Coach Jürgen Klopp thinks it’s unfair to expect national football players to protest against the World Cup in Qatar.
“The decision was made by other people and if you want to criticize someone, criticize the people who made the decision. Not the sport, not the competition and certainly not the players,” said the Liverpool manager on TV broadcaster “Sky News” and emphasized: “It’s not fair that we expect them to go there and make big political statements or whatever. It’s just not fair.”
The decision was made more than ten years ago. The “boys” were ten years old then. He recently saw the documentation on the highly controversial World Cup award twelve years ago to Russia (2018) and Qatar (2022).
It is not for this generation to say: “We’re not going” or “We’re not doing it”. It was the decision of others and everyone accepted it. “They go there to play football. The big tournament was organized and planned by other people,” added Klopp.
The World Cup host Qatar is regularly criticized for human rights violations, the main concern being the situation of foreign workers. The government of the emirate rejects the criticism and refers to numerous reforms. The World Cup in Qatar will take place from November 20th to December 18th.