I stumbled across a superb article on the World Cup in Qatar last night.
GQ teamed up with a writer I have followed for years, reading his articles on football as well as his outstanding poetry, but this piece took at look at why, weeks away from the 2022 World Cup, he doesn’t feel more excited about what was once known as a tournament that saw the world come together for a football festival.
Musa Okwonga not only dug into the ambivalence fans of the beautiful game face this winter, in a country with a horrid track record for human rights, but he raised a very valid point about former Manchester United midfielder David Beckham.
“I must continue to ask, for example, why David Beckham – such a proud advocate for LGBT rights earlier in his career – has nothing to say publicly about this subject in the context of Qatar now that he is an ambassador for this tournament.”
Thousands of workers have died in Qatar since the tournament was first announced, with at least 37 deaths directly linked to the construction of World Cup stadiums (via BBC) that will become idle when the competition ends.
We know that for many millions of dollars, FIFA were happy to brush aside concerns over human rights abuses in Qatar. It just shows a sad reality to what to the governing body of football has become… and it no longer cares about football nor the people it brings together.
Does Beckham care? Well, considering he is happy to take Qatari money for a stupid ambassadorial role, it would be naive to think he is having sleepless nights over all of this.
Gary Neville recently faced questioning over his role as a commentator going out to Qatar, but Beckham deserves more for actively promoting the World Cup since the bid was successful.
Talk about being elitist.
