If the players don’t dare to speak, Fifa has deprived them of some of their human rights. At the same time, Fifa completely ignores its own human rights practice, writes HS sports reporter Ari Virtanen.
Let’s repeatwhat has happened in the last few days.
The international football association Fifa threatened with warnings players who wear the captain’s armband defending sexual minorities. Fifa banned the Belgian team from wearing a kit with rainbow colors on the sleeve cuffs. And then the orderlies confiscated Rainbow colored bucket hats from Wales fans.
Fifa protects the feelings of the tournament host, Qatar, with its absurd bans. Rainbow colors and other symbols supporting sexual minorities have been seen as a protest against Qatar, where homosexuality is illegal.
of Qatar the legislation was known before the tournament, but on the other hand, Qatar also made promises that turned out to be empty. It was known that they are intolerant in the eyes of the western football community, but then they were revealed to be two-faced.
Two years ago, Fifa said Qatar’s organizing committee promised that symbols supporting sexual minorities would not be removed from the Games.
“When it comes to rainbow flags in stadiums, Fifa has its own regulations. We respect them,” CEO of Qatar World Cup Nasser Al-Khater said news agency for AP in December 2020.
Qatar’s coattails became the first sign last spring. Security Director of the Games, Major General Abdulaziz Abdullah Al Ansari said fans would be stripped of their rainbow badges to ensure their safety.
“If I take the rainbow flag from a fan, I don’t do it because I really want to take it away from him and hurt him, but to protect him,” Al Ansari told AP.
Protection thus becomes suppression of human rights.
No no wonder Fifa’s measures and threats have made the players afraid. The Belgian defender told about that fear at a press conference on Tuesday Jan Vertonghen.
“I’m afraid that if I say something, I might not play tomorrow,” he said, according to news agency AFP.
According to Vertonghen, he has never experienced anything like this before.
“I feel controlled. We just say the usual things about racism and discrimination, and if you can’t even say these things, that says it all.”
If the players don’t dare to speak, Fifa has deprived them of some of their human rights.
At the same time, Fifa completely ignores its own human rights practice. According to it, Fifa complies with the UN’s principles on work and human rights and avoids harmful human rights impacts in its own operations. During the World Cup tournament, Fifa has acted completely differently.
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