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Denmark will wear 'toned down' shirts for the World Cup to protest against host Qatar's human rights record
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- Title
- Denmark make Qatar World Cup kit protest
- Published
- Sep 28 2022
- Word count
- 665 words
My first thought was that this is a pretty pathetic protest. If they care that much, why not just boycott it?
But my second thought was that's really rough on the players and the fans - it's not football at fault here, it's Qatar and FIFA. The players have spent their whole lives building up to this, and we all know how important football is to fans.
My third thought was that this is actually pretty good. Every time Denmark plays, people will wonder why they're wearing what they're wearing. The commentators will - I hope - bring it up. Hopefully the shirts will go a bit further and say things like "6500 dead" on them, but even if not, there's going to be a lot of conversations started around the world that might otherwise not have happened. This is potentially far more embarrassing for Qatar than the Danes just not showing up. Obviously the best would be no teams showing up at all, and them having spent millions on all those stadiums for nothing. But I don't see that happening.
Fuck Qatar, and fuck FIFA even more.
Yeah that's never going to happen...But how Hummel missed the opportunity to donate the profit or at least a percentage of the profits to relevant causes is beyond me. That would make a purchase so much easier for so many people.
Yeah I don't understand why the company / Danish team is getting heat for this. I hate this world cup but we're expecting the wrong folks to step up instead of holding the ones truly responsible accountable.
It’s rough on them that Qatar was chosen, not that people want to boycott it. Besides — we’re talking about the difference between human rights and football. If someone can’t give up a football game, no matter how big it is, for the sake of human rights, what does that say about them?
Far as I’m concerned, attention is worthless. Most folks who see this’ll stop caring in nearly a week; they’ll go, “That’s awful, what the fuck?!” And then do nothing because the games are already on and they’ve already started watching. They’ll feel a little queasy, they might complain on social media, but come a week later, Qatar – and it’s slavery – will be once more as irrelevant to their concerns as any of the other far-away nations that don’t materially impact them.
It’s hard to care about stuff happening so far away when it doesn’t affect you. People have limited emotional bandwidth. That’s normal. But that’s why, when an opportunity to make an impact there shows up and grabs your attention, you need to take it. Maybe the folks making this decision genuinely want to help but feel like they can’t do more; I won’t assume their intent. But effective protests impact wallets, not eyeballs, and that’s not what this is doing.
People don't give up all sorts of things for the sake of human rights. I don't think it's very fair to judge people based on that. We all make choices about the evils we choose to allow. I'm sitting here in clothes possibly made by slaves, with a computer full of elements extracted in environmentally disasterous mines. But will I buy bottled water? Hell no, that's supporting awful companies!
In this specific case, I think attention matters. Because ultimately FIFA exists at the will of the fans. The more fans turned against FIFA, the less power FIFA has. What form of protest reaches the largest number of fans?
I mean I don't know. I think it's shirts which make a point rather than a full-on boycott. We know boycotts don't work. We know that the only way to change things is with money, so does it make sense to get as many people thinking "fuck FIFA" as possible?
Let's be realistic, nothing to do with the world cup, support or protest or anything, is going to change Qatar's attitude to human rights. They don't give a fuck and don't need to. But I think there is a tiny, tiny chance that fans attitudes towards FIFA might be able to be changed. Which maybe means next time they're looking for a world cup venue, FIFA look somewhere more civilised.
I get that, hence why I said this:
We could debate ourselves hoarse about how bad something has to be before choosing inaction due to stress becomes difficult to forgive. But the important thing is, it's still a mistake, however understandable. That's why we're forgiving it instead of ignoring it. The more the consequences, the harder it is to forgive, and in this situation, I can't — there's so much more that could be done but isn't, and I don't think any argument of stress on behalf of players or fans is sufficient.
I don't know about you, but I think that an entire team not showing up would be rather more noticeable than vague shirts. Better yet, what if they went, only to protest and refuse to play? Not only do these draw more attention, but they also impact things like viewership (less viewers from Denmark once they realize their team isn't playing) and through that, finances. That would mean so much more than what they're doing now ever could, and it'd do so regardless of whether or not it generated tons of awareness.
The only way FIFA would care about fan attitudes changing would be if it happened en masse, and only then because it'd hurt the bottom line. Money is the real target, and you can effect change far better by going after it directly. What do you think sounds scarier to FIFA: A few thousand fans express outrage, or the teams of entire countries begin to decide you aren't worth it?
Fuck this world cup man...Me and my son had SO much fun following the EUROS and now I don't know what to do. I wanna boycott this shit because I hate everything about it...then again I remember when I was a kid and the four LONG years of waiting between world cups and how different it was every time because well you're four years older suddenly. He's not going to fully understand the boycot.
And then there's the release of these cool kits coupled with a painfully hypocritical message. I want one for me and my son so bad but loathe everything surrounding this.