Does anyone know how many players have actually declined to play in Qatar because of this modern day slavery?
Can't be that many because I haven't seen any news about it.
Can't be that many because I haven't seen any news about it.
That 400 million dollars of potential prize money, excluding all the extra ad revenue players might receive for wearing a particular brand of shoe or drinking a particular beverage, is enough to evaporate any morals. There's also the prestige factor, the dream of being crowned the best of the best.
I've heard some stories of teams considering a boycot, but very few of those teams had any chance in getting through the qualification round. It's very easy to boycot an event you don't take part in.
For the sake of sports, soccer teams have ignored the horrid treatment of the locals many times over. FIFA is corrupt beyond saving and the Olympic Committee isn't much different. The real game being played is that of the corrupt, taking money to ensure coca cola and friends can sell ads to enough people.
We've seen massive changes in platform culture online when advertisers got scared of being associated with bad stuff, like with Elsagate on YouTube, so I think the only way to get anyone to care is to threaten the income of the parties involved. Treat any advertisement on Qatar 2022 as an endorsement of modern day slavery and be sure to let the web know how you feel. Maybe, just maybe, when the big companies start to pull out, the teams and players will suddenly find their morals again.
Sibling comment has been modded to death by talking about players coming from countries with slavery, that seems over the top, but another online comment I've read is that in the Middle East, slavery is right there, meanwhile in the West there is a bit of distance. Who makes your clothes (probably underpaid Bangladeshi, or nowadays, Ughyurs), who makes your electronics (probably Chinese factory workers in not-so-great conditions), or who mined the minerals needed for them?
So, if a star player really feels a certain way about this, I'm not sure the money has as much sway over them as it would over someone else, like you or me, or some lesser known player (whose boycott would have much less effect).