If human rights is more than empty rhetoric to FIFA, they need to act on Qatar's support for Russia
There are many reasons why a team, or individual players, might choose to boycott the problematic 2022 World Cup.
There is no need to traverse history here as most people reading this blog will know already about the 2018/2022 bidding process from which both Russia and Qatar emerged as winners, Qatar's draconian labour policies, its human rights record, its alleged treatment of employees and more.
But while history is relevant, Qatar also presents reasons to boycott the World Cup right here and now.
Earlier this month, the United Nations voted to suspend Russia from its Human Rights Council following reports of violations committed by Russian forces in Ukraine. Since then, there have been further atrocities by Russian forces reported from credible and numerous media sources.
A total of 93 nations (from 175) voted in favour of the motion; 24 against; and 58 abstained. In other words, almost as many countries abstained and voted against the expulsion of Russia, than voted in favour of it. It is a result that makes you wonder what it would take for the 47% who abstained or voted against the motion to vote differently, when Russia is so egregiously, wilfully and blatantly breaching the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
While a vote in the UN General Assembly is seldom little more than symbolic, symbolism is nonetheless important - and this brings us to Qatar, the next hosts of the World Cup, with billions of eyeballs anticipated to be on the country for the best part of five weeks in November and December this year.
What did Qatar do in this vote? They abstained.
An abstention can only mean they did not want to upset Russia - with whom, by the way, they recently signed a sports cooperation agreement - but nor do they want to upset the USA. In other words, a diplomatic cop-out after an earlier vote that saw them condemn Russia for its actions in Ukraine.
This vote suggests that Qatar's relationship with Russia outweighs anything the UN has to say about human rights, as well as the lives and livelihoods of thousands of Ukrainian people whose world is being upended because of Vladimir Putin and his warped, deranged and violent agenda.
Amongst the national teams that have qualified for the 2022 World Cup, Qatar are not the only human rights' fence-sitters. Also abstaining were Senegal, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Tunisia, Brazil, Cameroon, Ghana, while Iran voted against the expulsion. Ukraine faces the prospect, should they win their European play-off spot, of facing Iran in the group.
However, as a result of the basic FIFA reforms of 2016, FIFA now has a Human Rights Policy of its own. The first sentence reads that "FIFA is committed to respecting human rights in accordance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights", in light of which the question must be asked why would FIFA allow the World Cup to be hosted by a nation which, clearly, has no respect for human rights that are being trashed before our eyes right now?
The world has indulged Qatar quite a lot over the past 12 years. They have used the considerable soft power handed to them by the decision to award them this year's World Cup (along with Russia for 2018) to become more prominent on the world stage, way beyond where they deserve to be.
So when is enough, enough? If FIFA cannot advocate for its own Human Rights Policy, can we at least hope that perhaps national teams and individual athletes might find the voice and the courage to do so? After all, there is no World Cup without the players or the teams.
And there is no excuse for sitting on the fence when it comes to what Russia is doing in Ukraine and to the Ukrainian people. Either human rights and war crimes mean something, or it is more empty rhetoric from FIFA and its member associations.