Qatar World Cup

Id agree with the principle of if you say you’re going to do something then do it- a yellow in the opening game wouldn’t have impacted them much considering the final score. I’m not sure though that had Roy been there, that he would have entertained wearing an armband in the first place. If he was so passionate about the whole thing he just probably wouldn’t have gone.

However, to what degree any team should be “protesting” at this late stage is I think open for debate- they could have refused to come to the games in the first place- imagine England Argentina Brazil Germany and France all said, no we’re not coming - but they didn’t- they’re here now, it’s too late.

This minor posturing is all about being “seeing” to be doing something - it’s optics, nothing more- the only thing left to do is play fantastic football - that’s it- the time to have done something else, is long past. The rest of the sham antics is about instagram likes and social media profile and the hope some corporate will give you a big aftershave advertising contract at the end of it, because you were so empathetic to the minority groups of society.

Leaving aside LBGTI rights, which we know don’t exist in any Muslim orientated country and it won’t change ever, so why bother, there was in my view, one big reason not to come to Qatar- and that was the scant regard for human life that built those stadiums and the lack of compensation for their families- but everyone going there took the money and the glory - so be it, but I’m totally cynical of those armbands and any other posturing at this point.

A technicality- it was suicide by Manager

I think there’s a further question to ask- what would the Irish football fans and public have done if we qualified? Would we as a nation have put pressure on the FAI to withdraw from the completion? Or laid down our red line of demands such as a worker compensation scheme in advance of attending?

Personally I think there might have been some posturing, some protests etc but ultimately I believe we would have attended

As it progresses I’d say more and more will tune in and all of this arm band stuff will be forgotten - there’s only so much posturing you can do before it’s repetitive and pointless, which I believe has exceeded that point even now.

I think the complaints and the news reports will start to focus more around lack of booze, the heat in those tin shacks and lack of atmosphere outside of the stadiums- some hardcore fans who likely spent near dozens of 1000s are staying in the likes of Dubai so that they can suck up the atmosphere and booze there and are just flying in for the matches - probably the way to go if attending a WC is what rocks your boat- you want it to be a good experience-