LGBTQIA+ football fans who attend the World Cup in Qatar should show "a little bit of flex and compromise", Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has said.
Labour has called Mr Cleverly's remarks "shockingly tone-deaf" and Keir Starmer has indicated he will not attend. The Prime Minister’s office has said that LGBTQIA+ fans should not be expected to "compromise who they are" if they visit Qatar for the World Cup. Is Qatar, a country where homosexuality can be punishable by death, sportswashing its human rights record?
We look at some of the issues surrounding the staging of world sporting tournaments and the conflict it raises with the protection of LGBTQIA+ rights. This article does not address other issues which surround events like the World Cup, such as the rather murky (to say the least) world of how countries are awarded tournaments and other human rights concerns, for example workers rights in Qatar.
Should World Cups be awarded to countries or regimes with demonstrably poor human rights records?
History is littered with examples of how governing bodies appear rather blind to these issues. Take the 1930s. Italy under Mussolini staged the 1934 World Cup, an event which was a propaganda laden showpiece extolling fascist values. 1936 saw the Olympics hosted by the Third Reich, the film footage of which sends a horrible shiver down the spine juxtaposing the supposedly greatest sporting event against the tyranny of Hitler’s master-race plan. The World Cup in 1978 went ahead in Argentina despite the horrors of the disappearance of thousands of political opponents of the ruling regime.
To go back to Qatar, LGBTQIA+ groups engaging with FIFA feel progress has been extremely slow in ensuring safety of fans and, indeed, social media coming out of Qatar (apparently from people close to official sources) is using language which is vehemently uncompromising in its views against diversity.
Those who oppose boycott, use the arguments that if only “squeaky clean” countries could host events that this would rule out most of the world, and also that sport should not be political. To take the first strand of this, whilst it is accepted that no one is perfect in terms of human rights compliance, Qatar is an extreme example of a country very near the bottom of the league table. In the democracy index of the British newspaper "The Economist", Qatar ranks 126th out of 167 countries.
The argument for saying sport should not be concerned with politics appears attractive at first sight. However, the counter position is that everything is political in life whether we like it or not, indeed the decision to award tournaments without any particular reference to social justice, equality etc is a political decision in itself, shrouded in arguments about bringing sport to all the world and a somewhat perverse logic that it opens up the dialogue about inequality, disguising what many see as the true reasons for these decisions, ie money and power.
It is unrealistic in this day and age (with the world getting smaller with 24 hour media) and with people generally felt to be less deferential to the establishment , to feel that sport can operate in isolation from politics. The increasing importance of sport as a commercial sector suggests this is not changing any time soon. Sport has power to affect the world. Look at the South African apartheid regime. Back to the days of the Basil D’Oliveira scandal in cricket where the South African regime in effect barred what they termed a “cape coloured cricketer” and started over 20 years of isolation, right up to Nelson Mandela’s acknowledgments that the sporting isolation of his country had played a vital role in eventual regime change.
Turning from sporting organisations to individuals. Football is a sport where player power in all aspects of the game is on the rise. Global stars earning mega money and with personal brands bigger than some countries know they have massive influence. Harry Kane has said he intends to wear his OneLove rainbow captain armband during World Cup matches, even if it is not approved for use by FIFA.
FIFA regulations state that a player's kit and other "basic compulsory equipment must not have any political, religious or personal slogans, statements or images”.
It would be very interesting to see if more players take a stand, and if there is a ground swell which could mean player power overriding FIFA’s ability to clamp down on these “breaches” of its regulations. It will also be interesting to see what reaction there might be from the Qatari government to any open displays of support against their LGBTQIA+ laws.
The last word on this goes to Liberal Democrats MP Layla Moran who has recently said "The World Cup should be a celebration of the beautiful game, instead it's being used by countries like Qatar to sport-wash their atrocious human rights records”.
Will a player or players (or a team) be brave enough to stand up to FIFA’s strict regime and the Qatari government itself? It will make for a very interesting backdrop to the World Cup and hopefully increase the heat on what is a much needed further debate.
