02/12/2022
Many people are taking a stand over the World Cup in Qatar, as the extent of FIFA’s corruption becomes clearer. German media has reported that the wealthy football body has been compelling national teams to abandon wearing pro-diversity emblems on their sports kit. One lifelong football fan and Christian, contacted our own news watcher Terry, to say that he and his family were refusing to watch the tournament out of solidarity with LGBTQIA people, migrant workers and women in the oppressive Qatari state. The “New European” newspaper ran a hardhitting headline, with the face of child whose father had been killed building the infrastructure with only minimal safety precautions. And gay comic Joe Lycett, who had challenged football icon David Beckham to explain his endorsement of the tournament, revealed that then ten thousand pounds he had threatened to shred in protest, had in actual fact been donated to a wide variety of LGBTQIA+ community groups and charities. Mr Lycett also symbolically shredded a photocover that Beckham had once posed for in the gay magazine “Attitude”. “Attitude” magazine endorsed this protest and agreed that Beckham had thrown LGBTQIA people under the proverbial bus. Mr Beckham has not responded to criticism by many sections of the press, media and LGBTQIA and trade union movements. But the Peter Tatchell Human Rights Foundation spoke for many people when it summarised “Beckham was once upon a time a gay icon. But no longer”.
