Qatar 2022

I think that if they do restart we will be giving up home games. Our international borders are currently closed and I suspect they will remain so until a vaccine is developed. We have home games against Kuwait, Jordan and Chinese Taipei and an away game against Nepal. Anyone coming to the country (if they get an exemption) must spend two weeks in quarantine. They may be able to work out some sort of isolation for visiting players but ours would probably have to do the same sort of isolation after the match. We have been pretty successful at controlling covid 19 and I dont think our Governments will be ready to open up so early.

 

Yeah it sucks for the Socceroos of Australia because they most likely would have to play their qualifiers away on the road

 

One style of qualification CONCACAF mentioned they were considering depending on the severity of the pandemic is tournament style. Host a tournament in one or two locations. With top teams qualifying. Once a round starts I don't think you can can change it so Asia and CAF would have to finish out what they've completed so far and tweak it going forward. Kinda like they do with Olympic qualifying and youth tournaments.

 

I like this format

 

Lovely spin there Skeeter.
Now footballers who protest the murder of African Americans by police are hypocritical.
In your view, how many simultaneous protests does it take to avoid being called a hypocrite?

Take it a step further by looking at Colombian football.
On the eve of 2023 Women's World Cup host selection (Colombia vs Australia-New Zealand vs Japan), Colombian authorities have suspended a sentence of a sexual predator within Colombia's women's youth football: women's u17 ex-coach Luna was fined for extorting staff and players in his pursuit for sex. No jail time.

So, are Colombian players/leagues triple-hypocritical since they have not protested against Qatar 2022/US police brutality/sexual predators within u17 COL women's football?

Makes better sense to understand how each protest garners support. Some are more visible because of widespread similarities across borders.

 

If people stay silent about Qatar but speaking up about things that have nothing to do with their country or their sport or their league then they are being a bit hypocritical.
It does not matter which country they reside in or what scandals are happening.
It just seems very hollow to pick and choose the social issues and ignore the atrocities happening in Qatar. Especially when the World Cup is the biggest stage in all of sports... ...let alone the football world.
That is my opinion.

 

BTW, no need to call people names just because you disagree with their argument.
It sounds like what 12 year olds do when they do not like what someone else is saying.

 

Players are speaking up about things that are related. They are subject to police abuse because they are minorities. The police abuse protests started in America, but people in Europe are also abused by police. Qatar doesn't effect them, except that they will be playing football there in 2022, which, I agree should be reason enough to speak up about it, but for players it must feel like a remote issue.

But, yes, the whole world should agree and speak up for the workers in Qatar not getting paid and experiencing unsafe conditions. I suspect a big reason for the discrepancy is a visual one. People are seeing video of police abuse, so now are believing blacks in the US and elsewhere. We don't see the abuse in Qatar, and we don't see someone not get a paycheck.

Lynching in the US ended when northern newspapers went to the south and reported on it and included photographs. People were horrified. It is good that the Guardian is reporting on Qatar, but most journalism has no funding to do this, and Qatar is such a closed off country in many ways, it is difficult to get visuals. I'm glad you posted the article. I hope the world expresses dismay with Qatar and changes result.

 

Part of me agrees and part of me disagrees. A majority of people speaking out now are doing so only because its socially acceptable. Like, where have they been. The media has framed police brutality a one race issue mainly in America, but its really not. Look at Hong Kong, Italy, etc. It has more to do with power and authority. Here's my thing its good to champion causes, point out injustices and to try and get those changed.....but you have to understand not everyone's cause is your cause not everyone's fight is your fight and a lot of people who are speaking out now are shaming those who aren't saying anything neither for or against their cause. That's where the hypocrisy comes in. The old sayings "Pick your battles." and "Only enter in wars you can win" ring true for many of us who aren't left wing or right wing but somewhere in the center.

 

Well said.

 

True this. No need to devolve into baiting games.

@AlbertCamus expands well on what I said about visibility of abuse. Qatar has worked hard at hiding proof of labor abuse, and I suspect too at censoring publication of labor abuse.
One EPL revenue maker in Asia is BeIN Sports, a broadcasting company controlled by the Qatari gov't. EPL will not organize protests/ceremonies against Qatar, while BeinSports pays EPL TV rights. That's how EPL acts swiftly at protesting US civilian murders by police, while omitting labor force abuse in Qatar. It would not surprise me that EPL clubs have instructed its players to refrain from denouncing Qatar, as part of their social media training.

Today, several European entities have congratulated Qatar for its WTO case against Saudi Arabia: infringement of BeIN Sports operations across Asia.
Qatar is deep inside European pockets via TV rights payments. My suspicion is that Qatari labor force abuse will remain behind curtains just like Russia 2018 did (migrant laborers abused, while building Russian venues).

@Holiday_Jenkins observes 2 things that I see as well: a) unproductive practice of chastising others for not protesting in favor of your cause, b) insincere protests.

a) People should be free to pick either side of a coin, or simply remain neutral. Some people arrive at the correct conclusion in their own time. Some people have to weigh risk of retaliation before joining a protest.
b) Corporate protests like EPL's against police brutality is a preemptive measure against individual protests by players. EPL wants to protect its product brand, so it choose to lead its players as a protest group. No idea whether EPL will donate funds towards social projects, or just ride the social media wave.

 

But if people speak up now...then will it make a difference in Qatar being stripped of hosting

 

And then what?
Good luck finding a place, that EVERYONE agrees, is without sin in this world.
Let’s keep this selective faux moral outrage out of football(soccer), please.

 

When Qatar was first selected I was completely against it, they didn't even meet basic standards set by FIFA to even qualify to host. Now, being so late in the process I feel like some inside FIFA feel its too late. I do think once we finally get underway Qatar will do a good job hosting. I'd imagine no more or less hiccups than normal than when anyone else hosts. My thought is moving forward we can't completely switch the calendar after the fact just to accomodate warm climate countries. If its going to be too hot retractable roof stadiums. This tournament has to be in June-July going forward. Qatar with their resources very easily could have done this as well as built indoor training facilities so teams could practice away from the extreme heat. Also indoor fan fest facilities would have been no issue for them to build. FIFA for whatever reason just didn't demand it. Going forward if it goes back to the middle east or FIFA decides to award it to say a joint Morocco-Algeria bid these have to be their demands for hosting.

 

Exactly the 2022 FIFA World Cup could have saved everyone a lot of grief by having the tournament in June/July.

Smple solutions to the problem; they could have had retractable roofs built into the stadiums as a way to counter the heat and cooling built into the stadiums too...but also for training facilities as well...all this could have been avoided and no conflict with leagues all around the world

 

I was for it if it had been bid honestly, in that a November/December world cup will be interesting because the European based players will be less tired. And also think after all the Brazil/Manus travel talk, a World Cup with no travel and complete fairness in conditions between the teams is an interesting twist. Also, while traveling around a country is part of the adventure and fun for fans, a world cup where you go for a 5 days and see 5 games without travel is an interesting twist.

The labor situation makes it, and thus, me, all wrong. It should not be given to a Gulf state if this is how they treat foreign workers. I'm also tired of all the stadium building. New stadiums, even when they are not white elephants, just don't impress me; but especially new stadiums that have no use after the World Cup. There are better uses of resources.

 

Personally if any other Asian country like let's say South Korea, Japan, China, India, etc were to host it...I would not have minded honestly but why Qatar?

 

covid crisis came too early! if it really had to happen 2022 would have been better than any other year! skipping that bullshit would have been best side effect any pandemic ever had!

 

Just been watching highlights of past World Cups and damn it I really want to see international football not only come back but damn it I love the FIFA World Cup so much that I wish Qatar 2022 were to start today

But all that aside, in all seriousness though, I don't see how these qualifiers get started between now and 2022 with this COVID crisis still very much at the forefront

 

they are going to push it thru somehow, too much money is involved

 

Yeah but at what cost? Unless they cancel some international tournaments by moving them again or they cancel things like UEFA Nations League and CONCACAF Nations League

 

Sadly, I think you can pretty much forget about the UEFA Nations League happening in 2020-21.

I am also really curious to see how the Euros happen in 2021 given domestic leagues are starting late. Seems impossible to make up the time given that the football calendar is already pretty full under normal circumstances.

 

let‘s be honest, even in the worst case that all simply doesn‘t matter, it is just football! if they cancel some competitions and/or tournaments there will be a couple of champions less and that‘s it. both FIFA and UEFA will survive and latest in a year or two football as we know it will go on ... who cares?