Qatar protests

[Tom Joad]

Of course it needs to be boycotted. It is the most ridiculous decision FIFA have ever made and goes to show how untouchable they feel they are. I have said from the start, someone from the FA should pick up the phone and speak to the other leading European nations then they do it en masse. The rest of the world would follow. If they'd done it sooner, they could organise an alternative competition somewhere like Australia. How they have been overlooked for all these years is another thorny question. That might give FIFA a wake up call, or maybe we'd all realise we're better off without them.

[Protheroe]

You only have to look at the NFL player Colin Kaepernick to understand why sports stars don’t do more. He was the first to take the knee during the national anthem and make a national statement about civil rights... he was subsequently bombed out by his club, lost his endorsement contracts and never played again.

It's hardly the same thing. In fact it's decadent and self-indulgent compared with what's actually going on today in Qatar.

The Qatar World Cup was grubby stitch-up from the start which is bad enough. Construction has directly led to 6,500 deaths and the Kafala system is 'sponsored' bonded labour - as close as you get to actual slavery these days.

Eh??? Since when has making a statement about societal racism “decadent and self-indulgent”? There’s no equivalence to Qatar here, it’s a completely separate issue.

The key point that makes it relevant is that a high profile sportsman took a stand on a major issue and was spat out for doing so.

*"compared with"*

A protest against perceived societal racism by an exceptionally affluent individual is not the same as protesting against 6,500 actual deaths amongst bonded labourers, yet the former gets indulged by the media on a daily basis.