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The Norwegian initiative must boycott the World Cup in Qatar

Following the report of 6,500 workers killed in Qatar, a Norwegian club went north of the Arctic Circle calling on the association to boycott the tournament.

Five more clubs have already joined him, officials are embarrassed, FIFA worried, and Sunday's meeting could be fateful. And what does the Netherlands think?

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• Qatar 2022

• Norway

Michael Yochin

Friday, 12 March 2021, 16:00 Updated: 16:04

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The most controversial World Cup ever on the agenda again (Photo: GettyImages, Sean Gallup)

Two years ago, in January 2019, Rico Risky refused to travel to Qatar.

The Finnish national team has chosen to hold a training camp and a friendly match against Sweden on the land of the host of the 2022 World Cup, and the connection has chosen to oppose this by the means at its disposal.

"I can not be there for ethical reasons, it is against my values. I talked about it with the CEO and the coach.

They understood me, but they had a different opinion, "Risky said at the time. National coach Marco Canerva did express reservations about the move." Rico refused the summons, and should be respected, but it is important to emphasize that these are very important preparation days.

Those who do not participate in them, can block his way earliness Euro 2020 ".

Not surprisingly, Briscoe never summoned more. Check his own hit only him. He was indeed allusions sports sections in the leading newspapers in the world, but forgotten within days, and he was no He did not even get the backing of his Finnish teammates, and was left alone in the campaign. Qataris are making efforts material in front of the Scandinavian countries, and heads of associations of Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland were invited to official visits in the country.

for a long time has passed since, and the tournament controversial approaches. is scheduled for late next year, the stadium is almost ready, and has been over a decade since granted FIFA in a corrupt and biased vote to host a country where many human rights are blatantly and openly violated.

Those who waited for the protest were disappointed, those who tried - like Risky - to create a real debate in the football community were deceived.

However, now something has finally started to move, and the troubles of the Qataris may still come from the Scandinavian direction.

A few days after the Guardian newspaper reported that some 6,500 disenfranchised workers had died during construction work in Qatar, Tromso issued a statement that could have a very significant impact on the discourse in the coming months.

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When he spoke, no one really cared.

Rico Risky (Photo: AP, Alastair Grant)

"We will not sit still when people die"

The city of Tromsø is located north of the Arctic Circle, and the humble club that never won the championship only returned to its natural place in the senior league at the end of 2020, but instead chose to raise the flag and lead the fight to boycott the World Cup in Qatar.

In late February, he issued an official call to the Norwegian association not to send the team to the tournament.

"For many years there has been criticism of Qatar and FIFA.

It started with a corrupt vote on hospitality, and continued with reports of improper working conditions of foreign workers at the construction sites of the facilities.

Very many deaths have been reported, and the method has been defined as modern-day slavery.

The approach so far has been to visit Qatar and have a dialogue with it.

The Norwegian Association has chosen to do the same, and we at Tromso believe in these tools.

Criticism and dialogue, however, yielded nothing.

The numbers recently published in the Guardian are tragic, "the Tromso people explained in the conclusions that came immediately afterwards.

" We believe that football should stop and take a few steps back.

We need to think about what football is, and why so many people love the game.

The fact that many corruption, slavery and deaths accompany our most important tournament, the World Cup, is not at all acceptable.

We can no longer sit still when people die in the name of football.

We can not control the politics and domestic policies of different countries, but can set clear requirements for tournament hosts.

"We call on the Norwegian Association to support the conquest of the 2022 World Cup. We believe that if Norway qualifies, it must refuse to travel to Qatar."

"Can not control the politics and domestic policies of different countries, but can set clear requirements for tournament hosts."

Demonstration against hosting the World Cup in Qatar (Photo: GettyImages, Alessandro Della Bella)

82 percent of fans support

The tweet on Twitter squeezed enthusiastic responses across Norway.

Within hours, three more clubs - larger than Tromso - tweeted that they were joining the call for a boycott.

Stromsgoodst, ​​Viking Stabanger and Ode expressed full support for the idea.

A few days passed, and Rosenburg - the largest and most famous club in the country - also held a meeting to make a decision on the issue.

The management advised the club members to refrain from supporting the boycott, but its opinion was not accepted, and the proposal passed by an overwhelming majority.

Thus Rosenburg became the fifth club, followed immediately by the representative of the capital Oslo, Walleranga.

Although there is no consensus among the clubs, and the new champion Bodo Glimt has meanwhile chosen to postpone the decision to a later date, but the mood in Norway is quite clear.

All the fan organizations expressed complete sympathy with Tromso's position.

In a poll conducted by a popular website, 82 percent of surfers supported the boycott.

Editing articles in various newspapers went with the flow, as Egon Holstad, the local commentator at Tromso and a fan of the team wrote: The only thing with the call to boycott the World Cup in Qatar is that this was not done sooner. "

"Leading the campaign that can change the world for the better."

Tromso fans (Photo: GettyImages, Daniel Sannum Lauten)

"What criteria will form the basis?"

The association, which has business ties with the Qataris and is not really keen on leading the political and values ​​struggle, has found itself in a difficult situation.

The clubs demanding the boycott of the World Cup have asked for the issue to be put to a vote at a meeting to be held this coming Sunday, and the association's chairman is trying to use all his weight to postpone the hearing to the fall. If he fails to do so, Norway may retire before the qualifiers start. March, when the games against Gibraltar, Turkey and Montenegro are embedded, and

the pro-boycott forces claim that leaving at this stage will help create as strong an echo as possible, because if the Norwegians lose a real chance to qualify before the qualifiers, their retirement will be only symbolic. The decision that retirement is an irreversible step, while the threat that accompanies the discussions may yield wider media coverage and

overwhelm the

host's problems.

Svendsen is not at all sure that Norway has the authority to take on the role of moral compass. "The issue needs to be seen in a broad perspective.

How can the Norwegian association judge human rights violations in other countries?

It affects not only football but also the government and the business world.

What criteria will form the basis, and what tools will we use?

At this point we would have preferred to consider the issue in an orderly fashion in order to reach the optimal decision.

The goal is to bring about change, and not just declare a boycott here and now.

Also, the cancellation of the World Cup will actually make many workers who make a living in Qatar unemployed, "he claims.

Norway will retire from the qualifiers?

(Photo: AP, Vadim Ghirda)

"Norwegian football sends signal from the field"

However, he is well aware that the opposition may win and bring the issue to a vote.

To prevent this, senior members of the association held a zoom conversation with the heads of all the clubs, with the participation of FIFA Secretary General Patma Samura.

The speed with which Samura agreed to intervene indicates that FIFA is very concerned about the developments, and the snowball that may be formed. "FIFA believes that a boycott of the World Cup is not the right way to address human rights issues in Qatar. Dialogue and involvement will make it possible to promote an understanding of universal human rights values."

According to FIFA, there has been a marked improvement in the issue since Qatar received the hosting in 2010, but reports from the field say otherwise.

Meanwhile, the human rights organization Rafto, which was established in Norway in the 1980s and works to promote political freedom around the world, Tromsø and the other clubs. "Norwegian football sends a clear signal from the field, and the association must listen to it.

The boycott has a price, because the players want to participate in the tournament, and the fans want to watch it, but it actually increases the value of the boycott in question.

The dialogue has failed, and clear red lines must be drawn.

Violations of red rights in Qatar have been going on for a long time, "said the organization's executive director Justin Cobaltblatt.

Asked if the boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in China was also possible in this context, Cobaltblatt replied in the affirmative: "Yes, it is relevant, and it is great that the athletes will participate in these value discussions."

So now the eyes are on the association's meeting on Sunday, but no less so on the leading Norwegian players who play in the top leagues in Europe and meanwhile remain silent.

If Arling Holland, Martin Edgor and their friends express a position on the burning issue, they will completely change the rules of the game - because their opinion sounds a million times stronger than that of Rico Risky.

Imagine that the stars of Dortmund and Real Madrid will declare that they strongly support a boycott of the Qatar World Cup.

It will not be trivial for them, and may have a personal cost, but the profit may also be huge.

So will Tromso's initiative now gain momentum, hurt the troubled tournament, and perhaps even eventually lead to its cancellation?

Will be interesting after the topic, because finally someone volunteered to swing the torch.

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