Thread by @monaeltahawy

For the football fans among you who watched the #WorldCup

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

#Argentina just won #FIFAWorldCup for the 3rd time.

I started watching the men's tournament in 1978, when Argentina hosted and won its 1st title.

#Qatar2022 was the 1st men's #WorldCup I have not watched in the 44 years since.

I had 6,500 reasons why.

feministgiant.com/p/essay-footba…

I was 12yo when I watched #Argentina lift its 1st #WorldCup and I did not know then of sportswashing that made that 1978 tournament possible. I am sure #FIFA did.

That 1978 World Cup was held in a country ruled by a military dictatorship. theguardian.com/football/in-be… h/t @s_mcguirk

The national team lifted its trophy in a stadium just a few blocks from the largest detention centre where that military dictatorship held political prisoners.

I might not have known that then but I’m confident that FIFA did. #WorldCup
papelitos.com.ar/nota/las-presa… h/t @s_mcguirk

Just as I am confident that #FIFA knew what selling the 2022 Men's #WorldCup to the absolute monarchy that runs #Qatar meant.

#Qatar2022 represents the apotheosis of #FIFA fuckery.

feministgiant.com/p/essay-footba…

The more we let FIFA get away with, the lower it dragged our moral bar with it until we arrived at #Qatar2022, the apotheosis of fuckery & the nadir of a moral standard.

Authoritarianism. Misogyny. Homophobia.

And 6,500 migrant workers who died to make this specatcle possible

And yes the authoritarianism, misogyny, and homophobia all checked for the 2018 men's #WorldCup in #Russia. I am guilty of playing along with sportswashing. I claim no higher moral ground here.

But.

1/2

#Qatar2022 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

The message that FIFA has sent us is that regardless of the outcome of #Qatar2022, 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 of greed & corruption possible but more tellingly our collective consciences.

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

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And in case you thought playing along with #Qatar2022 rather than boycotting this men's #WorldCup would improve things for migrant workers: theguardian.com/football/2022/…

The trade union leading attempts to improve conditions for those workers in #Qatar has warned that a positive World Cup legacy is unlikely after proposals for a migrant workers’ centre and wider reform were met with “deafening silence” by government officials. #WorldCup