I thought for a long time whether I wanted to comment on the subject of the World Cup in Qatar or not. Somehow everything has been said and somehow everyone is right somewhere. What bothers me about many comments, reports, statements is this certain “My opinion is better than yours” attitude, which is also becoming more and more important due to social media.
What are we actually talking about? About soccer. About a now over-commercialized sport with an even more over-commercialized competition that has been around since at least 1994 though. About soccer millionaires, most of whom can actually only count the zeros in their accounts. About clubs that are actually no longer clubs, but companies that are supported by many other companies with much better known names. About a system where six to ten-year-olds are now observed by player advisors so that you can make supplier contracts and preliminary contracts with first division clubs early on. About a machine that sometimes makes headlines every 7 days, 24 hours a day because of all the games, preliminary reports, interviews, so that you get the attention of more and more people, regardless of whether you like football, watch it, understand it , loves. The main thing is that the media hype ball rolls and the economy, politics, and the media roll with it.
… and then one wonders about the choice of a country as the host that does exactly this perfectly. And it requires precisely those involved to adjust the system. So the dog should teach itself how to fetch, while we punish the animal with disregard.
Will the Qataris become more diverse and women-friendly if the television viewing in Germany is 1.5 percent below the normal million figure? Or is Germany just one of many countries that the common Qatari don’t really care about? So while we’re all attacking each other furiously in the media, is our behavior going to fix the system bugs that are being denounced? Will a Qatari stop oppressing his wife and accepting his gay son/daughter when Manuel Neuer comes out with a rainbow armband? I doubt it. That’s just my opinion though. And this post is only meant to get you thinking.
Forcing change often means that opinions are ignored, overlooked. Even if these opinions are de facto wrong, it should be discussed. There is no point in imposing something on a society that most people do not accept. And so you have to start where it hurts the most and where it does the most damage and that is still in politics and in the economy, but please not in football. Then rather soberly through exchange and above all education, ensure that more and more people understand themselves and others better. So that Qatar doesn’t simply fall into oblivion after the World Cup, just because no media reports about it anymore.
The difference is that everything that is held there at events creates the impression that everything that is done and how it is done is internationally and socially legitimate. “It’s not so wild – we’re accepted”. In this case, above all, the corruption with which these games were first brought and then held – the same applies to Germany 2006 and Russia 2018.
From my point of view, it’s time to finally saw off FIFA as a Swiss club. Nobody needs them except for those who use them to finance a royal standard of living. What is so difficult to tie certain standards to the tournament allocation? And then enforce them? Why don’t you let an independent committee decide on the quality of an application, but rather a case of money and a Rolex?