I don’t particularly enjoy watching sports - except for tuning in with friends. This time around, even that little affirmation of solidarity has had the joy stripped out of it - mostly because the USA is making the sport a uniquely horrid “spectacle”. Capitalism is taking the opportunity to normalise all the oversized tickets, environmental damage, racist policing, and God knows what else. So, what is our community’s view on watching this horrorshow play out? Is it something we should be boycotting this time? I can only see this tournament being a way for the US elite to yet again brag about their privilege, to put it mildly. And I can’t imagine that would be good for football as a sport.
Quick edit: I think the question now is not whether we are boycotting it but how we will resist this sportswashing as spectators
Edit: I changed the post title due to the need to convey the message.
I’m less in the world cup mood than I was four years ago. I also don’t like watching sports that much unless I’m watching with others. So I’m going to watch my country’s games in a gay bar, so a more progressive crowd.
All those talks about boycotting Qatar, but I hear a lot less about this world cup, which is very hypocritical. It shows that it was not about human rights last time. Last time I boycotted by not talking about the WC, unless it was to criticize it, this time I’ll mostly do the same. I’ll also not watch a lot of games, but that is mostly because they are in the middle of the night for me lol
This is just emblematic of the universal mask off moment we’re having at the moment. Qatar is genuinely an awful state that widely practices slavery but the criticism was based purely on racism. Where’s the German obsession with boycotting the world cup now?
Tbf there is some discussion in German social Media on whether or not to boycott the World Cup, albeit not as pronounced as it was with Qatar. I see at least one “boycott” comment under pretty much every yt community post from German media regarding the WC. One even had a poll on what games are you gonna watch (a: only Germany b: as much as possible c:boycott or something along those lines). I don’t really care, I’ll watch it and use discussions around how trump is instrumentalizing it to radicalize my friends against the US.
They did the same with the comedy fest in Riyadh lol.
Like don’t get me wrong fuck the gulf states, but it was mainly white americans crying about it.
Instructions unclear, already slobbered washingtons boots clean.
Conditions are ripe for radicalising football fans, I’d say. I think anyone can see the sport being killed this time, and this is a frontier that I think is both old and new at the same time. There is a lot of theory about media and consumption, but sports gets viewed as apolitical when it’s just not.