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Qatar ~ Will We Watch Or Not?

Crispin Thomas

Friday, October 7th, 2022

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 oh dear another four years on
and just like Russia and South Africa
the question arises again
Qatar – will we watch or not
and equally will we write poems about it ?
the football that is

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 yeah it’s that time guys
you know with or without fan zones
will our fans behave (those who can even afford to go that is)
to another ever-questionable location ?
where yet again disgustingly overpriced tickets flights and packages
make this a rich men and women’s tournament full stop
and where through it all
England try once more to not be too embarassed

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 so welcome to a Winter World Cup
welcome back to FIFA : (‘Failing In Football Always’?)
let’s say another hello
to their ever-big money-making-and corrupt-ego-fest
welcome to Qatar
a place that controls 13% of global oil reserves
where players will still tackle ridiculous heat
where temperatures reach 25C (77F) in November and December
where human rights barely exist
where being LGBTQ means nothing but a life in fear
where same sex relationships are illegal
where long-unheeded dangerous working conditions
for poorly paid and exploited migrants
has brought suffering debt and death
where alcohol is restricted in public places
and where their strict laws on public behaviour (including swearing)
make us ponder if old-chesnuts like:
‘your support is f****** sh** will make the cut ?

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 so here we are …as ever…confused angry and disappointed
on how-post Blatter and Platini
our once-People’s Game plummets to further depths
and we ask what’s changed…four years on
but just like Russia and South Africa…
the question arises again
Qatar… will we watch or not
and equally will we write poems about it ?
the football that is

Notes

EDITORS NOTE :
Re :Your World Cup Poem 2022 and a few Qatar facts.

As you will see from our header, just like every World Cup since we launched this site in June 2000 (around Euro 2000), we have a section in Crispin’s Corner for World Cup Poems and Wolrd Cup Haiku .There are some there already for Qatar 2022.

Whether it is supported as it normally is with your poems on the football or ignored… or whether it just becomes a home for more poems about all that is wrong with FIFA’s longtime dodgy World Cup selction voting process, we will see ! ? Either way, it’s a hard one ethically for fans.

I for one, here in leafy Gloucestershire, am lucky indeed in that as a Forest Green fan, I can ignore it and go on watching live football and see my team trying to survive in League One throughout this already much scarred competition.

ABOUT QATAR WORLD CUP 2022.
In 2010, Qatar clinched the rights to the World Cup after winning a ballot of Fifa’s 22 executive members. It defeated bids from USA, South Korea, Japan and Australia.

It is the first Arab nation to host the tournament.

Qatar was accused of paying Fifa officials £3m ($3.7m) in bribes to secure their backing, but was cleared after a two-year investigation.

At the time, Fifa’s then-chairman, Sepp Blatter, supported Qatar’s bid, but has since said the organisation may have made the wrong decision.

The World Cup finals are being held between 21 November and 18 December – when temperatures in Qatar usually reaches 25C (77F).
Had the finals been held in June and July, as they normally are, the matches would have been played in temperatures exceeding 40C and possibly reaching 50C.

Qatar initially proposed that it would host the finals during the summer in air-conditioned enclosed stadiums, but the plan was rejected.

Where next ? The moon?

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Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/qatar-will-we-watch-or-not/