Thread by @marcowenjones

1/ Thread. This is a rant about the Qatar has no 'football culture' argument. It keeps rearing its head but it is a fundamentally prejudiced and orientalist line of reasoning, and an arrogant fiction. Read on for some thoughts > #FIFArabCup #Qatar2022

2/ Firstly, no one needs to prove that there IS a 'football culture' in Qatar. People in the Middle East have enjoyed and played football for decades. People in Qatar play football, people here enjoy football, they have done for years, end of story. #Qatar2022

3/ There are club, leagues, school teams, fans, merchandise, regulatory bodies etc That’s just a fact

4/ What's more, culture changes, evolves, and adapts to context. I don’t believe there is such thing as ‘football culture’. If there is, it’s a massively broad construct, and no one person or nation has the authority to define it. Europeans don’t, Americans don’t, no one does.

5/ If football culture does exist, a fundamental aspect of its appeal is its very global appeal. The essence of football, and especially the modern world cup, is a story of the spread of a game from country to country, each with various levels of footballing history.

6/The first FIFA World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1930. The modern game there was apparently introduced by European immigrants. It was literally held in a country that no one acknowledged was the most historic holder of ‘football culture’, a game introduced by immigrants

7/ Even if you believe there is such thing as ‘football culture’, so what? Even if one believes that there is a singular, clearly defined football culture, who gets to define it? Culture by its nature is changeable. Some might see part of football culture as beer-drinking

8/ hooligans chanting and singing while starting fights with rival fans. Some might see it as a father and son matter, with a dad taking his kids down to watch the local team on the weekend. But now with the rainbow laces campaign there is an aspect of using the celebrity

9/ of the modern day game to raise issues of social justice. Try telling me that LGBTQ advocacy was part of football culture in the UK over the decades - a league noted by its homophobia, where there are still no openly gay football players?

10/ Women’s football is also becoming increasingly popular, was this always part of ‘football culture’. Is this football culture now, and who is defining it? These developments though, are surely a positive thing, and possible because culture CHANGES

11/ Even if you believe in a presumably Euro-centric idea of ‘football culture’, an equally arbitrary argument might be that ‘football culture’ would be boosted by the presence of a world cup in the Arab World. Surely that is a good thing for those who believe in the term?

12/ Ultimately those who weaponize the term ‘football culture’ do so because they have an unwavering and arrogant conception of football, and culture. It is used by people who feel entitled to an ownership of the game that is not just theirs, but everyone’s.

13/ They have no right to impose their definition of what football culture is. It is an imperious and orientalist attitude that says far more about the accuser than the accused.

14/ Having said that, sports events SHOULD ABSOLUTELY be an opportunity to critique issues such as human rights. Every country’s human rights record should be scrutinized, & global events are absolutely an opportunity to do this. However, don't raise issues of 'football culture'

15/ The mentality behind 'Qatar has no football culture' is the same mentality that leads some to thinking that human rights issues are only a preserve of the world beyond 'the West'. Pay attention to human rights, but don't exceptionalise the region.

16/ And beware of arguments that seek to distort the debate with false news. We know there are Western companies like CTF Partners and Cornerstone Global literally offering services whereby they would spread negative stories about Qatar and the world cup nytimes.com/2019/02/01/spo…

17/ This does not change realities about human rights concerns and abuses, but it definitely means you have to be extra critical when reading narratives about the world cup, and question how they are framed.