This weaponised World Cup is not about Qatar becoming liked by western Europe, it is a vast geopolitical security operationWe need a new word for this thing. Psychologists have sometimes used the phrase “semantic satiation” to describe the process where saying the word “woodpecker” 20 times in a row, or sitting in a circle reciting the phrase “straight-leg easy-fit chinos” will eventually strip those sounds of any meaning, as though the entire concept of straight-leg easy-fit chinos has suddenly ceased to exist.Something like this has happened to the word “sportswashing”. This was always a hopeful coinage, adopted on the hoof to describe governments or other entities that use elite sport as a propaganda tool. Years of heavy use, first by...
Despite the jingoism, Gareth Southgate’s side do not have an easy group at a tournament tainted by Qatari sportswashingSome lessons, it seems, are never learned. Gareth Southgate was characteristically measured in his response to Friday’s World Cup draw but most seemed to follow Kyle Walker’s line that “you’ve got to be happy with the teams we’ve drawn”.The triumphalism was not quite as strident as before the 2010 World Cup, but if other teams really are inspired by the misunderstood ironies of Three Lions, England’s group-stage opponents are going to be raging at some of Saturday morning’s headlines. Continue reading...
As World Cup enters extended countdown real reason host nation wanted tournament in the first place has become clear“Pipes. You need them. I got them right here.” The words, there, of Hassan al-Thawadi, secretary general of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy Qatar 2022, speaking in Doha on Thursday morning.Actually that’s not correct. In fact this is a line spoken by an unnamed door‑to‑door crack cocaine salesman in the TV series The Wire, during a sequence where the Baltimore police department experiments by decriminalising drugs in an abandoned neighbourhood. Addictions reach desperation level. The city’s dealers create their own vision of entrepreneurial hell. Continue reading...
A valuable World Cup legacy would be financial support for families of migrant workers who died or were robbed of wagesThe Football Association’s chief executive, Mark Bullingham, made some interesting comments in response to questions about Qatar 2022 in a parliamentary committee hearing last week. Notable among them was the claim that the migrant workers whom the FA had met during “several trips” to Qatar, as well as “the NGOs on the ground”, were unanimous that “they want the World Cup to go ahead in Qatar”.According to Bullingham, who said the FA would brief Gareth Southgate and his players on the situation before Saturday’s match with Switzerland, the top request of workers and NGOs is that the FA “keep having...
The game’s great dilemma is squaring the need for rich backers – no matter how unpalatable – with our longing for a football fix It has been another week of soul-searching for football. What is the game, what is it for and who does it belong to? With nine Premier League matches postponed in the past week and Dr Nikki Kanani, medical director of primary care for NHS England, suggesting that attending games is a needless risk, a return to reduced attendances, closed-doors matches or even a suspension have become distinct possibilities.The return to Project Restart protocols may be enough to quell the spread of the virus among players but if it is not, keeping going cannot be justified. Brentford’s...