Cod Almighty | Diary

Whilst my Qatar Gently Weeps

11 November 2022

BOTB here. Got that weekend Friday feeling? Match tomorrow? Ooh. Suits you, sir. Localish derby as well, against a team that lost to King's Lynn last week. More on this later. Firstly I wanted to talk to you about the World Cup.

Should the World Cup take place somewhere where homosexuality is illegal? It is an egregious violation of human rights after all. There are many who think it wouldn't be a proper world cup, even that the winners should be expunged from football history. I personally think that would be a shame - after all, England's victory would be struck from the records and they haven't won it since 1966. The UK only legalised homosexuality in 1967, though homosexuals do continue to experience terrible societal prejudice.

Not that I think the World Cup should be in Qatar, of course. It's a stupid place to have it and a stupid time of year to have it. The Guardian, in 2020, stated that 6,500 migrant workers have died 'since the World Cup was given to Qatar' though the vast majority of those deaths had nothing to do with the world cup, so it was unnecessary and unhelpful. Finding figures for migrant worker deaths in other Western countries is rather difficult, presumably because nobody is trying to find out. I did discover that the USA had 700 migrant deaths in 1994 - the year they hosted the World Cup. Multiply that by ten and you get – ooh, 7,000 deaths in ten years, a figure worse than Qatar. (I think we might be comparing apples and oranges here. Ed)

Please don't take this as a defence of Qatar. Everything I've read about it makes me dislike the place intensely. Take it as a criticism of the framing of the Western World as being paragons of enlightened virtue. Wherever it is being held there is blood on someone's hands, corruption at some level, intimidation, bullying and cultural indignation. It's called the world. It's a shitshow.

Luckily our club is run by groovy, enlightened people – now – and we can look forward to a corruption-free local derby tomorrow against the Donkeys, as they are fondly known. Given our respective cup adventures last week we ought to be going in as the more optimistic team – but then, last weekend, who would have predicted those outcomes? I don't want to rain on anybody's strawberries, as last week's victory over Plymouth was undoubtedly a great performance, but the Plymsolls were – shall we say - off their game. They clearly weren't in the right frame of mind (or, um, 'headspace' as the kids say). I think tomorrow will be a much, much tougher kettle of fish. Incidentally, without googling it, can anyone tell me what the fish are doing in a kettle? No cheating! After a couple of tired-looking away defeats, three points would suit us, sir. Fingers crossed, sir. Ooh.

Lastly, what have Ian Botham, Kevin Keegan and Kevin Moore got in common? They all feature strongly in the life story of ex-Town pro Bernard Mooney. Next week, in your super soaraway CA, you can read an interview with the local football legend, and it's a cracker. You can read it whilst you're boycotting the World Cup, if you like. I bet you take a sneaky peak, though.