Qatar World Cup

Anecdotal of course but really feeling no WC buzz at all. No one talking about it at work, not even a company fantasy league/pool. Bumped into a Polish friend yesterday afternoon at a shop during the MEX/POL match and he usually has a big viewing party at his house.

Really interested in seeing the viewership numbers so far.

I'm WFH so am enjoying the 10 and 1 kickoffs. Of course I'm not fo hosting the World Cup in the Winter or in a desert but here we are.

I am. I'm sue most people who have an interest in football have it on if they are WFH.

Those of us in the office also have it 😉 RTE Player on the phone with volume at a level where if I can hear anything interesting happening I can have a look.

Just made the rookie mistake of leaving LiveScore notifications on though. Equaliser popped up before the goal happened

FFS JAPAN 😀

Yes it's totally fake. All these elite footballers apparently obsessed with gay rights yet there's not a single openly gay player among them, it makes no sense.

If they were protesting about the treatment of the immigrant workers who built the stadiums they're playing in THAT would be interesting. Then they'd have to look in the mirror and ask themselves and FIFA some tough questions. But this "oh let's all be nice to LGBT unlike these horrible Qataris" is just cheap virtue signalling of the worst kind, makes them look good while avoiding the blood on their own hands

Serves Germany right for covering their mouths and ruining the team photo!!

Just play football, forget all the other stuff.

So I'm guessing that you don't care and anyone else who does care, you can label as "preachy" or "virtue signalling" or whatever the term of the day is and they can't disprove it without further falling into your "trap".

Down with bad things but nothing specific.

They will talk the talk on TV but they are not going to do anything about it, they can hardly play to a decent standard never mind take on Islam.

The BBC Panel for tonight is ticking all the right boxes.

Qatar Airways are fantastic. The Dreamliner flys in/out from Dublin near every day.

The thing is though...

This World Cup was announced 10 years ago.

If someone didnt care enough to say anything about it then, and they still didnt care enough about it to say anything when all the stories about migrant deaths started emerging in 2014......then what exactly is the point in suddenly finding a voice now when all the stadiums are built, when the two year qualification phase has been completed, and when the teams have arrived in Qatar and are playing the matches.

That surely indicates bandwagon jumping more than 'caring'.

The hypocrisy around these world cup protests are just off the charts as far as I'm concerned.

But do you think it's something people should care about and protest?

Thats it entirely.

It was announced 12 years ago and I remember being shocked and disgusted at how Qatar won.

I simply couldnt believe that such a ludicrous bid could ever even be considered.

Not because of the civil rights but because of the fact the country was smaller than Munster, had no stadiums, was too hot, had no footballing history, and basically failed in every category of criteria.

It was obvious that people had been bribed and many hadnt even made a secret of it.

Guardiola was an ambassador for Qatar and Barcelona were at their peak then, he said he was an ambassador because "they looked after him" when he played in Qatar at the end of his career.

Im sure they did Pep, just like Man City are looking after him now, another filthy entity.

When Blatter and Platini were booted out I was sure that justice would be done and Qatar would be stripped as host but somehow the madness of running a Summer tournament there still persisted.

Finally they realised that this was folly and moved it to Winter instead of doing the correct thing and stripping Qatar but I guess it could have been very messy legally.

Now the virtue signallers and keyboard warriors have jumped onto the bandwagon, as inevitably they do lurching from one opportunity to another.

Where was the outrage about the golf in Dubai or the Formula 1 last weekend ?

A country where death is a penalty for homosexuality

Lets get on with the football now, I dont want to be lectured anymore by frauds such as Gary Lineker, Gary Neville and co.

They are all utter hypocrites.

So what is to be achieved by arbitrarily deciding that some people who claim to care are actually just bandwagoners? If they are adding their voice, let them, no?

I just don't see what good pointing out hypocrisy and whataboutery does unless you're Infantino and want to deflect attention away from the situation in Qatar.

Ah jasus.... unless you're Infantino.

Like really.

You are not caring. You are not protesting. You are just having an online debate / argument, which is a form of media entertainment for people. Something to do while having a cup of coffee. Thats all it is.

I'm starting to think teams like England and Germany should be have just boycotted the world cup if protesting is what they're about. Why are they there?

Leave the football to the footballing nations, like Brazil.

Twelve years ago plenty of people were protesting.

Ten years ago plenty of people were protesting.

Eight years ago plenty of people were protesting......

Little use though when the media doesn't give enough focus at the correct time and waits until the event is happening.