The Anti-Gay World Cup?

[fountainhall]

A blog-type post on a game I love and whose organizing body is now totally mired in mountain of shit as the result of its own corrupt and inept decision. Not for those with no interest in the game!

So the scandal-ridden and thoroughly corrupt body which organizes world football, FIFA, has announced that the tournament тАУ always before played in the northern hemisphereтАЩs summer months тАУ will now be played in November and December when it takes place in Qatar in 2022.

The World Cup is the biggest single sports event anywhere on the planet. It is the single most watched event in world television history. Yet in the last few decades it has for the most part been run by a bunch of yes men who are as crooked as they come, the heads of the various soccer federations around the world. Chief amongst them has been FIFAтАЩs President, Sepp Blatter. At one time a smart and savvy businessmen, he is now almost universally despised, a charlatan with a long rap sheet of alleged corruption, a buffoon who makes embarrassing gaffes and a leader who never fails to misjudge the temperature of controversial issues. Well, I suppose what do you expect when one of his first Presidential positions was as head of the тАЬWorld Society of Friends of SuspendersтАЭ, an organization that encouraged women to wear suspenders instead of pantyhose!!

Also hardly any wonder that a book was published last year titled тАЬOmert├а: Sepp Blatter's FIFA Organised Crime FamilyтАЭ. Blatter is soon up for re-election for a fourth term. Greg Dyke, chairman of the English Football Association, is - like many others - very far from one of BlatterтАЩs fans. Said Dyke, the FIFA Congress that will elect the new President is тАЬlike something out of North Korea.тАЭ

The choice of Qatar was a result of political wheeling and dealing тАУ and clearly an embarrassing amount of money flowing through many hands. Unlike virtually every previous host, Qatar has no footballing heritage. To host the event, it will have to spend in excess of US$200 billion, the majority on 10 totally new stadia and the upgrading of the only two presently existing. Blatter had given his approval to Qatar in 8 months before the vote and brushed aside FIFAтАЩs own medical committee which urged against Qatar on the grounds of the draining summer heat. Far more damaging to him were the proven allegation of QatarтАЩs construction industry employing slave labour and illegally withholding passports of immigrant labourers. Since then he has turned a blind eye to the fact that over 900 have already died on the construction of the new stadia.

For the gay community, Qatar also poses big problems for FIFA. Homosexuality in any form is illegal. Punishment in the last 2 decades has included 90 lashes and 6 months in prison for a US citizen living in the state. Prison terms can be up to three years. Yet when Blatter was first asked about QatarтАЩs treatment of gay people and how that would affect the many gays who would hope to attend the tournament, he idiotically suggested, тАЬthey should refrain from any sexual activities!тАЭ Like many of his statements, this was later softened and amplified. A solution will be found before 2022 was one of the most common.

Re the matter of alcohol, a World Cup without alcohol is unthinkable. Special fan zones are established in the country where the tournament is held so that hundreds of thousands of fans can watch on large TVs. Qatar bans the drinking of alcohol, although all the Gulf airlines happily serve it on their planes! Three months ago the countryтАЩs Sports Minister, Salah bin Ghanem bin Nasser al-Ali, told Associated Press he wants the 2022 World Cup to stun the world adding, тАЬGod help the country that will host the World Cup after us."

Of the conditions of the immigrant labourers - which remain exactly as they were in 2010 when Qatar was awarded the event - the Minister is quoted,

"We understand this problem. For us, it's a human question," he said. Qataris aren't "vicious people who are like vampires," he added. "We have emotions, we feel bad."
He might have added, тАЬBut we donтАЩt do anything about it!тАЭ

Of alcohol sales, in the AP interview -

Al Ali said "creative" solutions can be found to allow alcohol sales to visiting World Cup fans. For now, alcohol is only sold in selected Doha hotels and visitors must show their passports to enter these bars . . . But World Cup organizer FIFA has a sponsorship deal with a brewer . . . Asked specifically about alcohol in 2022 stadiums, the minister offered no guarantee!
The interview makes no mention of gay rights. Presumably the phrase тАЬI think we can be creative, finding solutions for all of thisтАЭ was meant to cover this. But again 4 years have passed and absolutely nothing has been done.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/cd9fb2fd ... o-vampires (http://bigstory.ap.org/article/cd9fb2fdefe44b53b8ad913143631271/qatar-world-cup-critics-were-no-vampires)

Worse, in 2013 all Gulf Cooperative Countries agreed to establish some form of, yet unknown, testing in order to ban gay foreigners from entering any of the countries to live. The World Cup gay issue remains unresolved.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/0 ... 65927.html (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/09/gulf-countries-detect-gays_n_4065927.html)

In the meantime, airlines flying in and out of Qatar must be wondering how on earth they are going to fly out in excess of 200,000 officials, players and fans back to their countries on December 24 in time for Christmas. For the latest FIFA folly is that the Final will be held on December 23!

[christianpfc]

Interesting post, even though I have no interest at all in football (or any other sport). Someone once said organized religion is evil, the same applies to organized sport!


Unlike virtually every previous host, Qatar has no footballing heritage. To host the event, it will have to spend in excess of US$200 billion, the majority on 10 totally new stadia and the upgrading of the only two presently existing.

US$200 billion? Are they serious or is that a typo? You could develop a cure for HIV, cancer and malaria with that money.

[fountainhall]

The US$200 billion figure has been widely reported in the media over the last 4 years.


According to a report released this week, from Deloitte, Qatar тАФ population 2 million, with only 225,00 or so Qatari citizens тАФ will spend $200 billion on the 2022 World Cup. ThatтАЩs $100,000 per capita, compared $350 per capita for the Sochi Games, $73 per capita for Brazil, and $54 per capita for South Africa. Qatar will spend 286 times more money per capita on the World Cup than Russia will on the most expensive Olympics ever, the Sochi games. The country will spent 1,852 times more capita to stage the same event that South Africa did in 2010.
http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013 ... on-soccer/ (http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/07/11/why-qatar-is-spending-200-billion-on-soccer/)

Another media report says Qatar will build ten new stadiums all within in a 25 km radius.

It's like building 10 Cowboys Stadiums in Dallas and only using them for two weeks.
http://www.businessinsider.com/qatar-wo ... ter-2014-6 (http://www.businessinsider.com/qatar-world-cup-disaster-2014-6)

To be fair, the latest reports are that the number of stadia may be reduced from those promised and listed in the official Qatar bid for the Cup. However, the bidding was for a World Cup in the summer of 2022 - not the winter. Australia which lost in its bid has already said it will sue FIFA for all its costs in preparing its bid since the goalposts have been so dramatically moved after the event.

No one yet knows what will happen with sponsors and TV rights holders. Fox in the USA paid $425 million for the rights to the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Now 2022 will clash with the NHL Hockey League games. No one knows the detail of discussions between FIFA and Fox. But FIFA recently let slip that it had proposed that FOX and the European rights holders would automatically be granted rights for 2026 as well, again breaking all conventions and rules about the requirement for open bidding.

To say its all a fucking mess is, well, it's just FIFA!

[goji]

I also just read about thousands of North Korean workers sent out to work on their building sites under guard.
They work 7 days a week and the money gets paid straight to the North Korean government, as a foreign exchange source. This is slavery.

As long as the FIFA voting delegates receive the right kind of inducements, ethics and morality clearly don't matter.

Now what can the man in the street to? A campaign to discourage the usual suspects from sponsoring the tournament may help, however if the Qataris put in enough money, none of that matters.

[fountainhall]

Now what can the man in the street to?
Sadly, nothing - at least for the moment.

The two organisations who may be in a position to do something are the Swiss government and the European Football Associations. Until last December, the 65 international sports bodies based in Switzerland were in a very protected legal position whereby they basically could not be sued. Blatter himself has wriggled out of almost every law suit against him, despite hugely damaging allegations not going away. Just this month Der Spiegel has a string of accusations against him, notably over his tampering with a Report prepared by an independent management expert appointed by FIFA, Mark Pieth, and the redacting of much of an independent lawyer's findings into corruption in the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Blatter is still dogged by bribes estimated at $100 million made by ISL, FIFA's long term sports marketing arm, when Blatter was FIFA's General Secretary. ISL went bankrupt in 2001 with debts of over $142 million.

Now, though, the Swiss government has made leaders of sports organisations like FIFA and their families far more liable for corrupt dealings. Private corruption cases will be dealt with automatically. Before December, Swiss courts only took on private corruption cases once they received a complaint from a company, individual or group. Sports organisations, businesses and regular associations and their executives will now be treated like every other organisation.

The move of the 2022 World Cup to November/December has the European Football Federations howling in anger. This will totally distort their seasons - and they are the most lucrative leagues in the world. FIFA today rejected any bid for compensation from the EFF, this despite FIFA making a staggering $2 billion profit from last year's World Cup. Their knives are out for Blatter and they will be well and truly sharpened if he does, as expected, win a fifth term as President later this year. More and more of those involved in the administration of the game want an end to the corruption and scandals. Eventually, perhaps, they may succeed.

[christianpfc]

Even as someone who has no interest in this even, I can even go further and say I disapprove, it's impossible to avoid the media hype and avoid buying products that sponsor this event and advertise on their packaging.

There are jokes around: the Pope announced he will shift Christmas by 6 months so it doesn't clash with the world cup.

[fountainhall]

There are jokes around: the Pope announced he will shift Christmas by 6 months so it doesn't clash with the world cup.
I guess Blatter must be Catholic. Yet again he has gone against his advisers and has now announced the event must be finished around December 18!

There was another excellent article last week, this time in The Guardian -

ItтАЩs not the fact of the skulduggery around the 2022 World Cup, repulsive though that obviously is тАУ cheaters gonna cheat, slave drivers gonna slave drive, FifaтАЩs gonna Fifa, and all that.

But what should remain shocking is moneyтАЩs ability to brazen it out once it becomes known. And by тАЬitтАЭ, I mean all of it: the corruption allegations, the human rights violations, the deaths of the migrant workers тАУ the deaths of the indentured workers тАУ the mendacious switcheroo on the scheduling. And, you know, the Isis stuff.

Never has so much been exposed about a World Cup; never have people who are disgusted by it been able to connect with each other to discuss it and protest against it with greater ease; never has opposition to a sporting megaтАСevent seemed so vocal and concerted. Yet all of that has made absolutely zero difference and continues to make absolutely zero difference. Saying тАЬmoney talksтАЭ doesnтАЩt really begin to cover it. Money shouts. Money bellows. Money shits on everything in its path. Qatar 2022 sails on regardless тАУ in fact it finds new ways to double down on its toxicity.
http://www.theguardian.com/football/blo ... qatar-fifa (http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/feb/25/world-cup-2022-christmas-qatar-fifa)

[goji]

Even as someone who has no interest in this even, I can even go further and say I disapprove, it's impossible to avoid the media hype and avoid buying products that sponsor this event and advertise on their packaging.

When a homophobic country gets the world cup by paying bribes, then imports North Korean slaves to do the building, don't you think you should be taking an interest?

As for avoiding buying the products of their sponsors, it's mostly quite easy. Gazprom is the only one that would be difficult to boycott (as a European with gas heating).

[fountainhall]

As for avoiding buying the products of their sponsors, it's mostly quite easy.
Sadly I doubt if individuals boycotting sponsors like McDonalds, Coca Cola and VISA will achieve anything. However, a flood of letters to the Country Offices of those sponsors asking what they are doing about all the corruption in FIFA, slave labour in Dubai and the strong anti-homosexual government stances in both Russia (which has the 2018 World Cup) and Qatar might well be more effective.

Even better, a well-planned on-line campaign on all social networks might well go viral. Then the sponsors have no option. They'd have to provide answers and may start to exert greater pressure on FIFA.

[christianpfc]

Even as someone who has no interest in this event, I can even go further and say I disapprove, it's impossible to avoid the media hype and avoid buying products that sponsor this event and advertise on their packaging.
When a homophobic country gets the world cup by paying bribes, then imports North Korean slaves to do the building, don't you think you should be taking an interest?
You misunderstood. I have no interest in in football as a sport, but the surrounding circumstances make me disapprove of the world cup.