Qatar 2022 has exhibited FIFA’s double standards like never before. (Jia Haocheng/Xinhua via Getty Images)
Qatar 2022 It has been the climax of hypocrisy. And at the head of it all is the FIFA. Cynicism has no limits to the hierarchs of the ball. The fans of Mexico and Ecuador will be investigated for making discriminatory chants during the first matches of their teams in the group stage. as collected The countrythe Aztec fans did not make the remembered shout when the rival goalkeeper cleared, but they did sing discriminatory melodies: “Whoever does not jump is a fagot Pole!”.
For its part, the Ecuadorian bias is accused of mounting homophobic chants against Chile, according to CNN, a country with which they have rivaled in recent months after the controversy caused by Byron Castillo’s lineup in qualifying matches (the Andeans appealed, but Ecuador was able to participate in the World Cup). And let’s see, you have to go by part so that everything is clear: yes, it is reprehensible. Both of them. If the same was said about the Argentine cheerleaders in the streets of Dohayou have to keep the metric.
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The issue is, once again, the double standards with which FIFA acts, which already seems like an old joke. They do everything to contradict themselves. Well, they care that homosexuals are not discriminated through expressions in stadiums. And then why don’t they let the teams go out with the rainbow bracelet? And why were Belgium denied the option of displaying the word “Love” on their shield?
FIFA says, and its defenders say, that all political messages are prohibited on the soccer field. Warmth as a rule: let’s not talk about the things that matter, although a World Cup is an unbeatable setting to highlight all the problems that football can help combat (no, nothing will be resolved by what happens in a court, we already know, geniuses). If Germany comes out with its mouth covered, alluding directly to the censorship of power; if Australia asks that Qatar let its people love who they want to love; if Denmark raises its voice for human rights; Why does FIFA insist on drawing a caricature in which everything is wonderful?
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We were talking a few days ago about cognitive dissonance, citing enric gonzalez, and how we do the opposite of what we think: watch the World Cup knowing that there was a trail of blood. FIFA is moving in the same direction: they promote two World Cups in a row in homophobic countries and, at the same time (at the same time!), they sanction homophobic chants. What game is Mr. Infantino and his court playing?
Since Brazil 2014, the homophobic cry of Mexican fans has scandalized the privileged sphere of FIFA. That could not be shouted in a stadium. There were many who defended that: they said that it was part of Mexican popular culture. Even the first arguments of the Federation to advocate for their fans were coated with that folkloric nuance. Then, with the sanctions on top, there was no longer any remedy: change the speech (although it has always been clear that it was a discriminatory cry) and avoid ear pulls.
And the Mexican Federation could serve as an example of something bigger. Yes, they only accepted that they were part of the problem by qualifying a violent speech when they saw the real problems above. And what is FIFA if not a Federation like the Mexican but reigning throughout the world? What if Germany, Denmark, Belgium and Australia decided not to go out and play? Yes, I invite you to dream for a moment: no game is played until all of Qatar has individual guarantees and full civil rights for all the inhabitants.
What was FIFA going to do? Continue to believe that they hold absolute power? Because it seems that they decide not only what is right and what is wrong: they decide when it is right and when it is wrong, and also where it is and where it is not. The lawyer Infantino said that there has been progress in Qatar and that nobody recognizes it. What was missing: FIFA and the emirate must be applauded for being so humanitarian. “Are semi-slaversbut they could be slaveholders”, seemed to be the official discourse.
Of the Mexican fans it is known that the moments of embarrassment will not be missing. Four people already required the support of the Mexican Foreign Ministry just after the first game. And what we lack. But the nerve center of the problem comes from elsewhere, from the top of the pyramid. FIFA no longer leads by example (it has never done so, nor will it do so), but rather goes around with a different moral guide in each hand. And the worst: they walk like this all over the world without the slightest sense of grief.
Their cheeks only turn red when a team tries to come out with a multicolored bracelet and when a crowd discriminates in the stadiums. His nose begins and ends in the morality of others. But not everything is said. The more hypocritical they are, the more they expose themselves to the whole world and, above all, to the true and only owners of the ball, who are already starting to get tired of being puppets. The players have still done little, yes, but the irritation is no longer hidden.
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