As the global football carnival began in Qatar on Sunday, the UK press, after the small Arab nation since it got the hosting rights for FIFA World Cup 2022, sure they highlighted all the flaws in the opening ceremony.
Qatar World Cup defeat proves there are some things in a sport you can’t pay for, reads the headline of The Independent, saying the opening match where the host made a poor performance against Ecuador, losing 2-0.
The Guardian’s report, World Cup opening ceremony six something we discovered in Qatar, creates a slew of unwelcome commentary.
Qatar is stills trying to sell itself as inclusive everybody got their song Russia still made a mark, despite their ban Jungkook of BTS has not started his military service yet, but emirs claimed World Cup would celebrate diversity FIFA president Gianni Infantino held quiet – until the last moment — these were the takeaways of The Guardian.
The Qatari state chose to pay millions of pounds for a World Cup opening ceremony featuring Morgan Freeman, Jungkook from BTS, and hundreds of performers, probably hoping for the moment when the global media finally focused on football rather than human rights.
It probably did not expect that the BBC would ignore the entire event in favor of a broadcast criticizing the therapy of transient employees, highlighting crime at Fifa, and discussing the ban on homosexuality in Qatar. And that was only in the door two minutes.
It’s the most controversial World Cup in history ball hasn’t even said the Match of the Day host Gary Lineker as he held witnesses to the beginning of the national broadcaster’s coverage on BBC One.
Ever since Fifa chose Qatar in 2010, the smallest nation to have hosted football’s greatest competition has faced some big questions – from charges of crime in the bidding approach to the therapy of migrant workers who built the stadiums where many lost their lives. Homosexuality is prohibited here. Women’s ownership and independence of presentation are in the spotlight. Also, the conclusion six years ago was to switch the World Cup from summer to winter.
He concluded against, the backdrop is a tournament to be played – one that will be watched and enjoyed around the world. Stick to football, say Fifa. Well, we will for a pair of minutes at least.
The BBC refused to clarify why it had shunted the scope of the opening ritual – traditionally an opportunity for host countries to project soft power the world around– to an online-only stream. Observers in other nations saw Jung Kook, one of the most famous singers in the world, perform his new song sample with inspirational lyrics, looks we are the dreamers / We’ll make it happen because we believe it – in a packed stadium. At the moment, BBC One viewers were watching the presenter Ros Atkins introduce an interview with Amnesty International and form never seen a World Cup with a carbon footprint like this before.
Even the former footballers got in to analyze the actual sport for the BBC and broke down any pretense that politics kept out of football. The former England global Alex Scott knocked Fifa’s head, Gianni Infantino, for suggesting he could feel solidarity with migrant workers and the expense of attending the World Cup. You will never know what it is like to be a traveling employee. To support displaying football is for everyone – it’s not. You could not say football is for everyone, Scott said.
The ex-England captain Alan Shearer went further. If he feels that strongly about the migrant workers and their families, Amnesty asks Fifa for just over $400m in compensation funds. They haven’t agreed to that. Why? Shearer asked.
Rather than Doha’s preferred narrative of a tiny Arab country uniting the world with football, viewers in the UK left, in no doubt the World Cup mired in accusations of bribery and that Qatar was a deeply flawed host country.
There was, of course, an alternative to the BBC’s coverage. Viewers watch, in the UK Freeview could have watched the buildup on Al Jazeera, the English-language rolling news channel funded by the Qatari government. There was an admission of the complaints the event showed in the context of incredible advances in infrastructure in Doha.
While the BBC highlighted, again and again, the deaths of migrant workers, Al Jazeera showed construction staff meeting the England team, a voiceover intoned, it had not been for the beautiful game, these two groups of men, with their different languages and backgrounds, might never have met. But football has brought them together.
Back on the BBC, there were no such niceties, Lineker did push Shearer to address the similarities with his childhood club Newcastle United hanging high thanks to enormous Saudi Arabian investment.
We as lovers don’t get to decide where the World Cup is, just like we don’t get to choose who invests in our football clubs, replied Shearer, highlighting some of the nuance associated with being a fan in an era of jokes flying campaigns.
