Soccer, sports and politics (R)

I would have framed it in a far cleaner way.

“Do you believe women’s rights in America have improved or regressed since America got the right to host WC 2026. Will you be boycotting WC 2026 as a result?”

 

If you cannot compare the two and say which is morally better, how can you come to the conclusion that Qatar is unsuitable to host the World Cup but the US is fine?

Feel free to ask away. I already know the answer to that question for Muslim women. My female Muslim dentist moved to Qatar from the U.K. some years ago.

Non-Muslim women will have a different view, as will homosexual people. They are entitled to have that view. But Qatar has Muslim values and is inhabited by Muslims, and they are entitled to live their way too.

 

When I grow up, I want to be a principal or a caterpillar.

 

Well I think they’re unsuitable for entirely different reasons. They’re a tiny, insignificant country with virtually no footballing history that had minimal infrastructure for a large tournament who couldn’t run it during the summer, and were only awarded it due to massively bribing FIFA officials. You can leave human rights issues out and that right there is plenty.

 

That penalty was weaker than a Qatari human rights inspector's eyesight.

 

Berhalter should be tossed for the dad with his custody day on the sidelines look!!

 

I can accept some of those arguments.

Infrastructure is irrelevant as it’s there now.

Footballing history is irrelevant as the USA was awarded in 1994 before they even had a league iirc.

Summer is irrelevant. Half of the world has winter when it’s summer in the U.K. and US. They have mitigated heat conditions in the stadia and as long as it’s safe and convenient for the players to play, that’s not an issue.

The aim with this cup is to grow the game as its already at plateau in traditional footballing countries, rather than still catering for the traditional countries (Europe and South America).

Bribery is a completely acceptable reason to call for Qatar not hosting. I would accept that argument completely.

 

100% penalty. Could not have been an easier call. Hincapie just barged into Ismaila Sarr w/out touching the ball. Brain fart.

 

Conflating two different things and I should have checked - I know Pele played for the Cosmos so should have been more accurate. (I was looking at Bigsoccer’s history on Wikipedia earlier and conflated something there about MLS starting in 1996 with my point).

But the US didn’t have a traditional footballing history in 1994 so clearly the cup isn’t awarded on that basis.

 

All countries (with the exception of maybe the Scandinavians) need to rebalance their economies so that political and economic power is shifted from capital to labour. Sorry if that wording is not to your tastes, but the US is far worse than Europe when it comes to workers rights.

I mentioned before that Qatar used to operate the Kafala system (it got rid of it formally as part of the World Cup process) but it still exists in practice and it should be removed. Not only in Qatar but all of the Gulf states.

If you look at what Elon Musk is doing to his workers, and if you look at how Mexican day labourers are treated in America, it’s the same type of abuse.

 

You had to go to the airport to watch a match?
Oh never mind.

 

There were only 24 teams for the '94 WC. The US still holds the record for total attendance.

 

Arguing that infrastructure is irrelevant because it’s already built is akin to arguing everything is irrelevant because the stadia are built, the teams have convened and the tournament is happening right now. It’s all water under the bridge at some point. We need to go back to when the bid won.

The issues that should be relevant to host selection that we obviously were not for Qatar:

1-climate as it relates to player safety for the period in which the tournament is supposed to occur. 2022 was scheduled for June/July 2022. I don’t care if it’s called summer or winter depending upon which hemisphere the host us in. It needs to be safe. It is not to host this tournament in June/July in Qatar. Otherwise they wouldn’t have turned the global soccer calendar upside down to accommodate the winter tournament.

2-Infrastructure as it relates to financial commitment and carbon footprint to put venues across in place at the time of the bid.

3-size of the host as it relates to the need to construct accommodations for visitors and to make contingencies for keeping visitors safe in the event of something like a terrorist attack. Which is very hard to do when you’re relying upon a single airport and a single port to move visitors.

4-financial and resource capacity to deliver on hosting.

5-realizing that there is no perfect country, the general human rights, political and corruption culture within a country. There is no magic line there, but it is something that should be considered.

I agree completely that one of the goals should be to expand the global reach of the sport and the event. But there are many more suitable hosts than Qatar capable of delivering on that objective.

 

Do you condemn imprisoning people because of their in-born biological traits?

Using religion to legitimize and excuse the persecution, abuse and even murder of people because of their biological traits is immoral and outrageous and speaks volumes for you as a person. Arguments like the one you presented are no different than those who turned a blind eye to Nazi Germany murdering Jews, gays, Roma, etc because of Nazi beliefs.

If any deity desires that groups of people be killed solely because they exist, then that deity is pathetic, immoral and disgusting and deserves to be treated as the fictional entity it is.

 

Dissent. Dissent. Dissent. Dissent.

 

Australia was in the running for this World Cup as well. They already had the necessary infrastructure, would have needed fewer new stadiums, and it would have helped grow the game in that country. Of course, they have been awarded the Women's World Cup instead (along with NZ).

 

I'll disagree with him, but only slightly.

As long as I see dissent, I know the rate of progress is not what it could be.

 

I’m glad you don’t work with Iran’s morality police.

 

Australia is a fully-grown sports landscape, complete with soccer. But IIRC they decided to ignore a proper single table, like the US, and ended up bastardizing the game for reasons not known to me. IT's not like growth would give them a proper league any more than it would give us one.

And them getting the WWC was probably due to the presence of stadia and some form of footballing culture.

I'm not saying Qatar was a good choice, mind- I'm saying that hosting a World Cup wasn't gonna make the game right in AUS any more than it made the game right here on our own shores. FIFA allowed playoffs and we're never going to recover from them.

 

Was dis sent to our grammer notzie?