[Real News] World Cup: German players protest FIFA rainbow ban, call human rights nonnegotiable

It's interesting to note how many people were criticizing the PRC and athletes for going to compete in the Winter Olympics. Also how much hate Eileen Gu got for competing for the PRC. Yet the message now for the World Cup is shut up and play football and Qatar is it's own country.

 

German TV Ratings for the World Cup are disastrous by the way. The match versus Japan was watched by fewer than 10 mio. viewers. At the last World Cup, no German game had under 25 mio. viewers. All the other matches also reached at least 30-year lows.

I'm doing my part and hope other countries follow the path.

 

Eileen Gu and the Qatar world cup absolutely deserve each other.

**** this WC - not watching

 

I understand...I cannot not watch...but I won't watch the Spain match because I'll be on a plane. Probably for the better.

 

Ignoring that shitshow is easier than I thought. You should give it a try.

 

-delete-

 

It will probably be even easier for us after the next match anyway...

 

China is a$$ured another hosting opportunity in the next 20 years.

Good times

 

A former German football world champion lived in the same country club as me until recently.

 

That’s because the World Cup is more important to sports fans

 

Yes so human rights only matter if it’s a sport you’re not a big fan of.

 

Doesn’t seem like anyone is boycotting World Cup over women’s figure skating that’s for sure

 

I'm curious where the anti-wokes of the West land on this issue. On one hand, it is athletes using their platform on the field to push for a pretty "woke" clause (gender/sex equality). On the other hand, not wanting to offend a host country that has different cultural norms (in this case, pretty sexist/homophobic by our standards) may also be construed as the more PC thing to do.

‘Scary our lives are so controversial’: How tug of war over ‘OneLove’ armbands descended into a World Cup sideshow

CNN —
FIFA President Gianni Infantino pleaded with countries to let football take center stage ahead of the World Cup in Qatar, but it hasn’t quite worked out like that.

Soccer’s global governing body has found itself at loggerheads with seven European nations over the threat of sanctions for any player wearing a “OneLove” armband during games.

The eleventh-hour announcement from FIFA has created a rift between soccer’s governing body and the seven nations involved, although neither side has emerged free from criticism.

The “OneLove” armband – which features the outline of a heart striped in different colors – was intended to be worn by captains from England, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland and Wales at the World Cup to promote inclusion and display solidarity with people of different genders and sexual identities.

But hours before England captain Harry Kane was scheduled to wear the armband against Iran on Monday, FIFA said any player wearing the armbands would receive a yellow card, putting them in danger of being sent off or banned from a later game in the tournament.

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The anti-wokes usually hated Muslims but since now the wokes are criticizing Muslim countries, they became best friends with the Islamic theocracies now.

The number one philosophy of anti-wokes is "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" and the enemy is leftists. So anything the leftists criticize, the anti-wokes will support. It's very predictable.

 

it’s about financials. MLB and NBA moved events and took stands when they saw a benefit to do so. When it came to china the league didn’t have that spine anymore. And if Qatar would pay the nba a billion to come perform, they’d line up to push gay people off of buildings

 

Yes I agree and have stated before that the MLB and NBA aren’t actually “woke”. They just follow where the money goes and they felt it would be more harmful to their brand if they played the All star game in Atlanta while there was controversy.

In the case of the NBA it seems like the players have much more say on the league so when Lebron led a walkout of players following the killing of George Floyd the League went out of their way to appear to support BLM. In the case of FIFA you would expect they these players with their massive contracts would have more say in the league. I mean if Messi or some of these other big stars just said that they didn’t want to play in Qatar that FIFA would do things differently.

If it all comes back to just shut up and play then certainly Eileen Gu was absolutely right to cash in and to tell the haters to suck it. Uyghurs be damned.

 

the thing is, the nba stars took a stand with the meaningless walkout because it was their own people/race being impacted. If 90% of soccer stars were gay they’d be more willing to take a stand and force FIFA hand.
Furthermore, there was no financial risk to nba players with their coordinated walkout.

 

I know less about Soccer than I know about basketball or baseball but my understanding is that star EUFA footballers make even more money than NBA, NFL or MLB players. How much financial risk would a Messi or Harry Kane incur if they said they weren't going to play in Qatar or weren't going to play if they couldn't wear rainbow armbands?

My guess is they would probably still be fine and might even pick up endorsements from companies that want to capitilize on that stand.