Qatar will host the 2022 Fifa World Cup next month. Picture: Giuseppe CACACE / AFP.
I am one of those who believe Qatar should not be hosting the Fifa World Cup this month because it is a dictatorship where human rights are not respected.
Fifa should not reward sheikdoms with lucrative tournaments that do nothing to transform the society, but only whitewash the abuses.
Granting Qatar hosting rights is no different from Saudi Arabia killing Washington Post journalist Jamal Kashoggi and then setting up LIV Golf to sportswash its crimes against women, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex community and ethnic minorities.
Sheikdoms realised a long time ago that sport and entertainment are sure bets when it comes to pretending you are one with the civilised world.
Stunts such as Formula One’s Mercedes driver Sir Lewis Hamilton wearing a rainbow flag branded helmet for the Qatar and Saudi Arabia Grands Prix achieve little in transforming the attitude of self-righteous rulers who think they own populations.
Those sheikhs kidnap their own dissident children, detain journalists and slaughter Yemenis, unchallenged.
Get me right, my definition of civilisation is not embracing western consumerist values and lowering the morality bar. Democracy is not the gold standard for responsible governance.
What I’m saying is that humans are not different from birds; they have an unalienable right to spread their wings and explore yonder without the next person decreeing how and with whom they should explore.
If one argues that it’s Qatari and, by extension, Islamic culture for women to cover their heads, then maybe such countries should partake in international tournaments when they are open societies.
The Fifa leadership knew when it awarded hosting rights to Qatar that even if sponsors withdrew, the country could stage the tournament without outside money.
Fifa and its corporate sponsors decided to sweep under the carpet complaints of inhumane working conditions for migrant labourers who built the stadiums in which the world’s leading football players will compete.
Qatar has already started rolling out the red carpet for soccer luminaries coming for the Arab world’s biggest tournament.
At kick-off on 20 November, the world will be ready to forget that most Libyans and Syrians can’t make it to Doha because Qatar’s petrodollars helped destroy those societies.
In Syria, Qatar supported antigovernment rebels and in Libya it backs renegade warlord Khalifa Haftar.
I hate that the loudest voices for the boycott of Qatar come from Europe. Most European pundits are driven by racism and a colonial hangover. They talk human rights on Qatar and become mute on Saudi Arabia, Israel and United Arab Emirates.
As we saw with the 2010 Fifa World Cup, they believe the only countries that should host global tournaments should be European or closer to Europe.
They are the racists who until kick-off in 2010, were talking about a Fifa plan B.
What will happen in Qatar will be the equivalent of Confederation of African Football warding Africa Nations Cup hosting rights to Ethiopia or Egypt, Morocco, Equatorial Guinea or Libya. It’s abhorrent.
-Mashego is an independent political analyst and author
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