First of all, I want to make it clear that I do not intend to justify in any way the attitude of the Qatari government towards the foreign workers who prepared the World Cup, or other real human rights issues currently happening in Qatar. Nor will I talk here about the choice of Qatar as the host of this soccer event. While addressing real issues that deserve debate and opinion, this article is not about those other problems.
My purpose here is to highlight the attitude of a country with firm convictions, although different from ours on many points, in the face of the imposition of a foreign ideology.
Seven countries with mostly ultra-liberal governments and populations (Germany, England, Belgium, France, Denmark, Switzerland and the Netherlands) intended to have soccer team captains wear a team captain’s armband with the rainbow flag and the inscription “One Love.” Allegedly, it was proposed in order to promote tolerance and love. In practice, what they really sought was the defense of the LGTBI++ ideology and its pervasive “values” in these countries.
In Qatar, the practice of homosexual acts is not only considered immoral, it is also illegal. It is not allowed to promote this type of conduct. So, logically, the Qatari organization reminded FIFA of this fact and baned the use of rainbow armbands by team captains.
Initially, FIFA had foreseen a fine in case rainbow armbands are used during the World Cup matches. But seeing that the above mentioned national federations had planned to pay the fine and wear the rainbow armband anyway, they decided to threaten to give a yellow card to the captain of the team that wears the armband, which provoked strong reactions from players and federations in favor of the LGTBI++ discourse.
So far they have not dared to wear it, but the captain of the English team, Harry Kane, announced that he will wear it anyway in the next match against the United States. We will see if the referee upholds the rules and gives him the yellow card at the start of the game.
European countries talk a lot about tolerance and human rights and like to lecture other countries on these issues. If the World Cup had taken place in China, they would not have dared to have this kind of attitude officially, because China’s economic power is too big and too important. But because Qatar is a small country of no major economic importance to Europe, then they do dare to try to put pressure on them.
Qatar is not at all a model in terms of human rights, its values are often different from ours. But I will take this opportunity to congratulate Qatar for having the courage to say NO to ideological colonization and to protect the youth not only of their country but of the world from a new attempt to normalize an evil ideology through sport.
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