As tasty as cheese is, eating it every day may become a wearisome task and gradually degenerate to a loss of appetite.
For over half a century, the arguably greatest sporting fiesta, the FIFA World Cup was hosted only in 3 continents of the World, mostly in Europe, and then North and South America.
This very act made objective pundits question if the World Cup was truly a trophy of global status or perhaps a European Cup designed to suit western teams only.
The act of not rotating the World Cup was perceived as discriminatory and to some as social racism.
From the 1930 World Cup held in Uruguay to the World Cup in France 1998, Asia and Africa despite their enormous size were not considered a worthy host of the FIFA World Cup.
It was therefore in this spirit of accommodation that Japan and South Korea jointly hosted the World Cup in 2002 and South Africa in 2010. Sadly, this bold step in football drew sharp criticism from a number of European apologists who believed the hosting caused a lot of inconvenience including weather and the customary calendar timetable for the event.
What we are now seeing with the 2022 World Cup in Qatar is almost the same inconvenience card played by the intolerant.
Are World Cups meant to be played in Europe alone?
If so, why call it a World Cup? Why not just call it the European Cup so we can all live with the reality rather than embark on a bogus political exercise perhaps.
The World Cup in Qatar is the first time a nation from the Middle East region will host the World Cup. It behooves us to show some respect and support the efforts of the oil rich nation to host the event.
If other nations can cross their region and come to Europe to play under extreme conditions which they are not exactly used to without complaining, why can’t European teams do the same?
It’s also interesting to note that these nations cross their shores, play in Europe with complete respect and adherence to European culture, norms and rules and yet when it behooves on Europe to do the same, we suddenly hear tons of complaints and criticism of the culture of the habitual visitors.
As we continue to advocate strongly for the stamping out of racism and intolerance including through taking the knee in the English Premier League, it’s incumbent on us to imbibe the habit of respect of culture of other nations and not try to truncate their culture or shove ours down their throats in a superiority one-sided contest. This must start with the Qatar World Cup!
