Don’t let the title put you off, I’m not massively into football either. I don’t really have a team that I follow, although I am in possession of my late Grandfather’s QPR mug; and my phone knows where I live, so gives me my local championship team’s results whether I want them or not.
I do allow myself to get swept along every 2 or 4 years for the Euros or the World Cup; and more recently I really did pay a bit more attention for Women’s Euros, what an amazing achievement for Lionesses. They’ve provided inspiration for a generation of girls who might not have had that exposure and didn’t realise what they do, participate in, and achieve. In addition to this, the women’s game just flows better. There’s less falling over and faking an injury, less rolling around clutching ankles or knees; the women get up, and get playing.

So, the forthcoming World Cup, it’s not started yet, (you probably know this), and I don’t know when England are playing or anyone else, I let my husband take care of that. However, this time I don’t want to get swept along, I don’t want to follow the tournament, I don’t really want to watch it, and I also feel that I should be boycotting the major sponsors of this event. Why?
Well, firstly, let’s start with the many thousands of migrant workers who can quite easily be described as ‘Modern Slaves’, I’ll let you look it up. It’s also estimated that 6,500 migrant workers have died in the last 10 years who were involved in the construction of the stadia. That’s nearly 2 a day. That’s a small towns-worth of human lives lost. How many family members devastated by the loss? Where are the bodies? Where is the compensation? Where was the health and safety? I know as Brits we bang on about ‘health and safety gone mad’; and while still not ideal by any means, only 123 workers lost their lives in Great Britain in 21/22, the whole year.
Secondly, let’s look at the fact that being LGBTQI+ in Qatar, is still illegal. this can result in a fine, 7 years in prison, or death depending on your religion. They have said that LGBT fans will be welcome, but continues to punish the people it says are welcome. They should never have been allowed to host the event.
In addition the damage to the climate from the construction and the air conditioning used to cool the stadia is just shameful when it is so totally unnecessary had another country hosted.

So, I’m doing something else for the World Cup. And for the first time I’m only going to hint at it until next post, but it involves food, and you should come along for the ride.