Football can’t keep ignoring human rights
On a snowy December afternoon in Zurich in 2010, FIFA’s Sepp Blatter awarded the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. The tiny Gulf nation had expended colossal resources in the lead-up to the vote by the 22-men executive committee and defeated the United States by 14 votes to eight in the decisive round. With a typically astute but modest assessment, the International Herald Tribune headlined: “FIFA tilts soccer’s future toward the East”.
The slogan and promise of Qatar’s bid, “Expect Amazing”, bemused and incensed. Organisers were questioned about
