The Football Association Are Cowards
The Owen Jones Podcast
Owen Jones
4.4 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 22 November 2022
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For the England team to wear the OneLove armband was the most basic act of solidarity possible - given the minor detail of the World Cup being held by a tinpot dictatorship which oppressed LGBTQ+ among others. But when FIFA banned them from even that, the Football Association immediately crumbled, showing how pathetically weak their solidarity really is. There's massive lessons here - and here they are.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Football Association are a bunch of cowards. Now, let's be honest, this year's World Cup |
| 0:05.5 | is a travesty, it's a fast, have you ever seen such little enthusiasm for a World Cup? |
| 0:11.2 | Certainly not in my lifetime. Now, the fact that Qatar, not a great footballing nation, |
| 0:15.6 | if we're going to be honest with you, was chosen to host the World Cup in the first place |
| 0:20.7 | when it's winter for a start for major footballing nations, was itself mired in allegations |
| 0:26.4 | of corruption. I mean, let's just have a little think about Qatar. It's a timpot dictatorship. |
| 0:31.1 | It relies on an army of super exploited migrant workers. In fact, 94% of the country's workforce |
| 0:38.6 | are migrants, not a joke, not an exaggeration, 94%, and non-Katari residents overall make up |
| 0:44.8 | over 88% of the population. Now, as media outlets like CNN have correctly reported, |
| 0:51.1 | migrant workers in Qatar suffer huge exploitation, unpaid labour, forced labour, |
| 0:57.2 | having to work in ridiculously hot weather for long hours and being enabled to leave their jobs |
| 1:02.3 | because of the country's sponsorship system. Now, homosexuality is banned in Qatar, one of 69 |
| 1:08.0 | countries on earth to do so. So, in order to justify taking part in this |
| 1:12.7 | facile tournament, we were told that the England team would take a stand on issues |
| 1:17.3 | such as human rights. Now, the most basic, tokenistic, limited way of doing that was to wear a |
| 1:24.9 | one-love armband, not the LGBTQ flag for those who are under that illusion. It's just a heart |
| 1:31.6 | with different colours to represent inclusivity. Honestly, the most milk-toast thing imaginable. |
| 1:37.7 | Now, what's happened? So FIFA have banned players from wearing it and threatened sporting sanctions |
| 1:44.5 | if national teams fail to do so, including threats of yellow cards, if they play football |
| 1:55.6 | wearing any of those armbands. Now, let's be clear, FIFA is a farcical organisation, |
| 2:01.6 | just a general disgrace. As the recent rambling nonsense by the president, |
| 2:06.9 | Gianno Infantino, have not said his name correctly, do apologise to him for that, but as that |
... |
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