- Feb 8, 2007
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You're absolutely right, Tucks.Yeah, I think it’ll be too little too late. The time for the big nations to speak up was when this was awarded, their silence until now has been deafening.
Also, how many of these players will put their money where their mouth is and boycott this sham of a World Cup?
This is going to sound like whataboutism, but it's a genuine thought-experiment:
How many in world football would have stayed as silent as they have been if, say, Iran had been awarded the World Cup?
That's not me in any way defending the regime in Iran - my response to them being awarded the World Cup would be exactly the same as it is for Qatar getting it and I'm of an Iranian background.
But we're talking in both instances of a brutal regime, that funds international terrorism, with scant regard for human rights, presided over by a nominally-theocratic ruling class who salt the wealth of the country away for themselves while a vast swathe of the people they rule over live in either abject poverty or slavery. But can you imagine the outcry if Iran had been given the World Cup?
The terms should be the same - if you're a brutal, totalitarian nation that tramples on human rights, you don't get to partake in the gifts of civilisation, like staging a world sporting event.