Status: 11/18/2022 5:05 p.m
Place, time, circumstances – the World Cup in Qatar continues to cause criticism. Football experts and politicians are warning queer people against traveling to the desert state. Despite the criticism, the chancellor is keeping an option open.
The ball will start rolling in Qatar on Sunday, the first World Cup in an Arab country will begin. There is hardly any anticipation in Germany, instead the start of the tournament is expected with a shrug of the shoulders or with loud criticism.
Politics is also having a hard time with the World Cup: Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants to follow the German games – if his schedule allows it. However, his spokesman did not rule out a trip to Qatar in the event of a German final. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser could arrive in the desert state earlier – she is keeping a trip to the national team’s first game open. “Planning is still ongoing,” said a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior.
Politicians from the SPD, FDP and left called for the World Cup to be used to criticize the human rights situation in Qatar, for example. CDU leader Friedrich Merz spoke out against a TV boycott of the tournament and warned German fans to abide by the laws of the emirate. “Ultimately, the fans are guests in Qatar and the law of the host country has to be respected,” he said.
The sports policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, Philipp Hartewig, said: “Qatar is rightly the subject of public criticism.” The situation of women, queer people and migrant workers in the country is “disastrous”.
Philipp Köster, Editor-in-Chief of 11 Freunde, on the criticism of awarding the World Cup to Qatar
tagesschau24 2:00 p.m., 18.11.2022
“Queer people not safe in Qatar”
The federal government’s queer commissioner, Sven Lehmann, takes a critical look at the tournament. He considers hosting in Qatar a “huge mistake”. “This World Cup is becoming a farce,” explained Lehmann. He advises homosexual, bisexual or transsexual people not to travel to the World Cup. “From my point of view, queer people are not safe in Qatar.”
This is also the opinion of Philipp Köster, editor-in-chief of the magazine “11 Freunde”. As a member of the LGBTQ community, he would think twice about traveling to Qatar. “It could end up in jail or deportation,” he said tagesschau24 interview. He judges the DFB’s one-love captain’s armband to be rather helpless. That has little significance and is not a really clear signal to the organizers.
What are the DFB players doing?
For the players, the World Cup is not only a sporting challenge, because the public also expects a position on the problems in Qatar: DFB President Bernd Neuendorf explicitly did not rule out that the team would also publicly campaign for human rights and freedom of expression – beyond Manuel Neuer’s one-love captain’s armband. “It is discussed in the team that we reserve the right to do so, we have become very clear through the positions,” said Neuendorf.
Football expert Köster expects a difficult tournament: If the German team makes it to the quarter-finals, you can be “very satisfied”.