Qatar World Cup: Is western grandstanding hypocritical? | SpectatorTV

Gianni Infantino, the president of Fifa, says that Europeans should apologise 'for the next 3,000 years before starting to give moral lessons' to Qatar. Should we?

Freddy Gray, The Spectator's deputy editor, speaks to our literary editor Sam Leith and contributor William Cook about whether the West is right to lecture Qatar about gay rights and the abuses of migrant workers. Are England players responsible for sending a message, Freddy asks.

This is the first episode of The View from 22, a new show from The Spectator's offices at 22 Old Queen Street. Each week, we'll have a look at something that doesn't quite fit into our usual offering on The Week in 60 Minutes.

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[farisal-amer]

If the West doesn’t like the rules of those countries and strongly believe in their own values then boycott them completely, including their oil and gas.

[Adam-peil]

Remember £115 England shirts are made in Thai factories who are paid less than £1 a day. Hypocrisy at its finest

[davidjackson]

The English Premier league has been dominated by money from its start. Man City's success has been due to Middle Eastern money. Chelsea's success was due to a Russian Oligarchs laundered money. Newcastle are Saudi owned. All this recent outrage just shows the nonsense of todays world.

[bani_adam]

Qatar is not to blame for anything - it is the UK who should apologise for enforcing the UK ethics to another country

[onelife]

Football has always been a glorified version of drunken, five-aside racism. In that sense, congrats to Qatar for changing it.✅

[NoMadKid]

Qatar reformed a system that never intentionally targeted to kill these workers as a opposed to the Uk/US full on invasion of Iraq.
Where is the reform?
Exactly.

[Farhaad-llqn]

If you're genuinely concerned about gay rights in Qatar, stop buying gas from them. Don't limit your criticism to several weeks of the World Cup.

[KingKong-eehc]

The hypocrisy is never surprising, it’s got to the point where it’s actually very toe curling emanating

[gerhard]

Speaking as someone who never enjoys sport but can still see its social and economic purpose, either sport transcends politics or it doesn't and if it doesn't then it's lost its purpose.

The habit of turning literally everything into a virtue signalling opportunity nowadays is becoming beyond tiresome.

[FC-PeakVersatility]

Qatar may not be on the list of third world countries anymore but neither were we 60 years ago when homosexuality was still banned in the UK. Just as a large family’s kids are of different ages and maturity, counties of the world have matured to different timescales. We’d not have been particularly grateful to be criticised for our laws on homosexuality despite the last UK restrictions on it only being decriminalised in 2003. There are still people who have not ‘come out’ yet because they fear there’s stigma attached to it.

[bigceazer]

when will woke westerners realise that their values aren't universal. there are other cultures with DIFFERENT values that should equally be respected. lets not forget that the west is not the spokesperson for humanity. huge respect to Qatar for not bending the knee to woke progressive western imperialism. #westandwithQatar 🇶🇦🇶🇦🇶🇦

[jfinn]

Homosexuality was only made legal in the UK in 1967. Maybe Lineker, Shearer et al, should publicly hand the trophy back as a 'show of respect'.

[Lusitania]

The disgust is not about the money, it is because they mix politics with sports.

[bencarter]

Certainly the increase in nations has complicated the relationship between the ideals of sporting contests and the reality of politics for each host. Hypocrisy is true. The purity of the game itself is also true. Tightroping indeed.

[cambo]

It seems painful for the guy in the blue sweater to simply get his words out.

[aspirationalcapitalmanagement]

How is this even a question? These guys with all the slogans are making themselves look so stupid at the moment.

[brokenSnake]

Twice this year, they've been hypocritical and it wasn't even subtle. The Russian war with Ukraine where its so blatantly obvious they benefit from and the world cup in Qatar.

[TheNewYorker]

Pardon my saying so, but Freddy Gray, the Spectator's esteemed deputy editor, looks extremely hung over, as though he has been on a very serious alcohol-fueled bender for a number of days.
Let's hope he's merely recovering from a mild but stubborn bout of Covid. All the best to you.
Sam Leith, meanwhile, looks like he's eaten a barrel of sauerkraut and become permanently soured, while WIlliam Cook resembles none other than Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery movies. To which we can only ask: where, please, is Elizabeth Hurley?
We don't have people who look like this on television here in New York. It's amazing. And yet, in a bizarre sort of way, it brings the discussion down to a human level. It certainly sets Spectator TV apart from the rest of the hyped-up, over-stimulated, downright steroid-filled television programming world that we have here in town.
The result is that I am a subscriber, and I appreciate these programs, too. Thanks to the Spectator for that.

[lenwilkinson]

Well worth watching this programme, with intelligent people who know what they are talking about.

[MrJukamada]

I think the publisher of this channel should look at the comments over here in YouTube to realise that they are a bunch of hypocrites themselves.