Image lifted from Qatar Airways Twitter account and was taken when they flew into Krabi, Thailand for the first time. Sometimes, the universe knows what is needed!
It has quickly become apparent at the World Cup that to the England team and FIFA at least, 'Black Lives Matter', but 'Gay Rights' don't.
I'm not going to get into the rights and wrongs of holding the world cup in Qatar. We all know that money talks and the corrupt set of grifters known as FIFA only care about one thing, and it's not football.
Football players have a right to express personal views and being in such a high-profile, public position can push a message to a huge audience. In the case of Harry Kane, I believe he wanted to make a personal statement supporting any individuals right to equality, regardless of their sexual preferences and to this end, was going to wear a rainbow coloured captains armband. This however, was eschewed by FIFA who threatened him with a yellow card which in turn, and I don't know whether this was a personal decision or an FA driven one, led him to drop the idea.
Whichever it was, it was wrong and stopped an individual expressing a view, in this case Harry Kanes view which to me, makes him, or at least the FA no better than the Qatar government who have also made 'being gay' a criminal offense.
Luckily, its not illegal to be Black in Qatar, so taking the knee in support of equal rights was perfectly fine and thats what the England team did, which of course is a great act and supports another massively important human rights issue, but it does send out the wrong signals in that it prioritises two incredibly important issues. How would you feel about that if you were gay and living in one of many countries around the world where you could be put to death for your sexual preference, natural or contrived ?
So should we have all turned our backs on the football? Should Qatar have been banned from hosting the World Cup? Absolutely not.
As Robbie Williams pointed out this week, in defending his decision to perform there, said;
I don't condone any abuses of human rights anywhere. But, that being said, if we're not condoning human rights abuses anywhere, then it would be the shortest tour the world has ever known: I wouldn't even be able to perform in my own kitchen."
Before adding,
Anybody leaving messages saying 'no to Qatar' are doing so on Chinese technology.
Good point.
So should we blaming Qatar, or Islam?
The thing about heaping the hate on Qatar is that its just a tiny country of less than three million people, and it's a Muslim country, and like many countries the world over, bases its laws upon the predominant religion.
In this respect, if we want to protest the issues, we should be protesting against the over-riding authority, Islam, rather than the lesser authority, the Qatari governemnt but has there been a Muslim backlash and millions of words written in condemnation of Islam in the World's press? No, not a murmour. Qatar is an east target for criticism but if you really want to get down to the fundamentals of the issues, quite rightly being protested, it would be better to attack the source. The old addage again holds true;
Don't shoot the messenger.
Football is a unifier. It brings people together, to play together and to work together and whilst there is nothing wrong in using the game to highlight issues of global importance, that right to protest should be expressed at an individual's level but due to the medalling and acquiescence of various football governing bodies, more division than unification has been created and the whole thing has become a moral shambles which could have easily been avoided.
Applying secular humanism and individual liberties would have alleviated all the problems that the World Cup and FIFA find themselves mired in without having to defend their stance and would have allowed everyone to have enjoyed the World Cup guilt free and it being the center of attention, as it stands, the football appears to be nothing more than a side show, and that's sad.