Russia, Qatar and Western double standards

No public figure in the West expressed any concerns about Qatar before 2010. The issue of human rights appeared in the news only after Qatar had won the bid for World Cup 2022. This means, among other things, that the West suddenly regains its moral spine only when it comes to lending its trademarks, like a boy who hates others touching his toys.

Let’s face it: FIFA is a Western global business; it is founded in the West, run by the West, and, coincidentally enough, it also brings huge profits to the West. Fair enough, non-Westerners replied: we understand the rules and we still want to join your club. What does it take?

Did FIFA ever mention, amongst bidding conditions, that workers’ rights have to meet Western standards in order for a country to host the World Cup? They did not. Their main goal was to spread football at a global level for more money. And for this purpose, they started to brand football as a synonym for Western values: democracy, human rights, mutual respect, and following the rules.

But at no point, FIFA did have the power to impose these values. So this task was partially taken over by the Western countries themselves, as we can witness nowadays with Qatar. The powerhouses of the Occident use football and the World Cup as means to exert pressure on those regimes from where they could earn more.

Do you need proof? Did any Western country even mention the word boycott in relation to the Russian World Cup? Did any Western country threaten Russia regarding human rights or LGBT rights? The answers are obvious. Why? Because Russia is big. Because Russia can retaliate on a global scale. Because Russia has a say at the rich people’s table.

More proof? From 2012 to 2014, an inquiry commissioned by FIFA and led by an independent American lawyer looked at the conduct of all the nine bidding teams who were trying to win the right to stage either the 2018 or 2022 World Cups. (As football fans know, both hosts were decided in 2010.)

The inquiry ended with a 42-page report and it cleared both Russia and Qatar of any wrongdoings. But a peculiar aspect needs to be reminded: the report noted that the Russian bid team made “only a limited amount of documents available for review”. How did the Russians justify this? They argued they had hired computers for the bidding process, and those computers were subsequently destroyed, thus denying the inquiry access to email accounts.

Yes, you read that right. One of the most advanced countries when it comes to IT had to “hire” computers and then, just fancy!, destroyed them.

When Russia provided such an explanation, no Western country was outraged. But when Qatar implements legal and economic reforms that are truly unique in the Gulf region, the sanctimonious West can’t take it anymore. German galleries, French mayors, and a handful of European retired footballers suddenly became indignant: why on Earth did Qatar get to host the World Cup?

For 12 years, everyone was silent. And now, just days before the tournament, all these social justice warriors are worried about human rights in Qatar. Define hypocrisy.

Why are these people so vocal when it comes to Qatar? You already know the answer. Because it is a small country. And small countries can be squeezed to comply. And because Qatar is in the Middle East. And, you know, Middle East is similar to the most unsolvable issues on the planet. An exotic place most Westerners can’t even locate on a map.

So it doesn’t matter how many historical reforms were undertaken and how many lives were really improved in Qatar.

When it comes to the West, the only things that matters are: 1) preserving its unshakeable self-image as ethically superior, and 2) maintaining the uninterrupted cash flow from those countries that thought it is worth joining the club.

As for the woke mob, don’t worry about them for too long. They’ll soon become silent once more, just like they were until 2010. Situational awareness isn’t exactly their strong point. It never was.