreams of becoming world champion of their discipline.

So what can we expect from Qatar 2022? Souless, quiet stadiums, you'll hear the players. Empty seats. Fans arrested for absurd things. Reputations tarnished. Lower than average viewing figures. General disinterest.

Hillmanhunter1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119876074#Comment_119876074

You have your numbers incorrect.

There are 3m people living in Qatar, and approximately 10% or 300,000 are Qatari.

Everyone else, Arab, Asian, European, whatever, is a transient worker. If you are not Qatari you cannot live in Qatar without a sponsor, which effectively means without a job. If you lose your job you must leave.

So the only permanent residents, the Qataris, number 300,000. There however are many families, mainly Asian and Indian, but also some Europeans who have been in Qatar for generations, normally under the sponsorship/patronage of an influential Sheikh.

You suggest that the Qataris have no history of playing football, but you are perhaps not aware that there is a vibrant professional league. The final of their equivalent if the FA Cup, called the Emir of Qatar Cup attracts huge crowds. The 2022 final was limited, due to Covid, to 30,000, but it sold out. Finally, you may not be aware that Qatar are the current Asian Cup holders. They beat Japan (former World Cup hosts) in the final.

Qatar Stars League - Wikipedia

Emir of Qatar Cup - Wikipedia

2019 AFC Asian Cup Final - Wikipedia

I don't think the stadiums will be empty, though dead rubber group games between lesser supported teams will, as always, be unattractive.

There will be a huge number of visitors flying in from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Turkey and Lebanon. Many will be staying with friends, and also many (especially from the UAE) will be flying in and out on match day.

Sleepy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119875003#Comment_119875003

I get you, morality is entirely subjective. The Qataris no doubt believe they're all great fellows doing Allah's will so why should anyone else judge them for killing people for being the "wrong" sexuality or in order to host a sports tournament. I'm sure those who visit Dubai to avail of some tax free shopping or go teach in Qatar for a few years to get a deposit for a house together don't think twice about their actions either. I believe it's a shame they don't however as their belief that they're doing no harm flies in the face of the reality of their actions.