Episodes
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Day 9: Cameroon v Serbia, South Korea v Ghana, Brazil v Switzerland, and Portugal v Uruguay
A couple of days ago, while promoting their crunch final match, the United States Men's teams social media accounts posted their two nations flags, but on Iran's flag, they had removed the Islamic Republic crest. In the press conference on day 9, Carlos Quieroz, Irans coach was asked about that. The most telling part of his answer sums football up, he said:
"I was born in a place in Africa. Some of you know my background. You don't know what one simple ball can do for kids who sometimes for one or two days don't eat. They don't have nothing to dress. And when we stop our cars, we open the cars and we put one ball in those parks. And you cannot imagine the magic moment that happens in the faces of kids and from sadness they change in one fraction to a smile. This is our mission."
You don't know what one simple ball can do for kids. One simple ball.
Football can get so confused, so messy, so complex, when entwined with geopolitics and the struggles between peoples, their rights, their governments and other nations.
In 1980, after Iran's Islamic revolution the previous year, the US backed an invasion of the country by Saddam Hussein's Iraq. The subsequent 8 year war extolled a brutal cost on the Iranian people, with half a million dead or wounded.
So when the US and Iran met, ten years after the end of the war, at France 98, some were calling it “The most politically charged match in World Cup history”. The Iran coach at that time, Jalal Talebi, shares similarities to current Iran coach, Carlos Quieroz. Talebi grew up in Tehran, the city where the Dasht-e Kavir, the Great Salt desert meets the Alborz mountains, before the Mountains meet the Caspian sea. Kicking around on old rubber ball on those streets, Talebi's first World Cup memory was of 1966 and he idolised Bobby Charlton.
The US players had security detail on arrival in France, and the French FFF and FIFA played down potential threats. All the same, plain-clothed police officers were at US training sessions and in their hotel.
During the pre-game ceremony, each Iranian player presented their US counterparts with bouquets of flowers, and the two teams posed together in a combined photo.
“We are all people. We are not enemies..” said Talebi, “..we weren't there to fight. We were there to play sport”
When Iran scored two unanswered goals, they made history that day 24 years ago, it was Iran's first ever World Cup win. “The people in my country have never forgotten that night and how they danced in the streets until early morning” that was Talebi again.
And from the US perspective, Jeff Agoos said at the time: “We did more in 90 minutes than the politicians did in 20 years”.
Instead of heightening tensions, that game did, at least for a few years, bring the two nations closer together. Such is the power of football. This is why it makes no sense when people say, “stick to the football and leave politics out of it”. The game, the people playing it, the nations competing, and their trials and stories, are all woven together. From the a football game played in a brief truce, on Christmas day 1914, on no-man's-land between British and German forces, or
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Day 7: Tunisia v Australia, Poland v Saudi Arabia, France v Denmark and Argentina v Mexico
And Day 8: Japan v Costa Rica, Belgium v Morocco, Croatia v Canada, & Spain v Germany
Hypocrisy comes in as many shades as a rainbow flag. If you want an example of it, you would do well to find one better than Piers Morgan. On the 2nd June 2015 Piers tweeted: “Russia & Qatar must have their World cups removed. Both bids mired in sleaze & corruption via Blatter & his FIFA cronies”. A tweet which he has since deleted.
Piers has since taken a nice pay cheque to go and work in Qatar, he posted a photo of himself flying out to Qatar, his feet up, literally, on the furniture. And while doing so he has mocked the BBC for virtue-signalling. He also mocked the FA for the decision to not wear the One Love armband, “if you're going to virtue signal, at least have the guts to stick to your principles.”
For someone against virtue-signalling, Piers sure does a lot of it. Perhaps he was confused as to why the FA decided to scrap the armband, because he only deletes tweets he makes when he gets a big bag of Qatari money to do so.
Incidentally, Piers has also been, rightly, critical of Matt Hancock being on the TV show “I'm a Celebrity, get me out of here”, come on Piers, isn't it time we stop the virtue-signalling and just enjoy the competition? If only Matt Hancock had a big pile of money for Piers, ay?
Hypocrisy is a type of logical fallacy. And logical fallacies are useful to know, because logic can help us find the truth, and logical fallacies will take us away from it. When Gianni Infantino said: “I think for what we Europeans have been doing in the last 3,000 years, around the world, we should be apologising for the next 3,000 years before starting to give moral lessons to people.” As well as being factually inaccurate, he was making a logical fallacy based on hypocrisy.
Is it hypocritical of the UK to admonish Qatar for treatment of women, migrant workers and their LGBT+ community, if you consider the UK's enslavement and imperialist past? Or is it useful in a debate to turn the subject of the conversation upon your accuser, and make the story, not about 1000s of modern slaves dying building stadiums in a desert, but about the UK being hypocrites.
Is criticism of Qatar Islamaphobia? You'll be surprised to learn this is another logical fallacy known as the “Ad Hominem” argument. The modern world is full of logic, in the news, on social media, in parliaments and courts. If debate was a game logical fallacies would be fouls, but they only become own goals if you are able to call them out. I highly recommend reading about them.
On the morning of day 7 Saudi Arabia filled my twitter feed. There were rumours that after they had beaten Messi's Argentina, each player would receive a Mercedes. These rumours were of course ridiculous, they will be gifted a Rolls Royce.
Tensions between Qatar and Saudi Arabia feel like they're constantly simmering. Qatar is a tiny peninsula, Saudi Arabia is it's only land bridge. And Saudi Arabia, by comparison, is enormous. It doesn't take a genius to think that the Saudis might covet Qatar. Saudi Arabia is four times bigger than France, Qatar is smaller than Northern Ireland. And Qatar has 14% of all the world's natural gas: an already lucrative resource which has become vastly more expensive since Russia's
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Day 6: Wales v Iran, Qatar v Senegal, Netherlands v Ecuador and England v USA
Day six began with the most emotionally charged game of the Finals so far. Wales v Iran. There was not the nerves of the opening fixture for either side as they lined up for the national anthems. Both teams knew this was their best chance at picking up points and progressing to the next round.
This felt like the game with the most genuine supporters from both sides too. Wales red wall group of supporters belted out "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau" – meaning Land of my Fathers, with a roar befitting of their reputation as a nation of singers. They sang with hope, determination, expectation. There were tears in the eyes with the emotion. Back home, a thousand schools were taking breaks from lessons so children could watch the game.
The word Welsh means foreigner or slave in Old English and was the name given to native Brits by the Anglo-Saxons invaders 1,500 years ago. There's been a lot of talk recently of a vote for Scottish independence, but listen to any interview with Michael Sheen and you'll wonder why the movement for Welsh independence isn't stronger.
The word Cymry means fellow-countrymen and Cymru means land of compatriots. Surely, if it is the will of the Cymry to be called by these names, as has been indicated before the tournament, then the English speaking world giving them that respect, is the least that can be done.
Onto Iran then. And we speculated yesterday that the arrest of Iranian footballer, Voria Ghafouri, was a warning to the Iran National team at the World Cup. Ghafouri is one of three high profile Iranian footballers arrested this year, joining Parviz Boroumand, former national team goalkeeper, as well as as unconfirmed reports of the arrest of 26 year old right back Amir Nasr Azadani.
There was no silent protest this time, the players sang the anthem and they didn't look happy to be doing it at all. It was a mumble at best. Meanwhile in the crowd the reaction to the images of the players singing heightened the feeling. Boos and jeers rose up with more fervour this match.
The camera gave us close ups of Iranian fans sobbing uncontrollably. Has there ever been national anthems like this? Normally there is a mix of some players singing, some not, often the veterans looking to get it over with and get the game going. This was quite the opposite, I've never seen anything like it, truly unforgettable.
Among the crowd a women, with makeup of red tears coming from her eyes, held up an Iranian t-shirt with MAHSA AMINI and 22 on the back, in memory of the 22 year old who's death in the custody of the morality police, was the catalyst which has sparked renewed protests across the country.
A man next to her held a t-shirt up with the slogan “WOMEN, LIFE, FREEDOM”. They were led away by security officers.
They were one of the few protesters that got into the stadium with their anti-regime messages. The process for passing through security at this game took longer than any game so far, with 1000s missing kick-off still waiting to get into the ground.
There are reports that Qatar officials are working to stop any anti-regime protests from the Iranian supporters. And the evidence all points to that.
The game itself was as passionate as the mood. For most of the game it
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Day 5: Switzerland v Cameroon, Uruguay v South Korea, Portugal v Ghana, Brazil v Serbia
In the 10 years leading up to this World Cup, Qatar's message was simple: everybody will be welcome. You'll be able to drink alcohol in the stadiums. You'll be able to wear rainbow colours. We only ask you respect our culture. So much for that.
Before Wales' game with the USA fans were asked to remove, or had items of clothing confiscated, that had rainbow insignia on. Grant Wahl, a US journalist, was detained by security. He was taken to a room and kept there for over half an hour, they confiscated his phone and repeatedly asked him to remove his shirt.
“You can make this easy” one security officer said. You can make this easy sounds like a line straight from a gangster movie. Perhaps when they realised that Grant Wahl has north of 800,000 followers on twitter, and the photo he had tweeted before they took his phone from him was trending, they realised they needed to let him in. “We were just trying to protect you from fans who might harm you for wearing the shirt”.
There might be some truth in that. A different US supporter had a rainbow flag on the metro, travelling to a game, “this is banned in our country” said one of the passengers, before threatening to kill him.
But after urgent discussion with the Football Association of Wales, FIFA have now announced that clothes with rainbows on are allowed after all, and supporters will not be detained when wearing them to any venue for the rest of the tournament.
U-turn after u-turn, no wonder no-one knows where they stand. All aboard the magical FIFA merry-go-round. To me, an item of clothing with a rainbow on is innocuous, perhaps to a Qatari it is some kind of violence to their eyes. But to give the message for 10 years that the symbol would be allowed, and then to detain people on the gate, whichever way you look at it, is completely ridiculous.
It was of particular importance to the FA of Wales that crisis talks with FIFA over detention of fans reach a resolution. Cymru have waited a couple of generations to see the red, yellow and green of their proud nation at a World Cup. They know they might not have another opportunity to see this happen again in their lifetimes. And to have waited so long, and to be treated in such a way at the gates of a football stadium, is an emotionally charged issue.
But this Friday's Wales v Iran game will be emotionally charged for both sides. Back in Iran, the situation seems like it will get worse before it gets better. And in a move that is seen as a possible warning to the Iran World Cup squad, Voria Ghafouri, one of the nations most famous footballers, has been arrested for: “insulting and intending to destroy the national football team and speaking against the regime”.
Ghafouri had recently tweeted, “If you are indifferent to the killing of people, you are not an Iranian and you are not even a human being”.
Iran's coach, Carlos Queiroz, is well aware of the pressure his players are under. And was frustrated at journalists today asking about the revolution back home, and I'll paraphrase here:“Why don't you ask Southgate about why they left Afghanistan and all the women alone?”
There's been a lot of whataboutism and other logical fallacies in the debates surrounding this tournament. The reasons no one has asked England coach Gareth Southgate about the UK's withdrawal from Afghanistan are numerous. Firstly, in terms of the media's news cycle, it might as well be ancient history, it happened over year ago, the HBO documentary has already been released. Secondly, it wasn't a directive that came from the UK, UK
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Day 4: Germany v Japan, Spain v Costa Rica, Morocco v Croatia, Belgium v Canada
You can't silence democracy. For FIFA and Qatar every day is a school day.
It could have been so easy. When I was asked by @Global's network of radio stations about the decision by FIFA to effectively ban the One Love armband, I hadn't given it much thought. To me, it was basically another fairly meaningless gesture in an avalanche of meaningless gestures.
How many t-shirts and campaigns and altered logos have we seen down the years? How much has any of the equated to real change?
In fact, banning the armband has highlighted and prolonged the conversation about it even more. In fact, this is the sort of petty spat that might just be the feather that broke the camel's back.
Charles Bukowski said it best, “it's not the large things that send a man to the madhouse... but a shoelace that snaps.. with each broken shoelace out of one hundred broken shoelaces..”.
If FIFA had just let the players wear the armband, that would have been the end of it, another gesture, another statement. The law in Qatar would not have changed. Now the European Football Associations are angry, exploring their options, considering suing FIFA.
Day four began with Germany v Japan. The German team lined up for the photo covering their mouths. These are the sort of things that can snowball, a single snowflake, yes, a snowflake, can cause an avalanche.
What would FIFA be without the European Football Associations? What a World Cup be without European nations?
Since FIFA gate, when an investigation into the International footballing body found the organisation to be riddled with corruption, a new President has been added, some things have changed. But has the organisation really changed that much?
In his first speech as President, Gianni Infantino said to the delegates and representatives of Footballs global associations, “FIFA's money is your money”. The presidency is up for election at the 73rd FIFA Congress, 16 March 2023, to be held at Kigali, Rwanda.
Our money is your money. Unopposed elections. I would forgive anybody for thinking that this is business as usual.
Remember the shoelace, or the snowflake? Denmark revealed that they have been thinking, along with other Nordic countries, of leaving FIFA altogether, since August. Now that would be a statement.
Revolutions don't happen overnight. It's a steady progression of escalatory actions from both sides of conflict. But it feels like this armband could be the domino that brings FIFA down.
And a prediction: I bet Infantinto wishes he had just let them wear the armband.
Now from one organisation that causes mess, to fans that clean up after themselves and everyone else. Japan.
Powerful images of spirit and passion as another World Cup upset brought this tournament to life and took the headlines, however momentarily, away from all the off-field drama.
Germany had 81% possession in the first half, 5 shots on target, 5 shots blocked. Japan had one shot. They were hanging on. A tactical switch at half-time and the momentum swung significantly. Germany still had the majority of the possession. But the chances created were even.
When Ritsu Doan equalised four minutes after coming on, the Japanese could sense a shock in the making, when another substitute Takuma Asano put them ahead 8 minutes later, they were in dreamland.
The Samurai Blue were not dreaming though, they were banishing memories. It was in this city, 29 years ago, that J
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Day 3: Argentina v Saudi Arabia, Mexico v Poland, Denmark v Tunisia, and France v Australia
Qatar have buyers remorse. Sources from Qatar have told The News Agents that: “Nothing good has come to us as a result of this.” Perhaps they could buy Manchester United?
And it wasn't the best day for the GOATs of the footballing world, one lost his job and the other was involved in the biggest shock in World Cup history.
Just another day in Qatar.
Day Two, as you know, saw security officers refusing entry to fans who were wearing items of clothing bearing rainbow symbols. Qatar finds rainbows scary. A tweet from a Qatari went viral on the topic: “As a Qatari I’m proud of what happened.” - pride – an interesting choice of word given the circumstances, he continued: “I don’t know when will the westerners realize that their values aren’t universal. There are other cultures with different values that should be equally respected. Let’s not forget that the West is not the spokesperson for humanity.”
There's a lot to unpack there. Central to his thesis seems to be the idea that persecution of LGBT+ peoples is a sort of, quaint quirk of the local culture, something of which to defend and be proud of. Perhaps this is a good point to remind you dear listener, if found guilty in Qatar of being gay, you could be sentenced to death by stoning.
Gay people can be found everywhere, and all the ones I know, quite enjoy not being persecuted for who they are. And while I can't be certain, I'm fairly sure that gay Qataris, might being who they are without fear of years in jail, or being tied to a post and hit with stones until they die.
Harry Kane didn't want to wear the One Love armband because he loves RuPaul's Drag Race and thinks that Qatar TV ought to be forced to show reruns on national television. The issue here is Universal Human Rights, something that the United Nations created a charter for in 1948. And it was not only the western world which agreed to basic human rights for all, several middle eastern countries, as well as Islamic nations also agreed. Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Syria and Turkey, all agreed that: “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language..” etc.
Meanwhile, Belgium agreed to to FIFA's demand to not wear the shirts with LOVE on them.
Even the US Secretary of State was talking about the armbands. Never mind buyers remorse, Qatar paid 200 billion to be critised by basically everyone and tarnish the previously excellent diplomatic relations they had with the USA. And it's only day three.
Something else had happened overnight. Something quite strange.
The official capacity of the Qatar World Cup stadiums had officially grown by 12%. Now I know these migrant workers are battle-hardened by the conditions they've had to work in. But even for them, this seems like an almighty feat. How else to explain it?
Had the stadiums gorged themselves on the national dish of Qatar – machboos – and swelled overnight from the meat, aromatic spices and rice?
It's no coincidence the change has come after questions about the figures of official attendances being much larger than the capacity of the stadiums, despite a large number of visibly empty seats.
Now Qatar and FIFA are claiming that not only are all the empty seats full, but in fact the stadiums themselves are much larger than the look too. The Qatar slogan was “Expect Amazing” but I honestly never thought magical
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Blood on the Sand: Qatar 2022
World Cup Diary
Day 2: England v Iran, Senegal v Netherlands, & USA v Wales
Another day of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar and we woke up to the news that FIFA had threatened the European Football Associations that if they were to wear the One Love captain's armbands adorned with a rainbow heart, that they would receive sporting sanctions, including perhaps a yellow card for the wearer, suspensions from games or even points deductions for the nation.
Remember, the One Love armband had been planned for months, FIFA made a decision on the morning of matches featuring nations who had chosen to wear it.
And then in a move that made FIFA President Gianni Infantino look even more like Voldemort from the Harry Potter films, FIFA asked Belgium to remove the embroidered word “Love” from their shirts. Was not a shred of irony lost here? What is the problem with the word “Love”?
In fact, FIFA have a set of rules and guidelines for inclusivity and diversity, as well as football's role in society. “Football has to show social responsibility just as all sectors of society do.” That's not me saying that, that comes from FIFAs 2015 “Good practice guide on diversity and anti-discrimination”.
If you haven't read this 94 page document, I don't blame you, but it seems like Gianni Infantino hasn't either. And after making these decisions regarding the One Love armband and even the word “Love” itself –2022 Gianni Infantino is going to be absolutely furious when he learns what 2015 Gianni Infantino had to say.
“FIFA is demonstrating in word and deed that discrimination has no place in football” he said.
“The knowledge and expertise of our member associations is crucial in our commitment towards ensuring that football is for all. Only by working together can we ensure that this aim is achieved” he said.
“So speak out, lend a hand, take action. Safeguarding diversity in football is something we must all do.” he said.
Well, 2015 Gianni, I'm trying to speak out, to lend a hand, and to take action, as are the European Football bodies. Trouble is, 2022 Gianni Infantino is making it really difficult.
Anyway, while FIFA were focusing on important matters like erasing the word LOVE from existence, somebody had updated the FIFA ticket app incorrectly, deleting tickets for people using the app. When fans arrived at the Stadium for England v Iran they were told they couldn't get in, and they ended up queuing for hours while the ticket offices printed physical copies of tickets for the game.
It's going well isn't it?
With so many empty seats in the stadiums today, I did wonder why organisers didn't simply open the gates for all who were there. Who would go all the way to Qatar without a ticket? And even if they had, they were so easy to get a hold of.
It wasn't until FIFA released the official attendances of todays games that I realised why they couldn't just let any old person in. All of the games played in this years World Cup were actually over capacity.
That's right. Your ears
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Blood on the Sand: Qatar 2022, World Cup Diary is a daily podcast tracking the news, both on and off the pitch.
Day One: The Opening Ceremony and Qatar v Ecuador
From the moment Qatar was announced as the hosts of the 2022 World Cup, there has been an uneasy feeling about it. A country smaller than Northern Ireland, with next to no footballing heritage, hosting the biggest tournament of the globe's biggest game seems ludicrous. Would Northern Ireland be named as hosts? I cannot even see why they would ever even bid. And yet Northern Ireland is bigger, has a strong footballing heritage, and were far more able at the time of the bidding, in terms of facilities, weather, human rights and laws, to be able to run this tournament than Qatar.
The story of the games itself is far too big for one podcast, it might be far too big for a series. So, initially, these episodes, the World Cup Diaries, will feature my thoughts on these games, day-by-day. As much as mental notes for me, as they are a way to keep up for you.
The build-up to the opening ceremony was as lined with controversies, geopolitical face-saving and last-minute u-turns, as the rest of the preparations would have led you to expect. A Danish TV channel was confronted by what appeared to be local law enforcement – though the presenter acted with dignity in the face of oppression, they dismissed his press pass and threatened to “smash the camera.”
Three days before the tournament and the FIFA executives arrived to find their luxury World cup hotel was not finished. A 'last minute scramble' was taking place, a few more days of hard graft for the overworked and underpaid migrant workers.
There was more on that day as Jack Warner, disgraced former FIFA vice-president, lost an appeal against extradition. Still many more steps before we see him behind bars. But a reminder of the current state of the former members of the FIFA executive committee which is responsible for the location of this World Cup.
Two days before the tournament, beer sales at grounds were cancelled. Budweiser, who had paid a reported £60 million for the exclusive rights to sell beer at the tournament tweeted, “Well, this is awkward...” before deleting that tweet. But it is awkward, isn't it? I mean, literally everything about this tournament is awkward. Surely this was some kind of breach-of-contract? The decision was also announced jointly by FIFA and Qatar. Which seems odd, when the rationale for the decision must of, obviously to me, have come from Qatar. Perhaps they had a meeting and both wanted to speak first, started giggling and said, “no you go, no you, go, OK how about we count to three and we both speak?” and to their amazement the FIFA representative and the Qatari counterpart counted down from three – two days before the tournament – and both said: “Let's ban alcohol sales in the grounds”.
There is one place in grounds you can enjoy a pint – hospitality – prices start at £19,000 a ticket.
There was more that day, the Daily Mail had an exclusive from their chief sports writer Matt Hughes. There would be no water fountains in the official FIFA fan park. Conjured images of the documentary Woodstock 99 came flooding back to me, combined with the Fyre Festival looking facilities, it does make you wonder how bad this could get. One clear saving grace was the decision made five years after being awarded the bid, to hold the tournament in winter. A decision that has no-doubt saved some lives.
And still before a firework had exploded or a ball had been kicked, there were rumours of corruption. A “widely known” disinformation Twitter account of a Briti
