Welcome back. The world turns
its attention to Qatar
starting Sunday morning
as the World Cup kicks
off across the globe. But a lot of
the attention so far has been about
the issues off the pitch and the human
rights violations and the Arab nation.
We want to put this all into perspective.
I know we've been like fielding
through so many articles or
so much information out there.
Want to bring in Nine News
sports reporter Ariel or pseudo.
Can you kind of bring us back
to the beginning?
Like how did we even get here?
That's a really great question because
that could pretty much just be summed
up in one word and that's corruption.
Back in 2010 when when FIFA and CONCACAF
met to to select the World Cup sites,
FIFA and executives were bribed $5
million to vote for both Russia and Qatar.
Russia was awarded the 2018 World Cup and
Qatar obviously awarded this year. Now,
FIFA President Sepp Blatter said at the time,
awarding the World Cup to Qatar would do
a lot of good to that part of the world,
but should have been pretty obvious to people
if they were paying attention that, you know,
the heat is too high for a summer tournament.
The infrastructure was minimal at best.
There's a terrible track record
of human violations.
So I mean, at that point it should
be pretty obvious to people that you
know there something wrong going on.
Well, it was found that migrant workers
there, right being abused to create
the structure for this tournament. And
people are paying attention to that.
Like this isn't going just under the radar.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean they were, they were finding
that that the workers living,
they were living in squalor.
Their passports have been taken,
they're forced to live in unbearable heat.
Their payments inconsistent.
I mean, the minimum wage was just
introduced last year and that
minimum wage is oppressively low.
It's $275 for basic wages.
I mean the $82 for food and that's it's,
it's just really terrible.
Those migrant workers and they're
just there trying to build the
infrastructure that was not
even there for a soccer stadium.
There's also a lot of conversations
around the treatment of people that
are LGBTQ in this country and and
that's making a lot of waves as well.
Absolutely. I mean it's it's illegal
to be an LGBTQ person in Qatar.
And so that's number one.
So first of all,
you can be arrested for that,
you can be prosecuted for that.
It's also one of the nations
where it can actually,
you could be arrested and killed
for being LGBTQ in these nations.
So it was found that six alleged
cases of severe beatings and five
alleged cases of of sexual harassment
between 2019 and this past September.
That was from the human Rights Rights Watch.
So that's just one thing.
I mean, it's just, it's really despicable.
I mean, but then this is from the
Qatari Government communications office.
They told NBC News that fans will be free
to express themselves during the World Cup,
will be asked to respect the
local culture and values.
Now guys,
when I hear that.
You know the local culture and
values it's illegal to be to be
gay in Qatar to be any LGBTQ.
But also the local culture values
they you're not allowed to hold
hands as a heterosexual couple.
You're not allowed to kiss as a
heterosexual couple in there that area.
So they're kind of trying to say that
you know just try to to adhere to
our local culture and you'll be fine
and soccer fans are so diverse so
that that's just hard to wrap your
mind because we've seen you showed
in that video right the #boycott
this World Cup and and that's going
around but I'm curious to how.
And athletes are are starting to you
know make their voices known as well
they are so even just right here
with with Team USA they changed all
of their logos to their rainbow.
Their rainbow Crest,
which we've seen a lot of times.
For Team USA they changed that for
their for their training facility.
They changed that for
their media staging area.
We've also seen eight of Europe soccer teams.
They are using something
called one love on their.
They're going to wear that as
a wristband or as an armband.
Excuse me.
It's going to be a rainbow heart
as a one love thing.
We also saw these.
Yahoos,
they're the the Australian
team they came out and they're
they're asking for Qatar to
decriminalize same-sex relations.
So we are seeing a lot of
athletes coming out and trying
to make their own stand.
There is
pressure from the sports world.
Not just the athletes themselves but fans.
Just to say you may be
hosting this party right.
We get it, it's a it's a big fun event.
But that doesn't mean that it's not
2022 and that people aren't going
to act like it's 2022 regardless
of where something is happening.
Yeah absolutely.
And you know people also you're saying
that that the athletes the sports world.
There's also the fans.
I mean, people have a right to decide
if they're going to watch this or not,
if they are wanting to travel.
But also right here back
at home on the homeland,
if you have a you have a choice
if you're going to watch this,
if you're going to give your viewership
to something like the World Cup.
And honestly,
if we're being really honest here,
if the US did not qualify for the
World Cup like they usually do not,
we might not be having this
conversation right here.
Guys.
That's a good point.
I feel like we haven't had
this conversation this week.
So I appreciate you for being
there for opening our minds.
We've had conversations about
it before the show. Thank you.
Probably. Thank you.