“It is not war and death and famine, it’s not that at all. It’s the opposite of that. It’s to persuade there’s a world outside of that. That’s why sport’s important”. Michael Parkinson
I love this quote from Michael Parkinson on the Off the Ball/Second Captains show many years ago. Sport, and football in particular, given that it’s the global game, brings so much joy.
It’s a break from whatever you need a break from. The news cycle, work stresses, hectic homelife, or whatever happens to be getting on your nerves, the 120 minutes you take to sit down and watch your team (even Man United), or the weekend’s Match of the Day is sacrosanct for so many because it’s a welcome distraction from all of life’s other problems.
So, it is with a heavy heart and even some doubt that I write these next few paragraphs. Because even though football is the opposite of “war and death and famine” and should exist in a “world outside of that”, it does have power; Power to intervene, power to influence, power to make even more of a difference.
Watching Gianni Infantino in the Oval Office looking every inch the personification of sycophancy, with Trump showing the world a photograph of himself and Putin while telling us all how Vladimir can’t wait to come over to America and see (currently banned) Russia play soccer in the World Cup next year, turned my stomach.
Seeing Infantino smirking and fawning all over the US President just makes me ask myself; how has it come to this? What Trump is to the US, Infantino is to football.
How do we follow a sport that is governed by this money-grabbing, self-promoting, self-congratulating, crass, classless and probably corrupt leader?
The cognitive dissonance is only partially resolved through a combination of wilful ignorance and the ostrich technique.
Maybe it’ll take a USA vs Russia World Cup final next summer for fans to finally take our heads out of the sand and form some campaign to kick this parasite out of football.
UEFA is not much better. Always viewing themselves as technically, competitively, and morally superior to their global overlords, the European governing body is little more than FIFA’s toothless lapdog.
In fact, it would be fair to say that UEFA’s hypocrisy is worse than FIFA’s because, over the years, they have always claimed the moral high ground when comparisons have been made. Their words are empty, their actions feeble.
During the Super Cup final opening ceremony in August, children evacuated from Gaza held up a banner reading “Stop killing children – stop killing civilians.”
Yet the country committing these atrocities has received zero sanctions from UEFA. In fact, clubs with fans who have the integrity and the balls (pardon the pun) to display flags and banners supporting the Palestinians are themselves bullied into silence through fines and threat of sanctions by UEFA, led by the ineffectual Aleksander Ceferin.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, its international and club teams were swiftly banned from official UEFA and FIFA competitions.
The hypocrisy of not acting against a state that is committing actions objectively worse than Russia’s is appalling.
Of the victims killed in the Russian/Ukrainian war 0.3% have been children. A sad statistic.
Of the victims killed since the most recent Israeli invasion and occupation of Gaza 37.7% have been children (source. Craig Murray).
That’s approximately 18000 children bombed, shot or starved to death by the IDF in the past two years.
Russia has been banned for initiating a war, while Israel gets away with ethnic cleansing, genocide, and initiating a famine.
Why hasn’t Israel been banned? Why is their national team allowed to continue playing? Why are their club teams allowed to play in European competitions?
Why are their fans allowed to sing disgusting psychopathic chants and songs without sanction when a Brighton fan was recently ejected from the stadium for wearing a Palestine jersey? Why don’t FIFA and UEFA take a meaningful stand?
Most of you by now have probably already heard of Suleiman al-Obeid the “Palestinian Pelé,” who was killed in August when Israeli forces attacked civilians waiting for humanitarian aid (source: The Guardian).
UEFA’s meagre tribute to al-Obeid, “Farewell to Suleiman al-Obeid … A talent who gave hope to countless children, even in the darkest of times” was called out by Mo Salah who replied “Can you tell us how he died, where, and why?”
Salah is one of the few international footballers with the integrity to do this publicly; the silence from the vast majority of players, managers, and clubs is disheartening.
Footballers today have more power and influence over the masses than ever before.
It is estimated that across all social media platforms Christiano Ronaldo has over 900 million followers, Messi 626 million, Neymar 418 million, and the list goes on.
Only Messi, as a UNICEF Ambassador, has referenced the conflict and the toll it is having on children.
Football clubs are similar. Of Real Madrid (473 million followers), Barcelona (427 million) Man United (233 million), PSG (199 million) and Man City (179 million), only Barcelona have made a stand against the Israeli occupation of Palestine when they issued a statement against apartheid and refused to play a friendly against an Israeli club.
But that was back in 2021. None of the clubs listed have said anything regarding the current humanitarian crisis.
These clubs have power and influence beyond football, and the players even more so in an age when some fans follow the player, not the club.
Marcus Rashford’s campaign to feed poor families, Erling Haaland raising awareness of mental health issues, and Rodrygo’s attempts to combat racism are all admirable causes to be involved in.
Ronaldo is an ambassador for Save the Children, Messi for UNICEF, which shows that they must care, on some level.
Why no interest in speaking out against the most horrific man-made catastrophe of the 21st century?
Celebrities in general have been strangely quiet on the genocide, bar a few notable exceptions such as Mark Ruffulo, Kneecap and a few others.
But football is the people’s game, and the people idolise the players, relate to them and follow their example more than most actors or musicians.
It’s time for the footballing gods and the organisations that they represent to intervene, and perhaps make a difference where many ordinary people can’t.
