This is what's hard for me. I sincerely want to boycott this World Cup. I can't give them any money or attention when at least 6500 south Asian workers have been killed as a consequence of building things in Qatar since 2010. Probably double the fatalities if you include African workers too.
Qatar is a fukking disgusting country and their people are scum. I don't want to give them any more of my money than I absolutely have to. I can't boycott crude oil and its products. Nobody can. Even if you buy one single thing containing one tiny plastic component or part, it's possible that the plastic originated from Qatari crude oil.
But I can boycott this. All I have to do is not watch it, live on TV or on social media; not read, listen to, or watch any type of media coverage of it. Nothing that adds to Qatar's and Fifa's bottom lines. I don't even want to watch pirate streams because the streamer is getting paid behind it. Nobody should make a profit from me off this slavery that built Qatar.
I absolutely do not want anything to do with this Qatar World Cup. But here's the thing, it's the World Cup! I see newspaper articles about the group stage draw and I can't help but get excited about it. But no. I must remain strong in my commitment to my principles.
The worst thing that can happen is that the football is amazing and everyone calls it "the best World Cup ever," because if that happens then all the pressure built up on them about the way they treat foreign workers will evaporate. It'll be completely forgotten. It will even in time be denied. That's the power of football.
Some things are more important than football. I hope it is a terrible tournament with minimal goals scores and basically no exciting moments at all. Dull, predictable 1-0s through the group stage and more dull games through the knockouts, followed by a comatose final which goes to penalties after a 0-0 draw. I hope and I pray that the quality of football on show makes it the worst World Cup ever, because that is the only chance for all those workers to have justice