Thread by @monaeltahawy

This men’s #WorldCup represents the apotheosis of #Fifa fuckery. The more we let Fifa get away with, the lower it dragged our moral bar with it until we arrived here, the Qatar World cup, the apotheosis of fuckery and the nadir of a moral standard. #FIFAWorldCupFinal

https://twitter.com/monaeltahawy/status/1604253983962439681

Authoritarianism: check. Misogyny: check. Homophobia: check. And yes all that checked for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. I am guilty of playing along with sportswashing. I claim no higher moral ground here.

But.

feministgiant.com/p/essay-footba… #WorldCupFinal

Qatar WC took that fuckery & plunged further into that nadir because even for those who play whataboutery game, for whom no country is free of sin, the 6,500 migrant workers who died while making this WC possible was our loudest moral alarm bell & collectively we failed the test.

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feministgiant.com

I grew up watching football with my dad and brother. In 1976, when I was 9yo, I started supporting Manchester United. And in 1978, I watched my first men's #WorldCup with my dad and brother--the one hosted by Argentina, which was then under military dictatorship. #WorldCup

As I acknowledge in my latest essay, I have been guilty of indulging in Fifa's sportswashing.

feministgiant.com/p/essay-footba… #FIFAWorldCup

And in my other essays I take on the misogyny that accompanies so much of the men's game.

Researchers say that win, lose, or draw,when national teams play, there is a spike in violence against women.

I wrote this for the Euro and Copa America 2021 finals feministgiant.com/p/essay-when-f…

I wrote this as a feminist who loves football and hates the misogyny, racism, homophobia and so many other outrages that the men's game amplifies.

feministgiant.com/p/essay-femini… #WorldCupFinal

The message that Fifa has sent us is that regardless of the outcome of the World Cup final this Sunday, the winners are greed, corruption, and an absolute monarchy with money to burn but not on the very workers who made this spectacle of a vanity project possible.

Losers are of course workers who made this spectacle possible but more tellingly our collective consciences.

Football, especially so on a global level with the World Cup, gives us a chance to learn and in this #WorldCup to spectacularly fail the test
feministgiant.com/p/essay-footba…