Western hypocrisy loses in epic game against Qatar, by Azu Ishiekwene

The shenanigans were still there, but until FIFA President Infantino Giovanni called them out during his down-to-earth press conference in Qatar, they remained the elephant in the room.

The hint of discontent dates back 12 years when Qatar won the bid, beating Australia, Japan, South Korea and the United States. This result was unexpected.

The Persian Gulf is good news for the West's oil and gas supply and tales of Arab mysticism and opulence, but an Arab World Cup was another matter altogether.

European interests have surged. They immediately insinuated that the process had been compromised and then expressed concern that the schedule could also disrupt major European league schedules and leave players too exhausted to complete the season. Of course, they conveniently forgot that Arab money backs some of Europe's top leagues!

When the excuse of disruption did not hold, they widened the field of resentment, careful to deploy, from the reserve bench, the thorny issues of migrant labor and LGBT rights. Qataris' explanations that they were doing everything possible to improve their migrant labor records and FIFA's pressure on Qatar to do even more did not satisfy much of the press. , with the British being perhaps the most notable antagonists.

They wore the LGBT issue on their heads, leaving their own domestic troubles unchecked. Their attitude seemed to suggest that since football began in England 159 years ago, Europeans also have a responsibility not only to establish but also to insist on the cultural rules by which fans can understand and watch the game, regardless of the sensitivities of local communities.

If Giovanni seemed angry and ruthless calling out the West for its hypocrisy, he had good reason to do so. And he was absolutely right that another 3,000 years of atonement would be insufficient to right the wrongs.

Yet hypocrisy is a flaw rooted not only in the West's historical relationship of exploitation, slavery and entitlement, it remains a hallmark of a number of its current engagements with other parts of the world, especially Africa and Arab countries. world.

A number of fairly recent sporting and social events in several Western countries bear the same hallmarks of abuse and significant social displacement, over which Qatar has been threatened at gunpoint, but which the Western press was pleased to close the eyes to the eye in his own garden.

During the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, for example, an estimated 30,000 people were displaced by Olympics-related demolitions, while at least 6,000 residents were evicted from their public housing.

A number of these displaced people, mostly black people, uprooted from their homes and communities, never found their lives again. They deserved as much protection and dignity as migrant workers in Qatar.

And they also deserved to have their voices heard by the world press. But that was obviously too much to ask. Or perhaps the rights of socially displaced people have become insignificant compared to the expected benefits of the Olympics?

As you read this article, reports indicate that many undocumented migrant workers are being illegally used by French authorities to build venues for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics. hundreds of migrants as cheap labor and deployed them, shamelessly, to build the Village de l'Athlétisme in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis.

I'm not sure the Western press or human rights activists can still travel to Saint-Denis or other places in the West where such abuses are still prevalent. Perhaps after Qatar, they will take an interest in the dozens of migrant workers, mostly of African origin, who are languishing on these sites?

But this hypocrisy is not limited to sports. London had a taste of it before Q's funeral...