>__The showy social consciences of Southgate’s England squad seem to evaporate when a place in the World Cup is at stake__
>Will Lloyd
>Monday November 21 2022, 12.01am GMT, The Times
>English footballers used to have an exemption from the realities of life. Nobody expected them to produce anything but disgraceful tabloid headlines. A tacit understanding enclosed them all. These were athletes, not serious people. They were entertainers, not spokesmen. Adding to the gaiety of the nation, not changing the nation for the better, was why they existed.
>Then something remarkable happened to English football. England, for the first time since the 1990s, stopped being rubbish. The charlatans who managed the national team were replaced by Gareth Southgate in 2016. He was thoughtful, kind, sensible. Crucially, he was successful too. He led England to the semi-finals of the World Cup in 2018, and the final of Euro 2020. England’s players changed too. They became as serious as their manager. The tawdry English footballers who defined the Noughties — Ashley Cole and Wayne Rooney — were replaced by a new generation. They did not use their high status to party hard and get laid. Suddenly the realities of life, and changing them for the better, motivated England’s footballers.
>There was the Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford. During the pandemic Rashford began campaigning for free school lunch programmes to have their funding extended. Rashford’s message was simple. “This is not politics, this is humanity,” he tweeted. As the country trudged through lockdown, Matt Hancock ordered footballers to “play their part” by taking a pay cut. He had the Noughties footballers like Rooney in his mind when he said that — but they were gone. Hancock and the government were outflanked by Rashford, who forced them into excruciating policy U-turns. Hancock, meanwhile, became tabloid fodder. Politicians and footballers swapped places.
>A template established itself. Every footballer in England had a cause, a burning injustice to slay. Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling backed Black Lives Matter. Aston Villa’s Tyrone Mings lectured the then home secretary Priti Patel about racism on Twitter. The Liverpool captain, Jordan Henderson, and Tottenham Hotspur’s captain, Harry Kane, started talking about LGBTQ rights. Rainbow laces tied players’ boots — though not a single Premier League player was made comfortable enough by this gesture to come out as gay.
>All at once the game spoke in an ethical voice about inclusion, values and equality. Football no longer stuck to football. Athletes were recast as moral gurus, or “activist super-players”, wise beyond their years. Southgate encouraged the change and guarded his players from criticism. “It’s their duty to continue to interact with the public on matters such as equality, inclusivity and racial injustice,” he wrote in a relentlessly sincere essay.
>These interactions were not quite the player’s own though. Rashford’s school meal campaign was designed by his personal publicist Kelly Hogarth, and his (then) PR agency Roc Nation Sports. The impression of spontaneity that made Rashford appear more authentic than the politicians he battled against was calibrated by 20 “subject-matter experts” who worked for Roc Nation in Fitzrovia. Their efforts helped secure Rashford a 65 per cent increase in Twitter followers, an MBE and a British Vogue cover.
Footballers had not become more socially conscious overnight. With hindsight, you could see this was a sentimental narrative. Rather, the PR industry realised, in culturally progressive times, there were ways to entwine social justice and sport, the better to have clients like Rashford act as a pipeline for the sale of expensive apparel and branded content. Simon Oliveira, a long-term adviser to David Beckham, described Roc Nation’s immaculate work with Rashford as “genius”. He sensed what most of the public and press could not. This was business, not activism. A fresh way to market footballers, and to bank millions doing so.
>At the World Cup in Qatar the sentimental narrative ends. The notion that footballers are more than entertainers, and that football can change the world for the better, is going to its grave. Qatar is a micro sharia state with a track record of beating its gay subjects. An unknown number of migrant workers died constructing the stadiums for this tournament — unknown because either the authorities did not bother to count them or has decided not to disclose the number. There is no moral ambiguity here: English footballers’ social consciences should stop them from playing in Qatar.
>Perhaps their moral qualms were soothed over the weekend by Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino. In an hour-long rant, Infantino defended Qatar’s record on gay rights and migrant workers, saying he knew what discrimination was like. “As a child I was bullied because I had red hair and freckles.” (Helpfully, Infantino added: “I am not Qatari, Arab, African, gay, disabled or a migrant worker”.) Earlier this month he wrote to each of the 32 competing teams, urging them not to allow “football to be dragged into every ideological or political battle”.
>England, whether it is Southgate or Rashford, have been doing just that for years now. It would have been beautiful — genuinely moving — if Southgate and the FA had withdrawn the team from this World Cup because it was being held in Qatar. (And rescued the nation from the agony of watching England bathetically exit the tournament in the knockout stages.) Rashford might have retweeted himself as they refused to board the team plane to Doha: “This is not politics, this is humanity.” The activist super players might have shown themselves to be more than the creations of PR committee rooms. They might have shown that ethics can triumph, just this once, over money.
>“Show me a hero,” Scott Fitzgerald scribbled in his notebooks, “and I’ll write you a tragedy.” There was Southgate’s face as he handed out gifts to a team of migrant workers, handpicked by the Qatari government, at England’s training camp last week. Southgate used to be a hero. He had believed his players could use their fame for good. Yet here they were as playthings, shredding their reputations, roped into an authoritarian government’s attempts to distract from its abysmal human rights record. These England players, who are supposed to be different, and had publicly proclaimed it for years, are not even hypocrites. They’re smaller than that. They are just athletes, and they do what their sponsors and the PR companies expect of them.
>“These decisions were made above us,” seems to be the cowardly line England are sticking to. In a way this is liberating. In Qatar we will watch more than a World Cup. We will watch the shattering of an illusion. Once more, we do not have to expect much from England’s footballers, other than disappointment.
That’s the thing with idol’s, they so often have feet of clay, even the carefully curated ones
>by his personal publicist Kelly Hogarth
But really, they are just a bunch of lads really good at kicking balls, why would we expect anything more of them?
I mean what do you do. The World Cup is once every 4 years, it’s the literal pinnacle of your career. Most people could never be professional footballers. Most professional footballers never play for their country. Most capped footballers never play in a WC.
The issue isn’t that these people both want to play and don’t agree with the host country’s human rights laws. The issue is that FIFA got bribed out the arsehole to choose them despite it.
We’re all here pointing at the thing that’s actually wrong but we can’t do fuck all about it. So let’s shit on a guy that kicks balls good because he tweeted a pride flag so he must never capitulate.
Footballers are high paid slaves with no autonomy – it was obvious when they were first back to work during the COVID lockdowns – their bodies are belong to the business.
The times published 300 anti trans articles in 2020 – they’re in no position to moralise about how footballers aren’t being supportive of LGBT people
That’s because they’re ultimately not. Outside of politicians, I don’t expect any professional to involve activism into their work.
I’m a teacher so I expect myself to respect people’s pronouns/include lgbt in sex education etc. But I’m not an activist or moral champion for every minority, i participate in Pride month and Black history month and Ramadan activities but that’s pretty much out of voluntary respect. I wouldn’t appreciate the pressure these footballers are under when I’m just trying to do my job.
This is Shocked Pikachu reacting to something Slowpoke said!
Oh fuck me this is absolutely cutting off your nose to spite your face. Yes. They’re not perfect activists. They clearly care more about their (possibly) once in a lifetime opportunity to compete at the pinnacle of the sport they’ve dedicated their entire lives to.
But guess what, footballers talking publicly about these issues helps raise awareness of the issues, even if they don’t sacrifice a lot to do so. If you’re serious about promoting these issues why would you go out of your way to attack and dissuade others from providing the help they are, even if that help is limited? It’s just stupid.
To paraphrase the great Charles Barkley, these guys are paid to kick a football, not raise your damn kids. If you want to be mad at someone, take a good look in the mirror. Stop watching football if it means that much to you. I’m not watching for precisely that reason.
The Times has spent the past few years publishing anti trans hate articles. Literally nearly every day. Their faux concern here is arguably much worse than the faux concern of footballers.
As if they should be expected to miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime and a dream come true for any footballer to make a moral stand that ultimately wouldn’t change a thing. Those at fault is are the authorities that arranged this, not the players.
You will get thousand times more pushback and criticism and hate for attempting to be a good person and falling short than just being a massive piece of shit from the start.
Whenever anyone protests or tries to change or improve things its always the same – why arent they perfect?
Oh why arent the England footballers all mostly under 20 fixing intractable problems in foreign nations?!
The only people to ever get any credit and benefit of the doubt are politicians it seems! Ah well, matt hancock made decisions that killed thousands, oopsie!
Its all an attempt to convince us inaction is our only choice.
One good thing about his whole mess is that they can never kneel dor BLM again. They have lost any moral Standing or high ground.
I expect footballers to adhere to a reasonable moral standard because I expect *everyone* to adhere to a reasonable moral standard. The difference between them and me is that no-one gives a toss about anything I do, but they’re in the public eye and have a platform.
So when I ask that footballers take a stand against homophobia and human rights injustices, I’m not asking something I wouldn’t ask literally anyone else. They’re just in a position to actually do something about it.
Give it time, it will probably ruin their claims to be footballers too.
But where are our nations morals going to come from now, you can’t put the burden on the invidiual!
Most people do not stand by their principles when it comes down to it though. People get up in arms about animal cruelty until you mention veganism. People are against slavery but eat food, buy clothes, or use gadgets made by slave labour every day. Anyone can say the right thing but fewer do it when push comes to shove, so we should not be so harsh to judge footballers when they are clearly no more flawed than the rest of us.
Let’s look at the reality to my knowledge 1 active league footballer ever has come out gay. If it was all rainbow flags and inclusivity first under the veneer of righteousness put out then surely the number would be much higher. It’s all a political correct charade to fit in with what’s fashionable imo
Politics has slowly crept into sport and politics has no place in sport.
I don’t think they have to be activists though. They are showing FIFA for what they truly are. It’s not even Qatar that are taking actions against the teams, it’s FIFA and I hope the football associations around the world overthrow FIFA or instate a new global body.
England are hopeful to win this tournament and for a number of the players, they will never get this opportunity again. None of them will want to compromise their ability to progress through this tournament despite the air surrounding it. This is these players one career and this is the biggest moment they will ever face in it.
For me, they don’t have to throw paint at buildings or staple themselves on the M25 to prove a point particularly in a country where people are lashed and executed for much less
Its all only the money.
They fall all over themselves about how horrible xyz is, then they just shut up And play there anyways.
Footballers are not “activists”. They are millionaire muppets with no principles orher than money. All these things are PR stunts.
Mohammad Ali would have refused to play. Even if he was jailed. Hence his legendary status grew
“There is no moral ambiguity here: English footballers’ social consciences should stop them from playing in Qatar.”
This line is the problem with this article. This is the problem with all ‘cancel culture’ – rating an entity on your morality scale and either deciding that it either passes or fails and that everyone else must 100% cutoff all contact if a fail.
The 2018 world was hosted in Russia, 4 years after they annexed Crimea and shot down MH17. The 2014 world cup was hosted in Brazil, a country that is destroying the Amazon rain forest. There were no such calls for at those tournaments for footballers to boycott them, at least not on this level.
But now, anything less than 100% skipping the Qatar tournament at a tremendous personal cost is apparantly the only socially acceptable option, according to this journalist who is getting paid to write articles on this topic.
My belief is the team are out there taking part in the FIFA tournament but are in no way endorsing support for the host nation’s human rights policies – I’m not holding them against it but I’m not telling anyone else what they should be doing.
24 comments
>#Qatar ruins footballers’ claims to be activists
>__The showy social consciences of Southgate’s England squad seem to evaporate when a place in the World Cup is at stake__
>Will Lloyd
>Monday November 21 2022, 12.01am GMT, The Times
>English footballers used to have an exemption from the realities of life. Nobody expected them to produce anything but disgraceful tabloid headlines. A tacit understanding enclosed them all. These were athletes, not serious people. They were entertainers, not spokesmen. Adding to the gaiety of the nation, not changing the nation for the better, was why they existed.
>Then something remarkable happened to English football. England, for the first time since the 1990s, stopped being rubbish. The charlatans who managed the national team were replaced by Gareth Southgate in 2016. He was thoughtful, kind, sensible. Crucially, he was successful too. He led England to the semi-finals of the World Cup in 2018, and the final of Euro 2020. England’s players changed too. They became as serious as their manager. The tawdry English footballers who defined the Noughties — Ashley Cole and Wayne Rooney — were replaced by a new generation. They did not use their high status to party hard and get laid. Suddenly the realities of life, and changing them for the better, motivated England’s footballers.
>There was the Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford. During the pandemic Rashford began campaigning for free school lunch programmes to have their funding extended. Rashford’s message was simple. “This is not politics, this is humanity,” he tweeted. As the country trudged through lockdown, Matt Hancock ordered footballers to “play their part” by taking a pay cut. He had the Noughties footballers like Rooney in his mind when he said that — but they were gone. Hancock and the government were outflanked by Rashford, who forced them into excruciating policy U-turns. Hancock, meanwhile, became tabloid fodder. Politicians and footballers swapped places.
>A template established itself. Every footballer in England had a cause, a burning injustice to slay. Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling backed Black Lives Matter. Aston Villa’s Tyrone Mings lectured the then home secretary Priti Patel about racism on Twitter. The Liverpool captain, Jordan Henderson, and Tottenham Hotspur’s captain, Harry Kane, started talking about LGBTQ rights. Rainbow laces tied players’ boots — though not a single Premier League player was made comfortable enough by this gesture to come out as gay.
>All at once the game spoke in an ethical voice about inclusion, values and equality. Football no longer stuck to football. Athletes were recast as moral gurus, or “activist super-players”, wise beyond their years. Southgate encouraged the change and guarded his players from criticism. “It’s their duty to continue to interact with the public on matters such as equality, inclusivity and racial injustice,” he wrote in a relentlessly sincere essay.
>These interactions were not quite the player’s own though. Rashford’s school meal campaign was designed by his personal publicist Kelly Hogarth, and his (then) PR agency Roc Nation Sports. The impression of spontaneity that made Rashford appear more authentic than the politicians he battled against was calibrated by 20 “subject-matter experts” who worked for Roc Nation in Fitzrovia. Their efforts helped secure Rashford a 65 per cent increase in Twitter followers, an MBE and a British Vogue cover.
Footballers had not become more socially conscious overnight. With hindsight, you could see this was a sentimental narrative. Rather, the PR industry realised, in culturally progressive times, there were ways to entwine social justice and sport, the better to have clients like Rashford act as a pipeline for the sale of expensive apparel and branded content. Simon Oliveira, a long-term adviser to David Beckham, described Roc Nation’s immaculate work with Rashford as “genius”. He sensed what most of the public and press could not. This was business, not activism. A fresh way to market footballers, and to bank millions doing so.
>At the World Cup in Qatar the sentimental narrative ends. The notion that footballers are more than entertainers, and that football can change the world for the better, is going to its grave. Qatar is a micro sharia state with a track record of beating its gay subjects. An unknown number of migrant workers died constructing the stadiums for this tournament — unknown because either the authorities did not bother to count them or has decided not to disclose the number. There is no moral ambiguity here: English footballers’ social consciences should stop them from playing in Qatar.
>Perhaps their moral qualms were soothed over the weekend by Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino. In an hour-long rant, Infantino defended Qatar’s record on gay rights and migrant workers, saying he knew what discrimination was like. “As a child I was bullied because I had red hair and freckles.” (Helpfully, Infantino added: “I am not Qatari, Arab, African, gay, disabled or a migrant worker”.) Earlier this month he wrote to each of the 32 competing teams, urging them not to allow “football to be dragged into every ideological or political battle”.
>England, whether it is Southgate or Rashford, have been doing just that for years now. It would have been beautiful — genuinely moving — if Southgate and the FA had withdrawn the team from this World Cup because it was being held in Qatar. (And rescued the nation from the agony of watching England bathetically exit the tournament in the knockout stages.) Rashford might have retweeted himself as they refused to board the team plane to Doha: “This is not politics, this is humanity.” The activist super players might have shown themselves to be more than the creations of PR committee rooms. They might have shown that ethics can triumph, just this once, over money.
>“Show me a hero,” Scott Fitzgerald scribbled in his notebooks, “and I’ll write you a tragedy.” There was Southgate’s face as he handed out gifts to a team of migrant workers, handpicked by the Qatari government, at England’s training camp last week. Southgate used to be a hero. He had believed his players could use their fame for good. Yet here they were as playthings, shredding their reputations, roped into an authoritarian government’s attempts to distract from its abysmal human rights record. These England players, who are supposed to be different, and had publicly proclaimed it for years, are not even hypocrites. They’re smaller than that. They are just athletes, and they do what their sponsors and the PR companies expect of them.
>“These decisions were made above us,” seems to be the cowardly line England are sticking to. In a way this is liberating. In Qatar we will watch more than a World Cup. We will watch the shattering of an illusion. Once more, we do not have to expect much from England’s footballers, other than disappointment.
That’s the thing with idol’s, they so often have feet of clay, even the carefully curated ones
>by his personal publicist Kelly Hogarth
But really, they are just a bunch of lads really good at kicking balls, why would we expect anything more of them?
I mean what do you do. The World Cup is once every 4 years, it’s the literal pinnacle of your career. Most people could never be professional footballers. Most professional footballers never play for their country. Most capped footballers never play in a WC.
The issue isn’t that these people both want to play and don’t agree with the host country’s human rights laws. The issue is that FIFA got bribed out the arsehole to choose them despite it.
We’re all here pointing at the thing that’s actually wrong but we can’t do fuck all about it. So let’s shit on a guy that kicks balls good because he tweeted a pride flag so he must never capitulate.
Footballers are high paid slaves with no autonomy – it was obvious when they were first back to work during the COVID lockdowns – their bodies are belong to the business.
The times published 300 anti trans articles in 2020 – they’re in no position to moralise about how footballers aren’t being supportive of LGBT people
That’s because they’re ultimately not. Outside of politicians, I don’t expect any professional to involve activism into their work.
I’m a teacher so I expect myself to respect people’s pronouns/include lgbt in sex education etc. But I’m not an activist or moral champion for every minority, i participate in Pride month and Black history month and Ramadan activities but that’s pretty much out of voluntary respect. I wouldn’t appreciate the pressure these footballers are under when I’m just trying to do my job.
This is Shocked Pikachu reacting to something Slowpoke said!
Oh fuck me this is absolutely cutting off your nose to spite your face. Yes. They’re not perfect activists. They clearly care more about their (possibly) once in a lifetime opportunity to compete at the pinnacle of the sport they’ve dedicated their entire lives to.
But guess what, footballers talking publicly about these issues helps raise awareness of the issues, even if they don’t sacrifice a lot to do so. If you’re serious about promoting these issues why would you go out of your way to attack and dissuade others from providing the help they are, even if that help is limited? It’s just stupid.
To paraphrase the great Charles Barkley, these guys are paid to kick a football, not raise your damn kids. If you want to be mad at someone, take a good look in the mirror. Stop watching football if it means that much to you. I’m not watching for precisely that reason.
The Times has spent the past few years publishing anti trans hate articles. Literally nearly every day. Their faux concern here is arguably much worse than the faux concern of footballers.
As if they should be expected to miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime and a dream come true for any footballer to make a moral stand that ultimately wouldn’t change a thing. Those at fault is are the authorities that arranged this, not the players.
You will get thousand times more pushback and criticism and hate for attempting to be a good person and falling short than just being a massive piece of shit from the start.
Whenever anyone protests or tries to change or improve things its always the same – why arent they perfect?
Oh why arent the England footballers all mostly under 20 fixing intractable problems in foreign nations?!
The only people to ever get any credit and benefit of the doubt are politicians it seems! Ah well, matt hancock made decisions that killed thousands, oopsie!
Its all an attempt to convince us inaction is our only choice.
One good thing about his whole mess is that they can never kneel dor BLM again. They have lost any moral Standing or high ground.
I expect footballers to adhere to a reasonable moral standard because I expect *everyone* to adhere to a reasonable moral standard. The difference between them and me is that no-one gives a toss about anything I do, but they’re in the public eye and have a platform.
So when I ask that footballers take a stand against homophobia and human rights injustices, I’m not asking something I wouldn’t ask literally anyone else. They’re just in a position to actually do something about it.
Give it time, it will probably ruin their claims to be footballers too.
But where are our nations morals going to come from now, you can’t put the burden on the invidiual!
Most people do not stand by their principles when it comes down to it though. People get up in arms about animal cruelty until you mention veganism. People are against slavery but eat food, buy clothes, or use gadgets made by slave labour every day. Anyone can say the right thing but fewer do it when push comes to shove, so we should not be so harsh to judge footballers when they are clearly no more flawed than the rest of us.
Let’s look at the reality to my knowledge 1 active league footballer ever has come out gay. If it was all rainbow flags and inclusivity first under the veneer of righteousness put out then surely the number would be much higher. It’s all a political correct charade to fit in with what’s fashionable imo
Politics has slowly crept into sport and politics has no place in sport.
I don’t think they have to be activists though. They are showing FIFA for what they truly are. It’s not even Qatar that are taking actions against the teams, it’s FIFA and I hope the football associations around the world overthrow FIFA or instate a new global body.
England are hopeful to win this tournament and for a number of the players, they will never get this opportunity again. None of them will want to compromise their ability to progress through this tournament despite the air surrounding it. This is these players one career and this is the biggest moment they will ever face in it.
For me, they don’t have to throw paint at buildings or staple themselves on the M25 to prove a point particularly in a country where people are lashed and executed for much less
Its all only the money.
They fall all over themselves about how horrible xyz is, then they just shut up And play there anyways.
Footballers are not “activists”. They are millionaire muppets with no principles orher than money. All these things are PR stunts.
Mohammad Ali would have refused to play. Even if he was jailed. Hence his legendary status grew
“There is no moral ambiguity here: English footballers’ social consciences should stop them from playing in Qatar.”
This line is the problem with this article. This is the problem with all ‘cancel culture’ – rating an entity on your morality scale and either deciding that it either passes or fails and that everyone else must 100% cutoff all contact if a fail.
The 2018 world was hosted in Russia, 4 years after they annexed Crimea and shot down MH17. The 2014 world cup was hosted in Brazil, a country that is destroying the Amazon rain forest. There were no such calls for at those tournaments for footballers to boycott them, at least not on this level.
But now, anything less than 100% skipping the Qatar tournament at a tremendous personal cost is apparantly the only socially acceptable option, according to this journalist who is getting paid to write articles on this topic.
My belief is the team are out there taking part in the FIFA tournament but are in no way endorsing support for the host nation’s human rights policies – I’m not holding them against it but I’m not telling anyone else what they should be doing.