What makes an impact is basic footballing competence and the cautious progress made under Erik ten Hag would be destroyed in an instantAnd here’s one we made earlier. Please ignore the noises from the basement. We, the sovereign state of Qatar, are here to restore the lost soul of your prized social-sporting institutions. And it’s all going to be fine. There was an unavoidable significance this week in the coincidence of two apparently unrelated events. First the suggestion that Qatar really may have a serious interest in buying Manchester United, or at least enough interest to add its name to the list before Friday’s “soft” deadline. And second the deliciously more-ish scenes of chaos at Paris Saint-Germain as the current...
There has not been a single conviction and yet nothing changes with metaphorical bedsheets dutifully shielding the suspectsTwo days out from the World Cup final, Qatar finishes hosting its tournament having very recently been declared “a frontrunner in labour rights”. “Today,” the declaration in question continued, “the World Cup in Qatar is proof of how sports diplomacy can achieve a historic transformation of a country.”It feels only mildly unfortunate that the member of the European parliament who uttered these words three weeks ago is currently detained by Belgian police, after the discovery of almost €1m in banknotes in her marital home and a hotel room used by her father. After all, this has been a successful World Cup. Qatar has...
Football should try to expand to new regions, but awarding a World Cup to Qatar was a mistake on a number of levelsAs tournament director of Euro 2024, I am meeting many people from the huge German football base. They are children in jerseys with whom I take selfies, youth coaches who teach rules to their players, presidents of small clubs who have been volunteers for decades. They all love the lightness of football, know its educational power, appreciate its importance to our community.When the conversation turns to Qatar, however, their tone becomes serious. Many consider missing a World Cup voluntarily for the first time in their lives. In the past, a World Cup was a folk festival, for children...
As we consume the football on show in Qatar despite knowing the brutal facts, we should at least force Fifa to make change So here we are then. Premier League season on pause while the lower leagues keep chugging away. Knackered and injured players off to a country where it’s illegal to be gay, where women who are victims of sexual assault can be put in prison and where thousands of migrant workers have died since Qatar was awarded the tournament 12 years ago. Welcome to the World Cup.Of course, we all know these things by now. In fact the impact of hearing about them again and again seems to numb you from the brutal facts. It’s easier to just...
Some England and Wales fans will receive flights and tickets to Qatar and ‘will be expected to stand, sing and wave flags’Roll up. Humans for sale. We will buy your labour. We will buy your joy too. We will buy your parping horn, your triumphalist songs. We will, let us make this clear, buy your feelings. So dance for us. Show your passion for the project (or lose its associated privileges). Because make no mistake: those tender feelings, the urge to feel and express pleasure, to interact with the spectacle, are now property of the state of Qatar.There is something genuinely jaw-dropping about the story that 40 England fans – including members of the England band – and 40 Wales...