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‘Cancel your tickets’: Calls grow to boycott US-hosted FIFA World Cup over Trump admin (www.rawstory.com)
submitted 10 months ago by to c/boycottus@lemmy.ca
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[–] 15 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Why the fuck are they willing to come here?

Because, contrary to public/fan perception, most top level footballers are not at all principled when there's large amounts of money and prestige on the line.

Plus the whole "team sport" thing has the downside of peer pressure from other players being a real factor.

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago* (1 child)

    I remember Virgil van Dijk defending going to Qatar saying something along the line of that there are only a few chances in his career to play at such a tournament. So he allowed himself to neglect all moral questions on selfish reasons.

    Later when asked why he wouldn't wear the One World-band is that if he was awarded a yellow card he could risk a game and he couldn't let his team down and claimed that would've been selfish.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    Yeah, I've long since learned to embrace hypocrisy when it comes to football fandom lol.

    I can't stop myself from loving the club and how great most of the players are on the pitch, but apart from weaksauce excuses like this one, three of my favorite Liverpool players (including the one I had previously thought of as the most unselfish "it's all about the collective over personal wealth and glory" player, Firmino) went to fucking SAUDI ARABIA at a time in their careers where they were only BARELY past their prime and could still be a key player for almost any team in the world.

    Add to that the fact that there's at least one Bolsonaro voter and at least one Orban voter in the team as well and I pretty much HAVE to compartmentalize to maintain my own sanity as a fan of the YNWA club for over 30 years 😮‍💨

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