A pub in Easton that has always shown football on its screens will be screening this year’s World Cup with a heavy heart. Management at The Plough want to take a stance against FIFA and Qatar where thousands of migrant workers employed to build the stadiums for the World Cup died as a result of exploitative and unsafe working conditions.
And Qatar is a country where same-sex relationships are illegal and can result in a maximum penalty of death by stoning. Human Rights Watch reported in September six cases of severe beating and five of sexual harassment involving transgender women who were detained and then sent to conversion therapy.
Management at The Plough are taking donations during the World Cup for charities that promote human rights in Qatar and said that as a pub they will match everything they raise. They will be showing the World Cup in the pub for the first week but have not decided if they will continue after that.
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The pub released a statement several days ago to outline their stance on Qatar 2022, which kicked off yesterday. In the statement, The Plough Inn criticised Qatar's human rights abuses and FIFA's culpability. The pub management describe Qatar as "a rich country which they say has "no connection to football’ and has exploited the "world’s poorest people to build their stadia".
“2022 feels very different. It’s increasingly difficult to see football as a force for good on the world stage. Now FIFA have teamed up with Qatar - a regime where many of our family would be put in jail or worse for who they love,” continued the pub's ‘F*** FIFA’ statement.
Landlord Angelo Campolucci Bordi has always been a football fan, he worked two jobs so that he could raise money to attend the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. But he said that it feels very different this year.
Mr Campolucci Bordi said: “Every four years the excitement [for the World Cup] would build from weeks in advance. Not this time, there is a hollow feeling, similar to being robbed. Exactly like being robbed, f*** you FIFA.
“We’ll show the games for the first week anyway and protest FIFA to compensate the victims and families. We’ll raise awareness of these issues and funds for relevant charities.”
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