For all that the OneLove armband is something – a gesture, a meaningful display of unity, a shared intent for a better world, a call-to-arms, an advertising slogan – there is something that it categorically isn’t: a rainbow.
At first glance it may look a little like the flag first used as a marker of LGBT+ allyship in San Francisco in the 1970s and later spread across the world like love itself, but don’t be fooled. Only the red on Harry Kane’s arm will be the same hue; the lines of colour spread diagonally.
There’s probably a good reason for that. In April, Major General Abdulaziz Abdullah Al Ansari, the security chief for the upcoming World Cup in Qatar, explained that rainbow flags could be taken from supporters for fear they would be attacked.
As if the flags were all red and being waved in the faces of bulls rather than simply protesting against abhorrent mistreatment of the gay community in a country where male homosexuality is illegal.
“Please, no need to really raise that flag at this point,” was Al Ansari’s message, rather missing the point that displaying allyship is at its most powerful when the aggressors least want to see the display.
So for all the good intentions, the armband sidesteps the one universally accepted symbol of LGBT+ unity. It will be worn for a full season by England’s captain rather than just for the World Cup, but surely longevity would be superseded by immediate impact?
Wearing an offshoot of a rainbow in the Nations League makes it appear as less of a targeted statement towards Qatar’s treatment of minorities and more a vague “wouldn’t it be lovely if we all got along” aim.
OneLove started in the Netherlands in September 2020 with an open letter signed by sixty parties from professional and amateur football. It is clearly a worthwhile and wholesome initiative and it carries with it an important message. But it is only a message and a message is two steps from a gesture. The wish is that football is for all.
Groups of schoolchildren wish. Those without power wish. And wishing takes time; it must be followed by urging, insisting, demanding and, finally, campaigning. But we are 60 days out from the start of the World Cup and we still have no commitment from Fifa on the migrant workers’ compensatory fund that Amnesty have demanded.
For all the lobbying and the pretty-pleasing, we have very little concrete information about the improvement of workers’ rights to an acceptable level. We do know that many of them are paid £1 per hour, forced to work 12-hour shifts for weeks, months or even years in a row without a day off or face the sack. We do know of the working conditions, the injuries and the deaths. The time for wishing passed long ago.
The Football Association’s support for those key issues is welcomed. But it also spent a long time on education and, as yet, too little on action. As human rights organisation Fair Square said: “Coloured armbands are no substitute for clear demands for Fifa. While the English FA’s support in principle for key issues is welcome, it falls well short on the detail and specificity that those affected by the World Cup need from participating nations.”
There must be a single-issue, documented campaign from the FA for the migrant compensatory fund (until now, only Germany of the World Cup participants have done so). There must be a campaign to Fifa not just to lobby for a Migrant Workers’ Centre in Qatar to support new legislation, but for a full investigation into why this was not a prerequisite of them being awarded the tournament.
There is a strong sense of discomfort here, that those in suits and those in shinpads are quite looking forward to getting home from Qatar and forgetting about the moral responsibilities that weigh heavy on their shoulders. England’s players – and even its Football Association – have been placed into a scenario that they could have done without. They have been forced to accept uninvited pressure.
More from Football
Grealish hits back at Souness criticism: 'I don’t know what problem he has got with me'21 September, 2022
String of welfare complaints from parents at Man City girls' academy prompts FA probe21 September, 2022
'After 25 years of being a horrible so-and-so, I want to help others suffering in football'21 September, 2022As such, none of this is easy – certainly far less easy than pithy columns about the subject. How do you balance the greatest stage of a footballer’s career with the requirement to focus on something other than football? How do you ask people to make a difference to the lives of people they have never met when all their own lives have been geared towards these weeks?
That is exactly the regret of awarding the World Cup to a state that has such a poor record on human rights and one that we have known for several years has exploited migrant workers. We are asking footballers, and football administrators, to take a stand while capitalism watches on with its hands behind its back and whistles to its own tune.
It’s also very easy to criticise, and that criticism may be considered unhelpful by some. If you get flak for doing nothing and get flak when you do something, you might begin to wonder whether you can ever do right and whether anything you do will be considered good enough. The FA’s chief executive Mark Bullingham is feeling that more than anyone: “I understand that some people will want us to do more in the same way that my inbox is full of people telling me to stick to football”.
But this is their only chance and standing on the right side of morality is the only choice. Gestures as a starting point for action can be signposts, markers of specific intent. Gestures can also just be gestures, tiny pebbles tossed fruitlessly at a grand palace of power.
OneLove isn’t all you need. Not while some LGBT+ England supporters don’t feel comfortable travelling to Qatar. Not while the state’s migrant workers continue to be exploited. Not when the greatest show on earth comes at a humanitarian cost.
If this isn’t easy, it was never going to be. If action was going to risk geopolitical fallout, that is exactly the point of action. There is still time, but not much. Otherwise the symbol of our protest will be a striker wearing an anti-discriminatory armband that’s not quite a rainbow.
from Football | News and analysis from the Premier League and beyond | iNews https://ift.tt/VqBznJv
Post a Comment