Qatar 2022

 I admit it, I am a hypocrite. While not willing to visit an undemocratic country, devoid of civil rights, even if you paid me to go, I will still be following, via TV and radio, Wales and England in the World Cup. It is inevitable that, if money dominates the thinking of football administrators, then you will have situations where nations with deep pockets will be able to buy the rights to stage international tournaments with no questions asked about their morality. Thus Qatar 2022 and also Russia 2018, four years after the annexation of Crimea. 

However, there should be a level playing-field (sorry) when it comes to charges of institutionalised homophobia. Qatar and Iran may criminalise same-sex relationships, but so also do Western allies Egypt and the UAE.* Indeed, one sees little criticism in the English-speaking media of Egypt's dictatorial regime generally, especially her persecution of journalists for even the mildest criticism of the state. 

Maybe there is hope for Qatar. It will be bad PR to prosecute any same-sex relations in the glare of publicity surrounding the World Cup. Out of the hundreds of fit young men descending on the hereditary monarchy, over twenty will be exclusively same-sex orientated. Statistics consistently point to that ratio. It is unlikely that all will remain celibate during the weeks of the tournament. When the sky does not fall in nor Allah devastate Doha with thunderbolts in retribution, it may dawn on the ruler and his advisers that homosexuality is and always has been historically, part of human life. Doha already houses the liberal international broadcaster Al-Jazeera. It is surely only a short step to quietly repeal the law against homosexuality.

That leaves the exploitation of migrant labour, which I fear will be a practice more difficult to eradicate. Believe it or not, conditions for workers on the football stadiums were an improvement over those other construction to date.

* It is interesting that Saudi Arabia, so repressive in many other respects, does not criminalise homosexuality, The kingdom does ban sodomy, but that is a particular sexual act which can be performed on women as well as men.