As associate members, LGBTQ+ campaign organisation «Just A Ball Game?» (JBG?) and Bradford City LGBT+ Fan Group recently joined German and Swiss Queer Football Fan Clubs (QFF) and other activists for a protest outside the Qatar Embassy in Berlin.
Following on from the 2015 Play Fair Qatar campaign set up by the TUC (Trades Union Congress) and delivered across mainland Europe in football by «Just A Ball Game?» many of these activists have joined forces on the days leading up to Qatar hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup to once again shine a spotlight on the human rights violations by the authorities there.
In 2010 FIFA’s existing council members granted the Gulf state the hosting of the tournament but they failed massively in not taking on any due diligence around the discrimination against women, laws and penal codes faced by LGBTQ+ people (which ultimately could see them face imprisonment or execution) , concerns for journalists and press freedoms and no protections against poor working and living conditions for migrants, many brought in under the atrocious Kafala system which is effectively modern day slavery.
A corruption scandal followed by a leadership change in 2016 for the World’s governing body of football saw the introduction of a human rights policy and UN guidance. The end of 2019 saw several reforms to human rights in Qatar forced though by trade union and human rights campaigners from across the globe, but FIFA failed miserably once more by not putting into practise those policies and principals effectively for those working on construction of the stadiums and other infrastructure, and as a result thousand of unexplained (not investigated) deaths have occurred.
As regular national team supporters and campaigners we are yet to see any substance behind proposals on safety and security of any LGBTQ+ people who may be attending the matches or those Qatari nationals who are continually forced underground and live in constant fear of their lives.
Countless German and Swiss Fan clubs, Ultras and political campaigners have stepped up their peaceful protests during matches and held demonstrations and even art installations to highlight concerns in the more recent years and months leading up to the start of the sports showpiece event. This action has been seen and replicated around the world with the messages strengthened and supported by a number national FA’s competing and players from those teams alike.
The silence from both FIFA and the Qatari Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy on all of these issues is deafening apart from the universal «Football is for All» and «Everyone is Welcome» spouted almost daily.
At the same time these so called leaders and ambassadors are sending out instructions that local laws need to be obeyed and by being a homosexual you are «damaged in the mind» along with «please do not allow football to be dragged into every ideological and political battle that exists».
Lindsay England – Founder of «Just A Ball Game?» and a GMB Trade Unionist from the UK (who has had bilateral discussions with FIFA’s head of human rights and anti-discrimination, along with delivery and legacy leaders) joined fellow QFF members and campaigners at the Berlin rally and spoke the following:
«Together we can claim some small victories with the several changes implemented for the rights of migrant workers in recent years, but we must keep the pressure on… and we must do more».
«Our LGBT+ siblings in Qatar are not free,
Not free to love and be loved,
Not free to have the courage and self –confidence to share their core identity,
Not free to meet, to shop, to party, to work, to live,
Not free to be educated or too educate,
Not free to enjoy music, the arts, or share our passion of football and other sports which so many around the world take for granted as they reside in a country ruled by an outdated Qatari authoritarian regime».
