I’VE lost count of the number of people who have said “I hate that the World Cup is in Qatar but hasn’t the football been brilliant?”
To which I’ve sadly nodded in agreement. Sadly, because it should never have been held there. The corrupt choice caused the deaths of thousands of migrant workers used like slaves to hastily build new stadia in searing heat, it involved industrial-scale bribery and forced players, managers, journalists and fans to make a moral choice they should not have been asked to make.
All to give a dictatorship the platform to use football to sportswash its shocking human rights abuses.
