The building of World Cup venues has, by some estimates, cost thousands of lives. Should we be sitting in these arenas watching football? Or tipping them into the harbour?
If you want to be picky, you could say Raheem Sterling chose an ill-targeted metaphor in his statement this week on racial prejudice and the need for a step-change in football’s power structures.
Comparing the spread of racism to the spread of Covid-19 is probably not the best way to change those minds most in need of changing. Let’s face it, a global Venn diagram of virus-deniers and bigotry-sceptics is likely to feature a fairly dense overlap, a concentration of people who don’t really think either of these things exist. You hear that? He just said racism is fake too! We’re home free!
Related: Qatar 2022 World Cup organisers accused over unpaid migrant workers
Football speaks fine words while preparing to bask in these glorious migrant-built structures, disposable monuments to a four-week show of power
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