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Karla Borger (front) and Julia Sude at a tournament in 2019
Photo:
Naoki Morita / AFLOSPORT / imago images
It was quite a back and forth: Volleyball World Federation, Qatar, a dress code for women, shirts and shorts instead of sports bikini, two players protesting, denials, confusion and in the end: no dress code.
To sum it up again: an association is making a deal at the expense of the sport and the women who run it.
The course correction only follows the general public - not because of the concerns of some athletes.
These concerns, the association maintained until the end, allegedly never existed.
It is easy to make decisions that only have consequences for others and not for yourself.
The volleyball association justified the commitment of the regulations with the respect for the culture and tradition of the host.
It should actually have been about women's and labor rights and ultimately also about sport itself.
But others have already taken money from Qatar.
In this case, it took the courage of individual actors to make change.
Karla Borger and Julia Sude decided not to participate in the tournament and declared this publicly.
You have to bear the consequences for this on your own.
And here lies a problem: You need athletes with an attitude, but also independent organizations and regulations that protect them.
Borger and Sude were - fortunately - not dependent on the tournament's Olympic qualification points.
Other players may have found themselves in a dilemma that the association should have saved them from: sporting and economic dependency, the fear of missing their last chance at the Olympics or at least competitive practice on the one hand, or the feeling of agreeing to the rules on the other that perhaps correspond neither to your own self-image nor to the actual work clothes for the provision of services.
They shouldn't have got into this dilemma.
It is primarily the association, not Qatar, that is indebted here: because it has not stood up enough for the rights of its female athletes.
Don't fool yourself: a volleyball tournament doesn't change the reality of life in Qatar.
Women are formally and not on an equal footing there in everyday life, and they are often dependent on the guardianship of men.
That foreign women can now hop around in bikinis for a few days?
Free for her.
Does it really have to be a boycott?
Nevertheless, one can see a sign of some hope in this: that change is possible if the actors only wanted to.
Qatar has been using sporting events to show itself to the world for many years.
A lot of money is spent on this.
And sometimes seems willing to make concessions for these relationships.
Two volleyball players have achieved something on a small scale, while sports associations and clubs could or would not achieve much.
Such declarations of values are usually only lip service from officials.
Football crouches when Karl-Heinz Rummenigge dismisses human rights violations in Qatar as “culture” or when FIFA lets referees appear at the Club World Cup without thanks or greetings from the host.
Criticism about Qatar has been a topic again and again since the emirate moved into the spotlight of the world in 2010 with the award of the World Cup for 2022.
Just yesterday, the Guardian reported more than 6,500 guest workers who died on the World Cup construction sites.
A staggering number, but hardly surprising: NGOs have complained about the precarious conditions and the exploitation of workers and have been researching the media just as regularly since the award as promised reforms that are not implemented or monitored.
So what should protest look like?
Does it really have to be a boycott?
Better go there, maybe talk, make the world a better place with the diplomacy of sport: this is what the answer often sounds like when you ask officials.
And then often nothing happens.
If sport is to change the world, it has to start with itself.
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