World Cup ‘the most political sporting event I’ve ever been to’

The World Cup in Qatar is “the most political major sporting event I’ve ever been to”, says the head of European football’s anti-discrimination body Fare.

wales fans said they were told take off the rainbow bucket hats, while Iran they refused to sing their national anthem in an apparent expression of support for the anti-government protests at home.

Before the tournament, Qatar was criticized for its stance on same-sex relationships, its human rights record and its treatment of migrant workers.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Fare chief executive Piara Powar told BBC sports editor Dan Roan.

The captains of seven countries – England, Wales, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland – planned to wear the OneLove armband during matches to promote diversity and inclusion.

There have also been issues when it comes to people wearing rainbow colors, showing support for the LGBTQ+ community, at the Qatar games.

Former Wales football captain Laura McAllister, a gay woman and former FIFA Council candidate, said yes told her she couldn’t wear her “rainbow wall” bucket hat. for his country’s World Cup opener against the USA.

An American journalist, Grant Wahl, said he was stopped for half an hour by security for wearing a rainbow-themed T-shirt, although he later said he was allowed inside the perimeter of the stadium

“It’s a very confusing picture,” Powar said. “In the end, what is happening now is a fight for the security control of the stadiums.

“We know that when FIFA’s security people see a rainbow flag or rainbow paraphernalia being presented to security, they’re going to pass it. For them, it’s acceptable: the its rules allow it.

“When it’s the police or the other security services, they reject these individuals.”

The The sale of alcohol “in selected areas” was also stopped at the eight World Cup stadiums as Fifa changed its policy two days before the start of the tournament.

Powar said: “It’s hard to read what’s going on at FIFA. Some of the messaging has been clumsy at best, it’s been toeing the Qatar line.

“I can only assume that FIFA feels that it must now fully rely on delivering the tournament within the expectations of the Qataris, not the expectations of human rights activists or human rights standards.

“This is the point that needs to change for the future. FIFA needs to think a lot more about the relevance of human rights and then we all need to be much clearer, much earlier, about our expectations.

“We cannot have international sporting events of this type that do not conform to international human rights standards.

“The athletes are very clear that they want their values ​​to be expressed and they want to address the issues that are dear to them.

“Generally speaking, we can no longer pretend that human rights and sport are not linked in some way.”

Australian Sports Minister Anika Wells said Western countries should “do more to recognise” the “progress” Qatar has made on workers’ rights.

He added: “If you look at what’s happened in Qatar, some of the labor laws they’ve passed now are leaders in the region in terms of workers’ rights, and from Western democracies that want to improve workers’ rights, that it’s a big thing.”

Ahead of the Group B opener against England, some Iran fans shouted and jeered during the national anthem and others held up signs reading “Women, Life, Freedom”.

Iran’s state television cut coverage of the anthem and switched to a wide picture of the stadium that had been shown earlier.

Mass protests have been met with strong repression in recent months.

“The Iranians made the strongest possible gesture,” Powar said.

“If this was another World Cup, without the political background, with the gesture that the Iranians made, we would still be talking about those two weeks of the tournament.

“It’s a fundamental and incredibly moving thing that they’ve done.”

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