The Hypocrisy

The western countries are exposed yet again

A language is a form of expression. It doesn’t need words to explain how one feels about the other person or about the situation.

It doesn’t matter whether you can talk or not. It doesn’t matter whether you are old or young, language has no barrier to it.

In terms of languages, sports remain the most common one in the world. It doesn’t care about race, religion or anything to unite people under one umbrella despite living in different parts.

It doesn’t care where you come from but it will unify people in sorrow, happiness, excitement and everything that comes with it.

In the world of sports, football remains by far the most popular one at the global level where billions follow it and support teams from different continents and time zones.

World Cup is special in pretty much every team sport but World Cup in football is something else. Billions stay glued to their screens despite the majority of them not having their own country taking part in it.

The mega-event is not just special for teams taking part. It is also special for countries who are interested in hosting this spectacle in the future. After all, it is just not a sporting event, but a festival better than any other party anywhere in the world.

There is lobbying done for months if not years to convince other members to get a vote for the hosting rights of the competition. After all, this event has the ability to put the country on the world map, that too in a short span of time.

On December 2, 2010, a small yet rich country in the Middle East with the name of Qatar was awarded the hosting rights of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The tournament is underway and is reaching the knockout stage but remained extremely controversial because of a number of issues, the most notable of which was about the country’s decision to not endorse homosexuality or the LGBTQ+ community.

The controversy:

Qatar remains a largely conservative society. Around 65% of the population based in the small country are Muslims, according to the country’s statistics authority.

As soon as the decision to award the first Muslim and Arab country to host the competition came forth, there was scepticism across the board.

However, Qatar put a red line on just one issue and that was about the use of a rainbow flag or wearing the armband showing support for the LGBTQ+ community or in simpler words the homosexual community.

The decision received widespread criticism from media houses in the west, politicians and players from different countries, especially the ones in Europe.

England captain Harry Kane led from the front in this cause and insisted on wearing the ‘One Love’ armband to show his support for the community.

“We’ve made it clear as a team and a staff and organisation that we want to wear the armband,” the striker said as quoted by the Telegraph. “We’ve made it clear that we want to wear it.”

The Netherlands captain also raised his voice to join the cause by saying: “I will wear the one love armband. Nothing changed from our point of view.”

England manager Gareth Southgate was another notable person who came out in support of the cause by stating: “We feel we should. We think it’s a strong statement that will go around the world, especially for young people, that inclusivity is important.”

However, their intention was struck down, both by the Qatari authorities and FIFA who delivered a message to the respective federations that if the captains will wear such armbands, they will receive a yellow card before the beginning of the match.

The decision did not go down well, especially with German Foreign Minister Nancy Faeser who was extremely vocal about it.

“In today’s times, it is incomprehensible that FIFA does not want people to openly stand for tolerance and against discrimination,” Faeser said during a visit to a German Football Association event in Doha.

She further doubled down on her statement in a tweet saying: “It wasn’t about making a political statement – human rights are non-negotiable. Denying us the armband is the same as denying us a voice. We stand by our position.”

Double standards:

We are often told everyone deserves a chance and that everyone deserves to be treated with equal respect but this World Cup has exposed faces like never before.

As soon as the decision to award hosting rights to Qatar was announced, there was a lot of scepticism surrounding everything happening in the country.

It all started with rumours regarding bribing the members to get the vote, the next objection was about when the tournament will be organised as it cannot go ahead in the summer because of extremely warm weather in the country and holding it in the winter will mean that European club football season will be disrupted.

Then there were discussions about the alcohol ban in the country. Then about the country’s size and whether it will be able to host such an event with millions coming over to support their teams.

All of those issues were handled pretty decently by a country of just 2.9 million population but it seemed like some people didn’t like it.

Labour laws are extremely strict in the region, not only in Qatar, but for some odd reason, despite being involved in hundreds of billions of dollars in trade with the different countries in the Middle East, Qatar’s labour laws remained in focus.

To propagate it, there was a story done by The Guardian where it was claimed that 6,500 migrant workers died in the country since it was awarded the hosting rights, implying that majority of the deaths were in relation to the construction workers.

The reality was, as the report mentioned very silently, that’s the total number of deaths of migrants in the country since 2011, including all workers who are living there for numerous reasons. Yet, different media houses in the west continued to propagate why hosting the World Cup in Qatar was a bad idea.

There have been instances in the past where UEFA — the European footballing body — asked players or even penalised them for showing support to different political causes, including the support of the Palestine cause and against Israel’s brutality. They claim that politics should never be involved with sports.

But the same countries are now angry at Qatar for exactly doing what they wanted to do in their countries — not allowing politics to be involved with sports.

They are doing the exact thing by not allowing the LGBTQ+ community to showcase their presence in the country where a vast majority is not open to the idea of accepting these things.

They are so upset that they are now considering quitting FIFA because it sided with the local bodies, helping them implement their own laws and cultural values. If hypocrisy had a face, then that was right there for everyone to see.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino was also critical of the European countries asking Qatar to change their laws for a 28-day event.

“We are told to make many lessons from some Europeans, from the Western world,” he said just before the start of the World Cup. “I’m European. I think for what we Europeans have been doing for 3,000 years around the world, we should be apologising for the next 3,000 years before starting to give moral lessons to people.

“How many of these European companies who earn millions and millions from Qatar or other countries in the region — billions every year — how many of them have addressed migrant-worker rights? I have the answer: none of them because if they change the legislation it means less profits.”

Those words, in every sense, stand correct because there might have been a time when the west had a moral ground to lead the rest of the world, but that has changed in the last three decades.

From committing war crimes to legitimising every wrong thing just for the benefit of themselves has left the west exposed and if there was any space left, then this World Cup has completed that as well.

The western countries have been hypocrites when it comes to their gain and it has been unmasked, yet again, in the ugliest manner.