Anyone here thinking of boycotting this abomination of a World Cup?

I have been giving it serious thought, but not sure if I'll have the fortitude to see it through.

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Anyone here thinking of boycotting this abomination of a World Cup?

I'm thinking of boycotting the 2 am PST games :-)

-- HASM

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On Wednesday, October 5, 2022 at 3:57:17 AM UTC+1, alka...@hotmail.com wrote:

Anyone here thinking of boycotting this abomination of a World Cup?

I have been giving it serious thought, but not sure if I'll have the fortitude to see it through.

I was of this mindset, but it’s dawned on me that as I live in a country where the World Cup is broadcast on free to air tv a personal boycott achieves little other than “cutting off my nose to spite my face” (to use an old fashioned expression).

What I have resolved to do as a personal protest is not to buy the official guide book or any of the official t-shirts (I buy these for most World Cups), not to buy any Qatar 2022 official merchandise and not to buy products from any of the official
World Cup sponsors.

So basically I’ll watch the matches as they’re free to me but I won’t spend a penny on making the organisers and sponsors any richer than they already are.


RM

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On Wednesday, October 5, 2022 at 2:43:24 PM UTC+1, Real Mardin wrote:

On Wednesday, October 5, 2022 at 3:57:17 AM UTC+1, alka...@hotmail.com wrote:

Anyone here thinking of boycotting this abomination of a World Cup?

I have been giving it serious thought, but not sure if I'll have the fortitude to see it through.

I was of this mindset, but it’s dawned on me that as I live in a country where the World Cup is broadcast on free to air tv a personal boycott achieves little other than “cutting off my nose to spite my face” (to use an old fashioned expression).

What I have resolved to do as a personal protest is not to buy the official guide book or any of the official t-shirts (I buy these for most World Cups), not to buy any Qatar 2022 official merchandise and not to buy products from any of the official

World Cup sponsors.

I'm adding companies who advertise during World Cup match broadcasts on ITV to this list too. I will not be buying their products or services.

RM

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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Al Kamista wrote:

Anyone here thinking of boycotting this abomination of a World Cup?

Just like Harry Kane & Co I feel some sort of timid protest is called
for. After all it's THE World Cup, so we don't really want to miss out
do we? So, I will boycott boiling the kettle during the actual games
limiting my tea drinking to pre-match, half-time and full-time...
that'll show those pesky rulers of Qatar how serious I am about the way
they govern their country.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Whatever our thoughts about the politics surrounding this World Cup, it's going ahead.

Some people may wish to boycott Qatar 2022, I'm not going to seek to dissuade them from doing so.

I was of the boycott camp once, but for reasons discussed above I've come to realise a boycott would be meaningless in my circumstances. Your circumstances may make a boycott more meaningful (eg, not paying the subscription fee if you live in a country
where the World Cup is on pay tv).

In order to try and be a little less miserable about the whole thing, I thought I'd look up the names of each competing nation in Arabic, which is the official language of Qatar. All names are from google translate.

In order to give rss a bit more of a Qatari feel at World Cup time, perhaps we could adopt these names on our posts during the World Cup?


Group A

Dawlat Qatar (Qatar)

Alakwadwr (Ecuador)

Alsinighal (Senegal)

Hulanda (Netherlands)


Group B

'Iinkiltira (England)

'Iiran (Iran)

Alwilayat Almutahidat Al'Amrikia (United States of America)

Wylz (Wales)


Group C

Al'Arjantin (Argentina)

Almamlakat Alearabiat Alsueudia (Saudi Arabia)

Almaksik (Mexico)

Bulanda (Poland)


Group D

Faransa (France)

'Usturalia (Australia)

Aldanimark (Denmark)

Tunis (Tunisia)


Group E

'Iisbania (Spain)

Kusta Rika (Costa Rica)

'Almanya (Germany)

Alyaban (Japan)


Group F

Biljika (Belgium)

Kanada (Canada)

Almaghrib (Morocco)

Kuruatia (Croatia)


Group G

Albarazil (Brazil)

Sirbia (Serbia)

Suisra (Switzerland)

Alkamirun (Cameroon)


Group H

Alburtughal (Portugal)

Ghana (Ghana)

'Uwrughway (Uruguay)

Kuria Aljanubia (South Korea)


RM

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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Real Mardin <real_mardin@yahoo.co.uk> writes:

In order to give rss a bit more of a Qatari feel at World Cup time,
perhaps we could adopt these names on our posts during the World Cup?
...
Al this and Al that

Maybe with the exception of Almanya (or maybe not)
aren't all those beginning with "Al" just "The XXX", e.g.

Alakwadwr => Al Akwadwr => The Equator => El Ecuador => Ecuador?

And obviously:

Portugal => Alburtughal => Alburtughaliu => Al Burtughaliu => The Orange => De Oranje

which is why Alburtughaliu vs Huland games are always so juicy.

If you'll be my bodyguard
I can be your long lost pal
I can call you RSS
And RSS, when you call me, you can call me

-- Al HASM

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 2022-10-21, Real Mardin <real_mardin@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

In order to try and be a little less miserable about the whole thing, I thought I'd look up the names of each competing nation in Arabic, which is the official language of Qatar. All names are from google translate.

In order to give rss a bit more of a Qatari feel at World Cup time, perhaps we could adopt these names on our posts during the World Cup?

Wouldn't it be more appropriate with the Nepalese names.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Sunday, October 23, 2022 at 9:49:17 PM UTC+2, Futbolmetrix wrote:

On Friday, October 21, 2022 at 5:35:11 PM UTC-4, Real Mardin wrote:

Group A

Dawlat Qatar (Qatar)

Alakwadwr (Ecuador)

Alsinighal (Senegal)

Hulanda (Netherlands)

So the question is, why are some countries "*The* Ecuador" and "*The* Senegal", and some countries just "Holland" (which is only a region of the Netherlands, so wrong name)?

Also, it's interesting that Arabic appears to have taken the names for
several European countries from Italian (Inghilterra, Svizzera).

Ciao,
Werner

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Friday, October 21, 2022 at 5:35:11 PM UTC-4, Real Mardin wrote:

Group A

Dawlat Qatar (Qatar)

Alakwadwr (Ecuador)

Alsinighal (Senegal)

Hulanda (Netherlands)

So the question is, why are some countries "*The* Ecuador" and "*The* Senegal", and some countries just "Holland" (which is only a region of the Netherlands, so wrong name)?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

So the question is, why are some countries "*The* and some countries
just "Holland"

Interesting, as Netherlands are sometimes refereed to as "The
Netherlands", thus inviting Al something or order.

"Holland" (which is only a region of the Netherlands, so wrong
name)?

Also, it's interesting that Arabic appears to have taken the names
for several European countries from Italian (Inghilterra, Svizzera).

Maybe Olanda, or a spelling variation thereof, was an older, common
designation of The Netherlands in Italian (though no starting H?).

It certainly was in Portuguese/Portugal when I grew up, now we mostly
say "Países Baixos", a la Française, from where we used to get a lot of words.

Even the wikipedia starts with:

The Netherlands ..., informally Holland,

-- HASM

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

So Australia have become the first qualified team to publically criticise Qatar's human rights and LGBT rights records. Fair play to them for having the courage to speak out. However, the problem with using words as your weapon is they can be
counteracted with other words. Qatar put out a statement which, my own political views aside, dealt with the criticism fairly slickly by commending Australia for speaking out and essentially saying no country is perfect and the World Cup was going to be
a catalyst for change in Qatar, pretty much taking the sting out of the Australian players' comments.

Just goes to show if any competing nation really wants to show their disapproval of how things are run in Qatar words, armbands (England) and "toned down shirts" (Denmark) won't cut it, the only thing that would really make a difference is a few teams
actually boycotting the tournament by not going to Qatar.


RM

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Real Mardin wrote:

So Australia have become the first qualified team to publically
criticise Qatar's human rights and LGBT rights records.

The problem I have with this is Qatar were named as the hosts for the
2022 FIFA World Cup in 2010. Everybody at the time knew this was just
oil money going to Blatter & Co for the right to host the World Cup.
Countries could have boycotted the tournament if they really felt so
strongly about Qatar's human rights records at any stage since World
Cup qualifying started. They chose not to. So they all competed knowing
full well that they'd be going to Qatar if they qualified.

Speaking out now is just hypocrisy and virtue signalling. Don't like
what goes on in Qatar? Don't go there then!

Just goes to show if any competing nation really wants to show their disapproval of how things are run in Qatar words, armbands (England)
and "toned down shirts" (Denmark) won't cut it, the only thing that
would really make a difference is a few teams actually boycotting the tournament by not going to Qatar.

Exactly. Rainbow arm-bands? That'll really show 'em won't it?! What a
joke.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On Friday, October 28, 2022 at 12:39:25 PM UTC+2, Blueshirt wrote:

Real Mardin wrote:

So Australia have become the first qualified team to publically
criticise Qatar's human rights and LGBT rights records.

The problem I have with this is Qatar were named as the hosts for the
2022 FIFA World Cup in 2010. Everybody at the time knew this was just
oil money going to Blatter & Co for the right to host the World Cup. Countries could have boycotted the tournament if they really felt so
strongly about Qatar's human rights records at any stage since World
Cup qualifying started. They chose not to. So they all competed knowing
full well that they'd be going to Qatar if they qualified.

We've already had a World Cup in Russia which was awarded at the same time
and under the same circumstances (i.e. bribes) as Qatar. And at the time of the World Cup
Russia through its puppet republics of Luhansk and Donetsk had already led a low-key
war against Ukraine for four full years (not to speak of having annexed Crimea).

Also, as far as I remember there was nothing untoward during the World Cup itself
- people were friendly, locals interacted peacefully with fans from all nations, the usual.

But as to whether that World Cup really was 'a catalyst for change' in Russia, well...


Ciao,
Werner

Speaking out now is just hypocrisy and virtue signalling. Don't like
what goes on in Qatar? Don't go there then!

Just goes to show if any competing nation really wants to show their disapproval of how things are run in Qatar words, armbands (England)
and "toned down shirts" (Denmark) won't cut it, the only thing that
would really make a difference is a few teams actually boycotting the tournament by not going to Qatar.

Exactly. Rainbow arm-bands? That'll really show 'em won't it?! What a
joke.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Werner Pichler wrote:

On Friday, October 28, 2022 at 12:39:25 PM UTC+2, Blueshirt wrote:

Real Mardin wrote:

So Australia have become the first qualified team to publically
criticise Qatar's human rights and LGBT rights records.

The problem I have with this is Qatar were named as the hosts for
the 2022 FIFA World Cup in 2010. Everybody at the time knew this
was just oil money going to Blatter & Co for the right to host the
World Cup. Countries could have boycotted the tournament if they
really felt so strongly about Qatar's human rights records at any
stage since World Cup qualifying started. They chose not to. So
they all competed knowing full well that they'd be going to Qatar
if they qualified.

We've already had a World Cup in Russia which was awarded at the same
time and under the same circumstances (i.e. bribes) as Qatar. And at
the time of the World Cup Russia through its puppet republics of
Luhansk and Donetsk had already led a low-key war against Ukraine for
four full years (not to speak of having annexed Crimea).

The woke brigade didn't seem to have the same objections to Russia 2018
as they do with Qatar 2022 for some reason? I'd argue both were awarded
the FIFA World Cup due to Blatter/FIFA's corruption and Russia's human
rights record is nothing to write home about either. So if we don't
care about one, why make a fuss about the other? That's why I say these
Qatar protests are all hypocrisy. There's no consistency.

In the real world no nation will withdraw from a World Cup Finals
tournament they've qualified for. So my attitude is, you knew where it
was being played, shut the fuck up and let your football do the talking!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On Friday, October 28, 2022 at 9:07:42 AM UTC-4, Blueshirt wrote:

Werner Pichler wrote:

On Friday, October 28, 2022 at 12:39:25 PM UTC+2, Blueshirt wrote:

Real Mardin wrote:

So Australia have become the first qualified team to publically criticise Qatar's human rights and LGBT rights records.

The problem I have with this is Qatar were named as the hosts for
the 2022 FIFA World Cup in 2010. Everybody at the time knew this
was just oil money going to Blatter & Co for the right to host the
World Cup. Countries could have boycotted the tournament if they
really felt so strongly about Qatar's human rights records at any
stage since World Cup qualifying started. They chose not to. So
they all competed knowing full well that they'd be going to Qatar
if they qualified.

We've already had a World Cup in Russia which was awarded at the same
time and under the same circumstances (i.e. bribes) as Qatar. And at
the time of the World Cup Russia through its puppet republics of
Luhansk and Donetsk had already led a low-key war against Ukraine for
four full years (not to speak of having annexed Crimea).

The woke brigade didn't seem to have the same objections to Russia 2018
as they do with Qatar 2022 for some reason? I'd argue both were awarded
the FIFA World Cup due to Blatter/FIFA's corruption and Russia's human rights record is nothing to write home about either. So if we don't
care about one, why make a fuss about the other? That's why I say these Qatar protests are all hypocrisy. There's no consistency.

While there may have been bribery in the Russian WC award, and that cannot be excused, there are some notable differences with Qatar. Eastern Europe had never hosted a WC before, and it has always been a large and prominent hotbed of global football.
Russia is the 9th largest country in the world by population, and the largest by land area. They had pre-existing bases for both footballing and non-footballing infrastructures. They had hosted the Olympics and other global sporting events. They have
their own footballing history and passionate fanbases.

Qatar shares none of these traits. They have a population smaller than Lithuania and land area smaller than Montenegro. Their footballing infrastructure prior to 2010 was probably equivalent to the 4th tier of a European league system. They had never
even qualified for a WC.

While the Russian award may have been an injustice, the Qatari award is an abomination.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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Al Kamista wrote:

On Friday, October 28, 2022 at 9:07:42 AM UTC-4, Blueshirt wrote:

The woke brigade didn't seem to have the same objections to Russia
2018 as they do with Qatar 2022 for some reason? I'd argue both
were awarded the FIFA World Cup due to Blatter/FIFA's corruption
and Russia's human rights record is nothing to write home about
either. So if we don't care about one, why make a fuss about the
other? That's why I say these Qatar protests are all hypocrisy.
There's no consistency.

While there may have been bribery in the Russian WC award, and that
cannot be excused, there are some notable differences with Qatar.
Eastern Europe had never hosted a WC before, and it has always been a
large and prominent hotbed of global football. Russia is the 9th
largest country in the world by population, and the largest by land
area. They had pre-existing bases for both footballing and
non-footballing infrastructures. They had hosted the Olympics and
other global sporting events. They have their own footballing history
and passionate fanbases.

Qatar shares none of these traits. They have a population smaller
than Lithuania and land area smaller than Montenegro. Their
footballing infrastructure prior to 2010 was probably equivalent to
the 4th tier of a European league system. They had never even
qualified for a WC.

While the Russian award may have been an injustice, the Qatari award
is an abomination.

Neither should have been granted the right to host the World Cup, but
yes, Russia did have more of a footballing pedigree.

After saying that, I thought the 2018 World Cup in Russia was a great
success and one of the best World Cup tournaments that I've watched.
Let's see if Qatar can match that success...

I don't blame countries for their successful bribery, I blame FIFA for
being so corrupt that they did business that way. Qatar did not deserve
the World Cup by any reasoned football criteria.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On Friday, October 28, 2022 at 10:42:21 PM UTC+1, Blueshirt wrote:

Al Kamista wrote:

On Friday, October 28, 2022 at 9:07:42 AM UTC-4, Blueshirt wrote:

The woke brigade didn't seem to have the same objections to Russia
2018 as they do with Qatar 2022 for some reason? I'd argue both
were awarded the FIFA World Cup due to Blatter/FIFA's corruption
and Russia's human rights record is nothing to write home about
either. So if we don't care about one, why make a fuss about the
other? That's why I say these Qatar protests are all hypocrisy.
There's no consistency.

While there may have been bribery in the Russian WC award, and that
cannot be excused, there are some notable differences with Qatar.
Eastern Europe had never hosted a WC before, and it has always been a large and prominent hotbed of global football. Russia is the 9th
largest country in the world by population, and the largest by land
area. They had pre-existing bases for both footballing and
non-footballing infrastructures. They had hosted the Olympics and
other global sporting events. They have their own footballing history
and passionate fanbases.

Qatar shares none of these traits. They have a population smaller
than Lithuania and land area smaller than Montenegro. Their
footballing infrastructure prior to 2010 was probably equivalent to
the 4th tier of a European league system. They had never even
qualified for a WC.

While the Russian award may have been an injustice, the Qatari award
is an abomination.

Neither should have been granted the right to host the World Cup, but
yes, Russia did have more of a footballing pedigree.

After saying that, I thought the 2018 World Cup in Russia was a great success

Depends how you measure success. The stadiums looked nice and as far as I can recall the mobs of ultra nationalist hooligans the media warned of stayed at home. OTOH, when you see Russia’s behaviour in the international community just four years later,
it surely points toward the World Cup being one of the biggest “sports washing” exercises in history.


RM

and one of the best World Cup tournaments that I've watched.

Let's see if Qatar can match that success...

I don't blame countries for their successful bribery, I blame FIFA for
being so corrupt that they did business that way. Qatar did not deserve
the World Cup by any reasoned football criteria.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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