“If you don’t like it, don’t watch it!”
“It’s their culture, who are you to tell them otherwise?!”
“Haven’t you seen the human right abuses in the Middle East, Russia & China?!”
Let’s be real- when Sepp Blatter revealed Qatar to be the hosts of 2022 FIFA World Cup back in Dec 2010, most western media reacted in horror. But frankly, the occurrence of a country with little football history being awarded a World Cup, as long as they had more money than rival bids, was always inevitable.
But why is a boycott of this year’s FIFA World Cup hypocritical and futile?
After all, if you return to watching Premier League and Champions League games like normal, when club football resumes post-Qatar, I’m going to explain why “boycotting” football’s biggest event will achieve nothing long term and do nothing to improve the sport’s pulverised ethics. I’ll explain…
When the English Premier League and UEFA Champions League replaced the former English First Division and European Cup in 1992, the road to football’s transformation into a plaything for rich oligarchs began. With the Bosman ruling being implemented around this time (when a footballer named Jean-Marc Bosman was angry that his then-club blocked his transfer to another club and sacrificed his entire career to force the European Union to change workers’ rights concerning freedom of employment), it was pretty clear that player power and big club power would become unstoppable.
Obviously in the 1980s, there were some signs the above events were possible. Diego Maradona became the first millionaire footballer when he joined Napoli, when Italy had the world’s then-most expensive league in Serie A. In the 1960s, Jimmy Hill (correct me if I’m wrong) succeeded in urging the English Football Association to abolish the maximum wage (something like £20 per week).
And what have a lot of fans done in response to these events?
Not much, except moan and whine about footballers being out-of-touch spoilt prima donnas. Simultaneously, due to a deep love of the sport and loyalty to whatever big club they might support, they keep paying ever-increasing ticket prices to attend games. Of course, I know many fans inherited their love of a certain club from their family members or local community.
But it remains a fact that most big clubs (such as Man Utd, Arsenal, Barcelona etc.) have become like big F1 teams and American-style franchises. They have gone from being the hobby hubs of the community in European working class lives during the late 19th century and early 20th century, to huge multinational corporations who sell their commercial and property rights to the highest bidders around the globe.
Football fans, have gone from deploring increased spending, foreign imports and rearranged fixtures to now demanding their club spend 100s of millions upon young superstars in the making. Our big noisy neighbours have just spent a record breaking £156 million on a Brazilian kid called Blancinho, why don’t we spend £190 million on Ngubinho?!
Have you ever wondered why TV listings call their shows “programs” or “programming”? Modern professional football, just like mainstream media and television, are reprogramming your brains to accept huge cash splurges and creating heroes and villains out of players and managers. And the mainstream media will air so much news coverage about it, making football seem way more important than it truly is.
In the 1990s, La Liga, the Premier League and the big 5 leagues located their fan demographics mostly around their nations. But since then, they’ve transformed from national leagues into global leagues and UEFA Champions League is worth £100 million in TV revenue to the big boys who regularly reach the knockout rounds.
Football bears little resemblance to sports like F1, rugby union or tennis, which have always been funded by elites and rich playboys. Remember the comical Andrea Moda F1 team of 1992? Not exactly what I’d call a team that was ran by the people, for the people (to borrow a populist phrase). Remember blue clay at the Madrid tennis Open? Remember the days when English northern working class men broke away from rugby union and created rugby league, a division which still exists today? Oh yes, there’s also the LIV golf tournament in Saudi Arabia, but at least the sport’s governing body were willing to sanction the mercenaries who attended that laughing stock of a tournament.
Well, here’s a message for football/soccer fans: you have remained willing consumers in this sport’s descent into decadence and creating a new money class.
You should have turned your backs on certain clubs and demanded them to lower prices (£5 per match/£100 season ticket). No-one should’ve spent a single penny on Sky Sports or BT Sports.
A FIFA World Cup in Qatar was always, always fucking inevitable. We keep paying higher prices because of FOMO (fear of missing out), while oil barons pump their blood stained cash into Manchester City, Newcastle United & Paris Saint Germain. American & Russian billionaires playing around with the likes of Man Utd & Chelsea. Real Madrid & Barcelona spreading their brand to every corner of the globe, allowing African, Asian & pan-American fans and authorities to neglect their grassroots and local clubs.
I write this as someone who saw FIFA World Cup as a sacred event when I was 10 years old. My first World Cup was 2002, when it was held in Japan & South Korea. Of course, a lot of the best footballers were already multimillionaires, but the games had a lot of adrenaline and testosterone pumping. England got eliminated in the quarter-finals, but Brazil had the best team. Ronaldo, Rivaldo & Ronaldinho were mouth-watering spectacles to witness.
20 years on, we have footballers complaining about too many games being held, subjecting their bodies to permanent injuries and being exploited by their employers and their football associations.
The last 3 World Cups were held in South Africa (2010), Brazil (2014) & Russia (2018), nations whom should have spent their hosting fees and stadium infrastructure costs on improving their citizens’ lives and eradicating poverty.
Modern sports (football, boxing, F1, Olympics etc.) have become propaganda tools for “sportswashing”. There’s stories of slave labour being exploited and stories of youth prospects in a lot of sports being overworked (and left with McDonalds as their best job prospects when only 2% of apprentices become pro) and even victims of human trafficking. This is particularly in regards to kids from Africa & South America joining fake academies in Europe, only to be sent to some dodgy slave labour factory. Or worse, be coerced into joining a drug gang because their hopes of making money to feed their families back home was scuppered by lies and slave traffickers.
But what did the masses do? Turn a blind eye and wear their national team jerseys during the big games in the hopes of being happy for 90 minutes.
And the Super League bullshit… THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE BIGGEST WARNING SIGN ABOUT HOW THE BIG CLUBS DONT CARE ABOUT THEIR FANS. THEY ONLY CARE ABOUT THEIR STOCK MARKET VALUES!!!
If the working men all over the world want football to be a truly working class sport again, they should do this:
-Rename Premier League and all the EFL leagues as First, Second, Third & Fourth Division. Remove Premier League as a governing body and allow Richard Scudmore and his mates to become investors in Abu Dhabi.
-Besiege all European national football associations to enforce maximum ticket prices for fans and maximum wages for players. No top footballer should be paid more than £200,000 per year, NOT per week. If this is not met, then mass boycotts need to occur until demands are met.
-Sanction all clubs who permit their players, coaches and fans to abuse and assault the referees and his/her assistants. Absolutely disgusting low life behaviour that wouldn’t even pass as acceptable behaviour for criminals and prisoners.
-Enforce a limit of 5 foreigners per clubs (or in Britain & Ireland’s cases, foreigners not born and bred in the British Isles.)
-Ban youth academies from giving apprenticeships to foreign children and adults under 21 years old. This may seem discriminatory, but it may end human and child trafficking which is endemic in Africa, Latin America and Asia, where traffickers and “agents” promise hopes of great prospects in Europe and huge future wages.
-Ban football agents. Make players negotiate their contracts on their terms with only their relatives and friends as assistance.
-Demand all clubs to be owned by local businessmen who are accountable to their communities, not foreign billionaires with dubious human rights abuses and/or connected to investment companies on their CVs.
-Urge all nations to remove their associations from UEFA & FIFA and withdraw from all major events such as the World Cup, European Championship, Champions League, Europa League, Club World Poppa Doms Cup etc.
-If needs be, create non-profit replacements for UEFA and FIFA
-Refuse to renew Sky and BT sports cable packages for big football matches.
-Make all teams host their league matches during 7.45 pm on a weekday and 3.00pm on a weekend. No games on Friday & Sunday.
-Ban European teams from selling live TV or partial highlights coverage to all cable companies worldwide or streaming services such as Amazon & YouTube. Only onsite spectators can watch these games live in person
-Demand all national team matches (England, Scotland, Wales, N Ireland etc.) to be available to watch live on terrestrial TV.
-Urge all major UEFA & FIFA international tournaments to be held in countries that pass human rights laws and require minimal finances to improve their facilities in order to host these events. Merit, passion and excellence should be prioritised ahead of $$$.
-Remember that corporations should not be permitted to exploit you and your fellow fans & citizens for your hobbies, which are at best Bread & Circuses.
CRYSTAL Racing Acid 