The World Cup of Hypocrisy
It turns out we’re all losers
We knew it was coming
When it was announced twelve years ago that this year’s World Cup would be held in Qatar, people were concerned. The tiny gulf state has no history of football success, and its desert location is hardly amenable to holding the world’s biggest sporting event.
But that was twelve years ago, when there was less money in pretending to care about human rights. That was before we all got woke, and every corporation on earth realized that they could squeeze a few more dollars out of hysterical fools by pretending to give a shit.
That was before the England men’s team instituted their policy of taking a knee before games as a symbolic gesture against systemic racism. That was before a few knuckle-dragging racists and Russian bots flung inept slurs at some black England players for missing penalties during their last major tournament. That was before the England manager claimed anyone who didn’t support the team taking the knee before a game, who wanted to keep sport as free of politics as possible, was a closet racist.
And now here we are. Playing a summer sporting event in the depths of winter in an oppressive petrostate. Millionaires run up and down on air-conditioned fields in 30-degree heat, so a corrupt regime…
