Does the virtue signalling hypocrisy of our football authorities know no bounds?

Every week I become more and more disillusioned with the contradictory and hypocritical actions of the football authorities, broadcasters and other influential figures in the sport that I love. 

Professing to be resolute in their pursuit of zero tolerance towards racism, homophobia, sexism and other discrimination they lecture us and take high profile and heavy handed actions such as banning life-long fans who have dared to boo the ‘taking of the knee’ whilst meekly turning a blind eye to the disgusting and indefensible practices allegedly taking place in Saudi Arabia and Qatar – but happily taking their blood money. 

I grudgingly accept that Saudi Arabia is a key ally for the West and am not calling for action to impose culture change on Middle Eastern countries or for them to adopt Western values. That ship has well and truly sailed, and sunk! 

Such countries have wholly different approaches, values and attitudes to life than we do in the UK and, whereas we would prefer them to be different, we must accept that they are entitled to live their lives in the way they see fit and in accordance with their own values (whilst trying to influence and encourage them to improve where possible, of course).

But we should not reward, encourage, or welcome behaviours that are anathema to our values into our lives or the very core of our national sport.

The awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar was a bizarre and corrupt decision that should shame football for decades to come. Qatar was about as unsuitable for such a competition as it is possible to be, and we all know the £reason it happened.

But that original decision can’t be changed now and this article will therefore focus on the more recent lack of comment, process and actions against State abuses linked to the Qatar World Cup, along with the unbelievable decision by the Premier League to pretend  that the Saudi Arabia PIR passed a rigorous ‘fit and proper owner’ test prior to signing off their purchase of Newcastle United Football Club. 

The long-running silence from the FA, Premier League, PFA, broadcasters, clubs, high profile footballers and pundits about these 2 issues is quite frankly a disgrace.

Virtue signalling football authorities

The Premier League purchase 2-page advertisements in national newspapers pretty much every Saturday including this wording. They, along with the Football Association also run campaigns including ‘no room for racism’, ‘kick it out’, and the ‘rainbow laces’ campaign that is currently taking place.

Their Marketing teams produce great words making their intentions and actions seem noble, and I have praised these initiatives in the past. To be fair, in terms of the UK I believe these campaigns have done some good in terms of tackling racism in football although, in my opinion – and some would argue otherwise – we were already one of the most tolerant societies in the world anyway. 

But where are their campaigns, zero tolerance and statements condemning the reported outrageous practices in Qatar or Saudi Arabia that are clearly relevant to football issues in the UK? Abuses that are many times worse than anything that happens in the UK that is covered by the above campaigns. 

Why aren’t the football community in the UK taking a stand and avoiding the World Cup in protest or, as a minimum, calling out the behaviour for what it is?

I won’t bother including FIFA in my rant as it goes without saying. We all knew they were corrupt and rotten to the core when the World Cup was awarded to Qatar in the first place. Their silence about the abuses being committed on their watch suggests they still are!

The broadcasters make great speeches about discrimination every time they cover a match and preach about what a strong message it gives for footballers to take the knee. But where are their comments and coverage calling out racism, discrimination and other abuses in Qatar? 

Not only are they deliberately ignoring and accepting the abuses for indefensible reasons, they will soon start promoting their World Cup coverage with countless millions of pounds of advertising that will undoubtedly portray Qatar as a great place.

But they can’t have it both ways. These organisations either believe in actions to call out and tackle racism, homophobia and sexism or they don’t – what happened to ‘do the right thing’?

To be fair, newspapers have been reporting on this without favour for some time now and that is where I have obtained all my examples and statistics for this article. 

But the rest of the media? Epic fail!

It’s the same with pundits. Gary Lineker and Gary Neville are two of the most outspoken football celebrities regarding social issues and have millions of followers on social media. But both have been pretty much silent over the abuses in Qatar and the Saudi takeover of Newcastle United. The furthest Lineker seems to have gone is to say that he wouldn’t have done the same as David Beckham in accepting £10 million from Qatar to be the face of the World Cup. But he will still no doubt present the BBC’s coverage.

David Beckham, by the way, is worth over £300 million. Did this former England captain and allegedly proud ‘gay icon’ really need to take this blood money from a country that surely does not share his values? I wonder what the gay community make of this, bearing in mind it is illegal in Qatar to be homosexual, the country he is promoting, and can lead to 3 years in prison! He described Qatar as having a ‘great culture’. Really, David?

This is wrong! Millions of football fans hang on every word of the likes of Lineker, Neville, Jamie Carragher, Rio Ferdinand. Why aren’t they criticising this? Why aren’t they standing up for what is right? Even Ian Wright, a vocal campaigner on racism in football has been silent. 

Well, you can bet your life that they will all be working at the World Cup for a lucrative salary!!! Some may donate part of their fee to a worthwhile charity to try and create the illusion that they care. Sorry but I would view that as yet another cynical ploy to further their ‘brand’, not a serious attempt to tackle the issues. Tellingly, and to prove my point, most of these individuals have been asked time and again about the abuses in Qatar and also whether they will be working at the World Cup – they have refused to comment.

Gareth Southgate, the England Manager, seems a decent chap. How powerful would it be for him to call this out? He must realise it is wrong. Silence!

Raheem Sterling has campaigned impressively and passionately on racial equality in the UK and even received an MBE for it, but he has said nothing about the racial abuses in Qatar, where he is about to play in the most important competition of his life. 

With regards to television football personalities I think Martin Tyler, the most senior commentator on Sky football, summed up the real attitude perfectly when, at the start of a recent match, he regurgitated the virtue signalling comments about what a powerful message taking the knee sends but then excitedly gushed how Newcastle United have won the ‘ownership lottery’ by being taken over by the Saudi Arabian PIR. Well Martin, the Saudi PIR may provide money for footballers and stadiums but they come with a lot more besides, mostly attitudes and actions that are anathema to the welcoming, fair, honourable and tolerant values of the vast majority of UK football supporters and the UK population. 

Newcastle have not won the lottery, they have simply been taken over by an (allegedly) corrupt, nasty, despicable regime that has lots of money. The 2 things are very different.

And that, of course is the top and bottom of the problem. It is about money. As if the big clubs, broadcasters, players, pundits and football authorities weren’t already hugely rich and profitable enough. 

Buying Newcastle United for peanuts as far as the PIR is concerned gives Saudi Arabia the UK and worldwide legitimacy it craves. Likewise the World Cup for Qatar, which makes literally billions of pounds for the various footballing authorities, networks and everyone else involved so why rock the boat? BECAUSE IT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO! 

None of these individuals and organisations are poor. In my mind they have sold their souls and should hang their heads in shame. It is the worst type of hypocrisy. Shameful.

Let’s look in a little more detail as to why I take such a strong view on this.

Qatar abuses

Prior to winning (buying!) the right to stage the 2022 world Cup Qatar didn’t have any football pedigree or infrastructure to speak of such as large, state of the art stadiums to host the second biggest sporting event in the world. So it needed to build them.

Unfortunately, they didn’t have the workforce to carry out such a huge building project and so they needed to import tens of thousands of migrant workers, mainly from Africa and Asia. This could have been such a success story, giving work and wages to families and communities in such desperate need of it, and Qatar could most certainly have afforded to do this fairly. What a great story that would have been. 

However, according to articles in the Times, Telegraph and Mail on Sunday the following are true regarding Qatar:

• Qatar has shown itself to be an incredibly racist country and the tens of thousands of workers they invited to work in their country have been treated with contempt. The conditions they have had to endure have been inhumane (long days in temperatures close to 40 degrees) and the workers treated pretty much as slaves.
• The United Nations last year stated there were ‘serious concerns of structural racial discrimination against non-nationals’ in Qatar. This is strong language for an organisation like the UN and they would not have made that comment without justification.
• The appalling working conditions, plus non-existent health and safety standards, have led to an enormous death toll of previously healthy workers in the prime of their lives. According to Amnesty International thousands of immigrant workers have died on World Cup related building projects. Actual death tolls are not available as numbers and causes of deaths have been covered up.
• Even though Qatar has a very good health service, migrant workers are not entitled to use it and so medical support is primitive, sometimes non-existent.  
• There is widespread oppression of women, who often need permission from, and to be accompanied by, a male when leaving the country even for a few days.
• Female rape victims have been given 7-year prison sentences for having sex outside marriage.
• Homosexuality is illegal and punishable by 3 years in jail. 

How could the Saudi regime pass the Premier League ‘Fit and Proper Owner’ test?

The decision to allow the Saudi takeover of Newcastle United baffles me. If the press reports are to be believed – and they have significant evidence proving their provenance – nobody could reasonably argue that those who run Saudi Arabia could pass any test designed to ensure Premier League club owners are ‘fit and proper’ according to the high standards that are expected. 

As background, the club was bought by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIR), which is run by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, who also happens to be the country’s unelected ruler and so is responsible for legal and social issues.

According to articles in the Times, Telegraph and Mail on Sunday the following are true regarding Saudi Arabia:

• Homosexuality is against the law with a punishment of death by beheading, or a severe flogging if you’re fortunate. 
• Saudi sponsors the war in Yemen that has caused a humanitarian catastrophe. Hundreds of thousands, largely children, are forecast to starve to death.
• Links with terrorism are widely reported, as are murders of opponents and individuals who are deemed to be a problem. You may remember the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was critical of the Saudi regime, was murdered and cut into pieces not that long ago. According to the Mail on Sunday this was on the orders of Bin Salman.
• Women were only allowed into sports stadiums in 2018, and have only recently been allowed to drive. 

We sometimes become immune to certain horrific phrases, presumably because as individuals we are largely helpless to do anything about largescale tragedy. ‘Starving to death in Africa’ is one of these phrases. Whilst it is true that as individuals we are largely powerless to stop this, we don’t have to pretend it’s not happening and therefore vicariously support it. 

Can you imagine a more awful, hopeless, destitute way to die? Or worse, to see your child die in that way? Any regime that has wilfully caused starvation is not ‘fit and proper’ to run a football club in this country, or to have any place in British society. 

The main sponsors of Newcastle United FC were asked to comment on how Saudi laws and practices are against their policies regarding discrimination and human rights by a national newspaper. None replied. At the time of writing all continue to sponsor the club. So we’ll add them to the list of pathetic, money obsessed cowards.

Finally on Saudi, bizarrely, when the Australian footballer Josh Cavallo recently publicly declared he is gay the club tweeted ‘Newcastle United is right with you, Josh’. This doesn’t exactly tally with the beheadings and floggings of homosexuals allowed in his country by the club’s owner. No doubt NUFC will also enthusiastically take part in the ‘rainbow laces’ campaign. Cynical? Hypocritical? But totally in keeping with the virtue signalling pretence?  You betcha!!!

Although derided by some, it’s not the fans’ fault?

I love the satire and humour of football fans. This banner was produced by Crystal Palace wags prior to their recent trip to St James’ Park and displayed at their game against Newcastle. Brilliant! 

Some idiot made a formal complaint about the banner, accusing the Crystal Palace fans of racism and the police investigated. Unfortunately for the complainant, there was too much actual evidence available of the ‘terrorism, beheadings, civil rights abuses, murder, censorship, persecution’ mentioned in the banner and so the complaint was thrown out.

Many Newcastle United supporters are delighted with their change in fortunes of course, and when some attended a match wearing far east fancy dress in celebration, some with tea towels on their heads as headscarves would you believe that the Kick it Out charity – who have been so silent about the Saudi takeover and appalling human rights abuses – contacted the club complaining that this was a racist act. They have offered to run workshops for the guilty fans on why such stereotypes are offensive!

Newcastle fans are brilliant and are always a joy when they come to Anfield. They will likely now achieve some of the long craved for success that their excellent fans and their status in the game as a ‘big club’ deserves. But in my mind such success will come at an unacceptably high cost and will always be tainted by the atrocities of their owners. 

A lot of fans are so passionate about their club they won’t care about provenance of course. They will point to the fact that the Premier League signed off the sale, and compare the ownership of Manchester City, Paris Saint Germain, Chelsea et al, and in some small ways they may have a point. But 2 wrongs don’t make a right!

Conclusions

This a case of the football authorities ensuring that they are seen to do the right thing whilst not actually doing the right thing. Their actions in no way reflect their words and that is a disgrace.

What conclusion can I reach other than that the football authorities, broadcasters, campaigners, pundits etc. are cynically and hypocritically virtue signalling to try and appeal to the public and be seen to be anti-racist when they are anything but. 

All those with their snouts in the trough seem to have decided that there is money to be made from inclusivity and pretending to be decent so they take out expensive adverts and continuously spout anti-racism propaganda, whilst encouraging despicably discriminatory acts through their (non) actions and greed.

As the famous quote (wrongly attributed, it turns out, to Edmund Burke) says ‘the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing’. In itself I don’t believe the takeover will result directly in any increase in evil, but so many at the top of the game are doing nothing, they are therefore allowing evil to continue to prosper. They seem happy as long as they continue to make huge profits. 

As for the annual, high profile, rainbow laces campaign that the Premier League and broadcasters are so proud of – yes it’s a catchy idea and very well publicised by all in football, but it’s a complete failure. Not one Premier League footballer has admitted to being gay since Justin Fashanu came out over 30 years ago! Great slogan though, well done Marketing team. 

If there is genuinely ‘no room for racism’ how on earth can all this happen? 

A few months ago I wrote an article Are footballers becoming a force for good in helping to tackle racism? Well I think that question has been well and truly answered. There are some excellent local initiatives but in general the powers that be in the game have been exposed once and for all as cowards, and apologists for appalling, discriminatory regimes.

I will not be watching the 2022 World Cup no matter how well England do. I appreciate this is a futile gesture and am under no illusions – my abstention will have no impact whatsoever on the world of football and I have no doubt that due to ‘sports-washing’ the competition will be hailed as a great success.