By Matthew Bainbridge
Over the last month, large sections of our radio shows on the Politics Hour have been concerned with the World Cup in Qatar. On our Breakfast Show Beyond the Headlines we first discussed the issue of whether to boycott through a series of expert interviews and reports on the controversies clouding the event, before I then reported on how the world stage of Qatar had given rise to protest of the humanitarian issues plaguing it. Then, Dan Tagg interviewed a friend who had been following his country at the tournament to share his first-hand experiences, albeit with the limited scope of a straight white male. Whilst the Politics Hour’s other show, The Lunch Bunch produced a brilliant interview with Professor Laura McAllister, former Wales international footballer and and current Deputy Chair of the UEFA Women’s Football Committee, the woman at the centre of one of the aforementioned protests when wearing a rainbow bucket hat.
Like many, I have been guilty of getting distracted by the football. Selfishly and largely down to my own privilege I watched a good three quarters of what was certainly the best footballing World Cup of my lifetime. I will have enduring memories of sitting in the Guild of Students watching Japan shock Germany in the group stage with scenes of elation from Japanese international students; Saudi Arabia ending Argentina’s 36 game unbeaten run with a 2-0 win in their opening group game; the brief moment when the world stood still in anticipation of Harry Kane converting a second penalty against France before the English crashed down to earth; Morocco stunning Portugal to become the first African and MENA nation to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup. And then the final, watching the greatest footballer of all time, Argentina’s captain Lionel Messi put in one of the great footballing performances to finally win his nation a World Cup and complete his set of every trophy possible whilst Kylian Mbappe scored the first World Cup Final hattrick since Sir Geoffrey Hurst in 1966.
Qatar as a host nation and FIFA the footballing superstate had faded into insignificance, all the human rights abuses and issues over corruption that had dominated had vanished for many amidst reports of a well-run and successful World Cup, the safest of all time. But then came the trophy lift, FIFA President Gianni Infantino and Emir of Qatar Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani took some of the limelight as they draped a bisht robe over Messi, a symbol of great honour in the Qatari culture reserved for kings and religious leaders. FIFA and Qatar wanted one last reminder of who had hosted this World Cup, but with it brought a flood of emotions, compounded by the BBC’s closing montage: the 6500 migrant workers who had died making this possible, some building the Lusail Stadium where Lionel Messi held the trophy aloft, the LGBTQ supporters who felt it impossible to travel to the tournament for fear of their own safety, the women’s rights issues that our radio show had discussed weeks prior, and less importantly, the shady figure of Infantino symbolising all the corruption that surrounds the modern game. For me and for many others now whenever that image is shared for decades to come obviously symbolising Messi and Argentina’s great achievement, it will also refresh the memory of all those who died needlessly making it possible and those who felt alienated and forgotten in the blatant disregard for their basic right to be. Laura McAllister summarised it well in her interview ‘the underbelly of discrimination and human rights abuses was very close and that was quite apparent whilst we were there’, this underbelly cannot be ignored forever.
So, thank you Qatar and FIFA, you gave us a wonderful display of football as what Arrigo Sacchi described as ‘the most important of the unimportant things in life’ but at what cost?
The interviews and reports mentioned about the World Cup from our radio show are all available to catch up with on Spotify at Liverpool Politics Hour. To get the latest information and news about the show follow us on Twitter @LSRPolitics.
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