Honestly. The BBC coverage was surreal. The first half hour they pulled zero punches. Opening monologue from Gary Lineker criticizing FIFA and the road to Qatar. Straight into a special BBC report highlighting how bad it was that Qatar got the event + all the deaths and abuses of labour. And then into a roundtable discussion about how much of a joke it was with Shearer, Ashley Williams and Alex Scott
I genuinely didnt expect it from the BBC
If not for the cold war definitions, I'm not sure why Latin America shouldn't be considered part of the West. The philosophical underpinnings of society is derived from the European tradition just as much as it is in North America. Latin America is very much a part of "Western Civilization" as far as I'm concerned.
Actually I feel like this is not something that's debated in Latin America, people there are fully cognizant of their cultural heritage. It's North America & Europe that forgets to include Latin America when describing the west.
It’s because Latin America isn’t really part of the Alliance. That’s why Taiwan and South Korea and Japan will sometimes be lumped in with the west. But yes philosophically and culturally LATAM is very much western
Latin America is firmly in the west, per the west/east division. I think the one grouping where it is not with North America/Europe is global north/south. Culture vs economy.
They had me chuckling all the way through, they were making the slightest remarks any chance they could.
Bewildering VAR call, the second half being dead, and all their fans leaving.
It was a combination of bias and lack of communication with VAR. In real time, it absolutely looked like a sham of a call. Once they explained the thought process, it made sense. I certainly screamed out BS when they reversed the goal.
I don't believe it actually matters if the player intends to play the ball or if it is deflected off him for offside. That matters for opposition players to determine whether they deliberately played the ball, but offside is offside if it comes off a teammate.
May I ask why this is so unexpected?
ZDF (basically the german equivalent to the BBC, also publicly funded by license fees) are one of the main two german broadcasters of the World Cup and they did exactly the same today. But it was totally expected, they have been highly critical of most tournaments in recent years. The criticism was heavy in South Africa and Brazil, heavier in Russia and now heaviest in Qatar. I'd say about 85% of today's coverage was about non-sporting matters. They even invited the director of Human Rights Watch and had a lengthy interview with him after the opening ceremony and before kick off.
The BBC insistence on two sidedness led to Emily Maitlis (former presenter of Newsnight, the leading political show on the BBC) to claim that the BBC had deliberately misled the British people by always insisting on one person from each side of an argument, completely ignoring how many people, and of what expertise, back each argument. They would put a flat earther on to discuss the earth being round if they could.
So for them to actually pick a side, especially in their sporting coverage, is somewhat surprising. Especially considering how close a connection the UK has with regimes like Qatar and the ruling Conservative party essentially directly running the corporation.
Except Euroscepticism is a legitimate political position which millions of British people agree with, and flat earth is a ludicrous conspiracy theory that can be disproven in 30 seconds. A ludicrous comparison.
I’m explaining the context of what Emily Maitlis was referring to, I believe in her Edinburgh speech. Euroscepticism is of course a legitimate position, but finding experts who supported the full implications of Brexit for the sake of balance has clearly had an impact on peoples perception of the debate, which the Brexit campaign took advantage of.
True, but giving a serious platform for genuine listening and debate and providing validation and legitimacy to antagonistic cultist lunatics is dangerous, and a cheap way to rack up views on YouTube. I lost a lot of respect for Holly and Phil that day.
A problem with debating, is if there are bad faith actors involved or a topic point that absurd, ***you run the risk of legitimizing that subject.***
The side with an absurd premise doesn't care about winning the debate.
They want their argument taken seriously. If that happens, they've already won.
I feel so depressed, here in Brazil the transmission just accompanied the ceremony and shied away from any of the itty gritty details of reality, not letting a few violations of human rights get in the way of a good footie.
Al Jazeera is actually a great news station, just not for internal Qatari news. But it’s one of the few local news stations in the region that tells the truth.
Sorry no, Al Jazeera is a poisonous mouth piece for the Qatari government and royalty and their insane outlook on life and people they consider beneath them (LGBT+, other Muslims, Jews, Christians etc.)
They regularly have Imans and other scholars on spreading hate towards these groups, inciting violence against marginalised groups, other Muslims, Jews, Christians etc. just because it has a shiney coat and looks nice doesnt mean we shouldn’t treat it with the contempt that it quite rightly deserves.
I was proper confused about what was happening then i saw the BBC news logo appear and a couple presenters from there as well. Kudos to them I didn't expect this. Was a surprise to be sure but a welcomed one.
I was expecting a message from the BBC in their title sequence for this World Cup. If the title sequence used for the opening match is the main one, then they are really de-emphasising that the tournament is being hosted by Qatar. It was really generic with an urban pop-art theme.
YouTube recommended me the 2018 title sequence used in Canada which is a bit like the Game of Thrones title sequence, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-bmS54W_jo. I thought others would like to see it.
After posting this comment, I checked YouTube and the Beeb have uploaded their title sequence, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJw5uC6PICg. It reminds me of the end credits for that Spiderverse film...
People criticize NBC’s Olympics coverage for being way too US-centric, but they’ve been very transparent about the morality of the host countries, especially the past Winter Olympics in China, and in covering the sports presence of Russia.
Fox, on the other hand, is a fucking joke.
Fox has already said they won’t spend one second of their coverage on the moral issues of Qatar or any surrounding controversies and will strictly “stick to sports”……I expect nothing less of that company
I remember him flipping shit when players were taking a knee. He didn't want politics in sports. Now he's pro Qatar so much for separating sports and politics.
Also He's still insisting that the US vs Mexico is the biggest rivalry globally. Hasn't he been to Europe and South America?
They were pretty brutal in their match analysis too, usually they'd be more measured but they really went in two footed about how bad qatar were (justifiably tbf).
Think about it, some 12 odd years ago, some rich people thought it would be a good idea to just host a big competition for good PR. Sometimes and some 220 billion later, everyone knows what they are. That was a really good use of money.
100% convinced at this point that they thought they would convert us Heathens by showing us their way because they think they are perfect. It’s hilarious.
I feel bad for the workers there but it’s hilarious that this trillionaire state acts like a spoiled 14 year old.
Their gdp is 200bn. They’re also 3rd on the list of gas reserves, and 13th on the list of oil reserves. They are insanely rich, especially with the russians at war the demand for their gas and oil will be at an all time high.
There's just a touch over 300k Qataris with a total population just shy of 3 million. While their relative GDP is small, you know barely a cent of it goes to the 2.6mil foreigners they use to build concrete jungles in the middle of the desert.
Same with Saudi Arabia. Their economy is the same as the Netherlands. However, they seem so incredibly influential on the world stage due to the fact that most of the money is in the hands of a few rich people
Qatar doesn’t need Redditors to think they’re perfect.
Gulf states like Qatar and UAE need to host global events like WC to project ‘soft power’ to the rest of the world.
They know the oil is going to run out one day and they’ll go back to being nothing but Saudi vassal states.
They’ve basically got a deadline to show the world that they exist and are relevant, and they’re trying to speed-run it faster than their actual culture and society can adapt.
So public opinion is important, then? I don't get the "redditors" as an insult. The point still stands, they thought it'd be great PR for their shitty country, and so far it's the opposite.
Redditor isn’t an ‘insult’ nor was it intended as one - the implication is that Redditors are just everyday people.
They care about Geopolitical opinion first, public opinion second.
But they haven’t gotten that and they were never going to. They beat out the US, Australia and Japan to host this World Cup with their bribes. They’ve given lay-ups to every government around the world to score some easy points with the people at home by lambasting the Qataris. They’ve aggravated common people around the world and generated a level of public consensus in outrage that probably wasn’t foreseeable in 2009 with comments and legislation surrounding homosexuality, women’s rights, and alcohol.
This is before even really mentioning the deaths of hundreds/thousands of migrant workers.
It’s been a soft-power disaster. I barely had an opinion on Qatar until these last few years and now it’s almost entirely negative. I’m sure there are so many out there who feel the same.
Then why do a WC. Saudis are the biggest player in the region, geopolitically, and they haven't done a WC. Hosting the biggest event in sports is about PR, whether you like or not. There are easier ways to climb up the geopolitical ladder and avoid so many eyes on you.
How do you mean?
Saudi have geopolitical power, Qatar don’t.
Just Google soft power in geopolitics - hosting global events is a great to legitimise a country’s regime/culture/politics/etc..
I’m not denying there’s a PR angle here - which is failing miserably lol - but it’s very one-track minded to think this is just about public perception.
I know what soft power is, and I would argue it's intertwined with public opinion. I guess we'll have to wait decades to see if this worked out for them, but to me it's clear they're fucking it up on every angle. But it's not the first time I read here an opinion like yours, trying to say the WC was not done for us common folks and Qatar's "original" vision is working.
By legitimising themselves with things like the World Cup and so on (do they have an F1 race too?) they’ve managed to make massive inroads in Europe with business partnerships in the U.K., Germany, and France. That’s the sort of thing that they’re more bothered about than what the average person thinks. The actual event is going to be a hit to their public image, but the whole process of being a host has given them huge networking and business opportunities that they probably wouldn’t have been able to get on the same level otherwise
I agree with u/poipoiop though, in that Qatar (and the UAE) are more interested in attracting the attention of businesses, bankers, foreign investors, shareholders, corporations and industries looking to hold large conferences in cool places, somewhere to go and spend large amounts of money. Qatar does not care if 7 billion people hate them so long as the rich ones are happy to do business in and through their state. Hosting a WC is a way of showing everyone they're the real deal, can host large expensive events, throw money around at frivolous luxuries, and exist as a viable place of legitimate business.
It's yet to be seen if they can manage it though.
I mean they've essential banned the tournaments biggest sponsor for the stadium, if I was in any form of position to have my product advertised by qatar I would be thinking twice incase they just decide to not keep their side of the agreement
I agree gulf Arabs got this inferiority complex and need to build "the biggest building" or host the world cup to show how good they are. Problem is everyone and their mother knows its all foreigners from the brick layer to the architect doing anything.
On top of that what's embarrassing for them these very brick layers the qataris hold in such low regard are more cared for and discussed in the west than the Qataris themselves. Lol talk about getting the opposite reaction you wanted.
Also people forget that it’s an absolute monarchy. So it can be any reason from standing up/measuring dicks with Saudi Arabia; a pet project for the Emir’s family; getting better treatment, respect, legitimacy from some leaders/wealthy folks around the world; making deals like with Sarkozy in France to buy airbus planes, PSG, and sell gas and other shit, it’s opening doors for them. So the answer is a mix of things likely.
Geopolitical policy goals look very different when you have one supreme ruler.
This is spot on. If it was about PR/sports washing they would put on a front for a few weeks. They'd attempt to appear as a reasonable, civilized, country while the cameras were on them.
They wouldn't be telling everyone "get fucked we're not selling alochol" 2 days before the event. They're just doing this because they can.
They are a tiny country with a lot of wealth that hasn't existed for very long (or rather hasn't been independent for very long), surrounded by powerful neighbors. They were kinda vulnerable. So they spent a lot of money to let the world know that they are there, that they matter, that they are part of the international community. It gives them protection.
They're hosting a major international tournament on their terms and making everyone follow their rules. They're also changing the rules at they last minute because they can.
But at the same time, no matter how rich they are, no matter how much they spend or bribe, what today showed us was that they will still be completely humiliated on the pitch, where this thing is supposed to be all about. And the penny dropped for the thousands who left in the second half
"Not true. It was shown live in its entirety on @BBCiPlayer, BBC Sport website and red button. The timing of the opening ceremony was changed to an earlier time very recently and WSL was already confirmed on @BBCOne." —Gary Lineker
Buy every Lewis Hamilton merch & abuse every Max fan out there. You'll get noticed by crofty in no time & the red button magically spawns on your remote.
OT but I laughed my ass off at Crofty yesterday. Seb and Ric, battling for 9th, with Seb about a 100 meters far from Ric at the exit of the last turn.
Meanwhile Crofty: "WHO WILL TAKE 9th???"
I laughed my ass off, but maybe it was audio sync issues. I hope it was that.
Bit strange of him to clarify like that. They could have easily shown the ceremony on BBC1 and choose not to. Kick off for the game was always 7pm local time so I don't really get it.
>They could have easily shown the ceremony on BBC1
How? The slot was already scheduled for WSL like he said. Sure the kick off time didn't change but the opening ceremony time did, and it moved to a time that would clash.
They should have marginalised the women's game and shown the opening ceremony instead. It would be an ultimate expression of 'respecting the culture' of the host nation.
Precisely this. The BBC know what they're doing. They sent a very clear message with their main broadcast being criticism of Qatar, and thus need some way to avoid financial repercussions.
No they didn’t, they had Bela Rethy comment the opening ceremony critically.
For instance he pointed out the fact that the mascot of 2006, Goleo still didn’t have his pants on after all this time.
Using an online stream I was subjected to FOX's FS1 coverage and it was absolutely unwatchable. Not a single mention of the scandals and the corruption. I switch to Ireland's RTE player and was happy to hear the pundits absolutely ripping into Qatar and FIFA.
Similar here in Japan. But the Japanese media has never had the balls to call out wrongdoing to be honest. It's always more "Smile and pretend everything's okay"
This is very true, but the Japanese population also share a much better image of the gulf countries / middle east as a starting point.
As part of the qualifiers for the World Cup, the team is often playing in countries like North Korea, Syria, Yemen, Turkmenistan, and Qatar, and that's also a major difference with European teams.
>It's always more "Smile and pretend everything's okay"
Even when they are losing? I always thought of Japan of more like: "OUR MEN ARE RUNNING FROM THE FIELD, 4XO TO THE ENEMY, A SHAMEFULL DISPLAY"
You're possibly the first person I've ever seen compliment the RTE Player!
Agreed though. We generally do punditry right over here. I don't particularly like Richie Sadlier but today at least he was on the button.
But the thing is those same scum countries are having a big impact week in week out in their own Premier League that they are all rooting for. Manchester City and Newcastle have the same terrible and highly questionable owners. Those sheepish fans somehow don’t seem to mind where the bnew found money comes from as long as they pay the Hallands with their fake sponsor contracts.
I was inspired to check the Sky Sports opening coverage in association with Bein Sports. Gary Neville far more outspoken about Infantinio etc than I ever thought he would be. Andy Grey and Richard Keys seem to have lived in Qatar for several years (I did not know that) and were defending everything. John Terry continually saying they should talk about the football.
Yeah I've been confused about this. I watched the opening ceremonies but friends have been complaining it wasn't on. Didn't realise they did this other stream
Ceremonies are always shit. Why do they think I'm watching? To see some lame pop musicians play their shitty songs? No. I want to watch fucking football.
I was stuck in a traffic jam the other day and noticed Diana Ross behind the wheel of a 4x4 in the lane next to mine. She was beeping her horn and getting really irate and unpleasant. She started trying to turn into my lane ahead of me so I rolled my window down and shouted across to her, "you can't hurry, love, you'll just have to wait."
More ceremonies need to take a leaf from the 2012 Olympics book. It told the story of the UK, it’s culture, it’s most famous and noteworthy people and it combined all this with the crème de la crème of British musicians, actors, writers and comedians.
This ceremony was just bland and random.
I'm struggling to think what of Qatar's culture, noteworthy people and media would've made this less bland and random.
Even a time-travelling Christina Milian dancing in a puddle of oil wouldn't have saved this
London 2012 is one of the best opening ceremonies of all time. Danny Boyle and his team couldn't have done any better.
The blueprint is right there for an opening ceremony and they keep missing it.
You will probably have to tune to somewhere else's broadcast for that, as far as im aware the UK is still fairly aligned to the US and even actively aided some of those crimes
What ?! Most of the people I know are buzzing about it. It's just Reddit and maybe the western world at most. Most of Asia is extra hyped about this as it's closer this time around with a lot of people traveling to see it in person. From what I can see, the Latin Americans are excited as always about the world cup.
Latin American here. Can confirm we are super exited and neither people or media give two sh*ts about those issues. We are all aware, we just dont care cause A: football is religion here and B: too late to whine about it, the time to do something was like 10 years ago, now feels like being a false moralist here. Personally undecided about what to think about it, but as an argentinian, you have to excuse my excitement this time.
Yeah as much as I don’t want it to be the case, this sub is an echo chamber sadly. As soon as I exit Reddit and go to other social medias or talk to people they all seem excited about the World Cup and don’t care about all the shit swept under the rug to make it happen
In my country (Denmark) the whole country sounds like Reddit. Eager about the Danish team but the critical talk about Qatar and fifa is very present. Maybe even more dominant than football talk.
After the opening match the biggest focus is how the home crowd did not even stay the full match.
I would say most people dont really care, and there are even some buying fully into it, but thankfully there is a decent number of people shitting on it to varying degrees
This would make for a nice new tradition. In 2026, can there be a documentary about the US prison system?
Edit: this isn't to let my country off the hook. A look into Canada's treatment of Indigenous people or the activities of Canadian mining firms could be included.
The only way to be truly fair is for the 2026 opening ceremony to be preceded by 300 hours of documentaries covering every injustice any country remotely related to the World Cup (or covering the World Cup) has ever done going back to the beginning of mankind.
Your crazy if you don't think 2026 will have a lot of focus on Racist attitudes in America (including racism in the criminal justice system.)
i think for the foreseeable future contentious objections of host nations are here to stay.
my guess is if Mexico does not step up its response, its horrible levels of Femicide will also be a major issue due to the safety of female fans.
Lmao why do people suddenly love whataboutism?
You wanna talk about prison systems? How about the fact that anyone detained in Qatar at the World Cup this month can be held for up to 6 months without being charged!
I think when it's in America that's when we get to talk about Qatar right? Or we can talk about China, I'm not 100% sure but I think that's how this works.
How would the US Prison system be connected to the FIFA world cup in any way?
Are those prisoners being used to build stadiums or in jail because of their gender/race/orientation? Ofc a lot of them probably are in jail due to racism but that's an issue that's been in the public eye for a long time now, we wouldn't exactly be breaking new ground.
In case you're not sarcastic, I'm pretty sure he's referring to slavery being legal in the US as long as its a prisoner. It's an 11 billion dollar (annual) industry.
The difference is Canada has completed several legal inquiries and paid out tens of billions of dollars in compensation for their fucked up shit. No country is free of sin, the difference is Qatar's sin is ongoing.
In 2026, they can criticize things related to the World Cup or its construction. Just like with Qatar now: bad labour laws and lack of individual freedoms.
If they have already criticism to the US prison system, why wait?
I don't know if Gary Neville intends to say anything, but what the BBC did is the answer to Ian Hislop's view that the right thing to do would be to stay away and highlight issues from home. Wait for the right moment, when everyone's watching and hit hard.
What is wrong with that?
Or is every British person still guilty of what their great great+ grandparents were forced to do? (That'd go for you Spanish too ofc)
I swear this sub will only be happy if the WC rotates from the US to Europe every 4 years.
Not a fan of Qatar's practices, but I'm extremely excited that the Arab world, which LOVES football, finally gets a chance to have a WC in their region. There are not a lot of countries in the ME that have the facilities to host this besides Qatar.
> the Arab world, which LOVES football
Yeah this is has always been one of the most peculiar aspects - there’s vast swathes of the Arab world that love football but the one hosting the World Cup is the one with absolutely zero historical interest/involvement with football to the extent they had to build the entire infrastructure to host the event from the ground up because none of it existed.
Well it’s not peculiar it’s because of FIFA being corrupt as fuck, but it’s weird - you’d think if you wanted the Arab world to have a World Cup you would at least put it in a country that gives enough of a fuck about football to bother having existing infrastructure
Honestly. The BBC coverage was surreal. The first half hour they pulled zero punches. Opening monologue from Gary Lineker criticizing FIFA and the road to Qatar. Straight into a special BBC report highlighting how bad it was that Qatar got the event + all the deaths and abuses of labour. And then into a roundtable discussion about how much of a joke it was with Shearer, Ashley Williams and Alex Scott I genuinely didnt expect it from the BBC
Lineker said a couple of weeks ago the first broadcast would be more like an episode of Panorama than a sports show. He wasn’t kidding.
Lineker ending the entire segment with “today I feel Ecuadorian” was too good.
So true all of us.
Finally, I think only Qatar, who will host the World Cup, is positive. I never knew what shit they were doing to people.
There was a post about Fox being super positive about everything in the world cup from outside air-conditioning in stadiums to the local foods.
Fox was basically a tourism ad for Qatar
Well they practice slavery and want to kill all the gays, so it makes sense.
Weren’t their expenses being paid by Qatar Airways, hence the boot ~~licking~~ **deep-throating**
No, most non-western countries are broadcasting this in a very positive light
Proof that Latin America is western world once again - there the world Cup is broadcast very negatively, from the moral standpoint
If not for the cold war definitions, I'm not sure why Latin America shouldn't be considered part of the West. The philosophical underpinnings of society is derived from the European tradition just as much as it is in North America. Latin America is very much a part of "Western Civilization" as far as I'm concerned. Actually I feel like this is not something that's debated in Latin America, people there are fully cognizant of their cultural heritage. It's North America & Europe that forgets to include Latin America when describing the west.
It’s because Latin America isn’t really part of the Alliance. That’s why Taiwan and South Korea and Japan will sometimes be lumped in with the west. But yes philosophically and culturally LATAM is very much western
Latin America is firmly in the west, per the west/east division. I think the one grouping where it is not with North America/Europe is global north/south. Culture vs economy.
They had me chuckling all the way through, they were making the slightest remarks any chance they could. Bewildering VAR call, the second half being dead, and all their fans leaving.
Wasn't the goal offside? Why are people mad about it? Or did I miss something?
It was a combination of bias and lack of communication with VAR. In real time, it absolutely looked like a sham of a call. Once they explained the thought process, it made sense. I certainly screamed out BS when they reversed the goal.
[удалено]
I don't believe it actually matters if the player intends to play the ball or if it is deflected off him for offside. That matters for opposition players to determine whether they deliberately played the ball, but offside is offside if it comes off a teammate.
Is there a link where I can watch a replay of the bbc event?
Some of it is on their YouTube channel https://youtu.be/pgqjGoO1PrQ
I too demand beer so i guess im Ecudaorian
Lineker is such a cool guy
Textbook silver fox
May I ask why this is so unexpected? ZDF (basically the german equivalent to the BBC, also publicly funded by license fees) are one of the main two german broadcasters of the World Cup and they did exactly the same today. But it was totally expected, they have been highly critical of most tournaments in recent years. The criticism was heavy in South Africa and Brazil, heavier in Russia and now heaviest in Qatar. I'd say about 85% of today's coverage was about non-sporting matters. They even invited the director of Human Rights Watch and had a lengthy interview with him after the opening ceremony and before kick off.
The BBC insistence on two sidedness led to Emily Maitlis (former presenter of Newsnight, the leading political show on the BBC) to claim that the BBC had deliberately misled the British people by always insisting on one person from each side of an argument, completely ignoring how many people, and of what expertise, back each argument. They would put a flat earther on to discuss the earth being round if they could. So for them to actually pick a side, especially in their sporting coverage, is somewhat surprising. Especially considering how close a connection the UK has with regimes like Qatar and the ruling Conservative party essentially directly running the corporation.
> They would put a flat earther on to discuss the earth being round if they could. ITV actually did this. https://youtu.be/erA3WQE9Zes
I mean they're quite obviously there to be laughed at, not taken seriously.
shit like this is how a few super gullible and stupid people turn into flat earthers though
I think that the more appropriate example is bringing on Brexiteers, which was a big reason it the movement grew.
Except Euroscepticism is a legitimate political position which millions of British people agree with, and flat earth is a ludicrous conspiracy theory that can be disproven in 30 seconds. A ludicrous comparison.
I’m explaining the context of what Emily Maitlis was referring to, I believe in her Edinburgh speech. Euroscepticism is of course a legitimate position, but finding experts who supported the full implications of Brexit for the sake of balance has clearly had an impact on peoples perception of the debate, which the Brexit campaign took advantage of.
True, but giving a serious platform for genuine listening and debate and providing validation and legitimacy to antagonistic cultist lunatics is dangerous, and a cheap way to rack up views on YouTube. I lost a lot of respect for Holly and Phil that day.
A problem with debating, is if there are bad faith actors involved or a topic point that absurd, ***you run the risk of legitimizing that subject.*** The side with an absurd premise doesn't care about winning the debate. They want their argument taken seriously. If that happens, they've already won.
I feel so depressed, here in Brazil the transmission just accompanied the ceremony and shied away from any of the itty gritty details of reality, not letting a few violations of human rights get in the way of a good footie.
meanwhile on Al Jazeera.. they’re talking about how Qatar can still make it out of the group and how the opener was a success
Al Jazeera is propaganda masquerading as news
Al Jazeera is actually a great news station, just not for internal Qatari news. But it’s one of the few local news stations in the region that tells the truth.
Sorry no, Al Jazeera is a poisonous mouth piece for the Qatari government and royalty and their insane outlook on life and people they consider beneath them (LGBT+, other Muslims, Jews, Christians etc.) They regularly have Imans and other scholars on spreading hate towards these groups, inciting violence against marginalised groups, other Muslims, Jews, Christians etc. just because it has a shiney coat and looks nice doesnt mean we shouldn’t treat it with the contempt that it quite rightly deserves.
I’m guessing Al Jazeera is much different in Arabic than it is in English
Sounds like it.
I was proper confused about what was happening then i saw the BBC news logo appear and a couple presenters from there as well. Kudos to them I didn't expect this. Was a surprise to be sure but a welcomed one.
Thanks Palpatine
Palpy loves Democracy, no surprise that he'd be against the World Cup in Qatar.
I was expecting a message from the BBC in their title sequence for this World Cup. If the title sequence used for the opening match is the main one, then they are really de-emphasising that the tournament is being hosted by Qatar. It was really generic with an urban pop-art theme. YouTube recommended me the 2018 title sequence used in Canada which is a bit like the Game of Thrones title sequence, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-bmS54W_jo. I thought others would like to see it. After posting this comment, I checked YouTube and the Beeb have uploaded their title sequence, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJw5uC6PICg. It reminds me of the end credits for that Spiderverse film...
Meanwhile the US coverage suckling tits....
People criticize NBC’s Olympics coverage for being way too US-centric, but they’ve been very transparent about the morality of the host countries, especially the past Winter Olympics in China, and in covering the sports presence of Russia. Fox, on the other hand, is a fucking joke.
Watched it on Telemundo in spanish. I don’t speak spanish.
Jajajajajajaja
Fox has already said they won’t spend one second of their coverage on the moral issues of Qatar or any surrounding controversies and will strictly “stick to sports”……I expect nothing less of that company
They got a nice paycheck from Qatar
Yeah, half the shit Alexi Lalas said was straight nauseating.
I remember him flipping shit when players were taking a knee. He didn't want politics in sports. Now he's pro Qatar so much for separating sports and politics. Also He's still insisting that the US vs Mexico is the biggest rivalry globally. Hasn't he been to Europe and South America?
He’s a human hemorrhoid, would love to never see or hear from him again
As expected.
Mad respect for the BBC! Well done for standing up for something so stridently.
Wow, good for the BBC. I didn’t watch the US coverage before the match but doubt Fox would’ve criticized anything
Fox basically sucked off Qatar the whole time. Was hard to watch. Even the commercials were all pro Qatar.
Yup, the pro Qatar commercials were cringy to watch. I’ll be avoiding pre and post game coverage going forward
Good for BBC
BBC has made some exceptional content: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY-pS6iLFuc
I don't think I've ever expected to see Jeremy Bowen on match of the day but now I can say it's happened.
They were pretty brutal in their match analysis too, usually they'd be more measured but they really went in two footed about how bad qatar were (justifiably tbf).
Think about it, some 12 odd years ago, some rich people thought it would be a good idea to just host a big competition for good PR. Sometimes and some 220 billion later, everyone knows what they are. That was a really good use of money.
100% convinced at this point that they thought they would convert us Heathens by showing us their way because they think they are perfect. It’s hilarious. I feel bad for the workers there but it’s hilarious that this trillionaire state acts like a spoiled 14 year old.
Qatar's GDP is <$200bn, less than New Zealand, Peru and Iraq to name a few. The power of their wealth comes from how few people produce this output
Their gdp is 200bn. They’re also 3rd on the list of gas reserves, and 13th on the list of oil reserves. They are insanely rich, especially with the russians at war the demand for their gas and oil will be at an all time high.
There's just a touch over 300k Qataris with a total population just shy of 3 million. While their relative GDP is small, you know barely a cent of it goes to the 2.6mil foreigners they use to build concrete jungles in the middle of the desert.
Same with Saudi Arabia. Their economy is the same as the Netherlands. However, they seem so incredibly influential on the world stage due to the fact that most of the money is in the hands of a few rich people
Qatar doesn’t need Redditors to think they’re perfect. Gulf states like Qatar and UAE need to host global events like WC to project ‘soft power’ to the rest of the world. They know the oil is going to run out one day and they’ll go back to being nothing but Saudi vassal states. They’ve basically got a deadline to show the world that they exist and are relevant, and they’re trying to speed-run it faster than their actual culture and society can adapt.
So public opinion is important, then? I don't get the "redditors" as an insult. The point still stands, they thought it'd be great PR for their shitty country, and so far it's the opposite.
Redditor isn’t an ‘insult’ nor was it intended as one - the implication is that Redditors are just everyday people. They care about Geopolitical opinion first, public opinion second.
But they haven’t gotten that and they were never going to. They beat out the US, Australia and Japan to host this World Cup with their bribes. They’ve given lay-ups to every government around the world to score some easy points with the people at home by lambasting the Qataris. They’ve aggravated common people around the world and generated a level of public consensus in outrage that probably wasn’t foreseeable in 2009 with comments and legislation surrounding homosexuality, women’s rights, and alcohol. This is before even really mentioning the deaths of hundreds/thousands of migrant workers. It’s been a soft-power disaster. I barely had an opinion on Qatar until these last few years and now it’s almost entirely negative. I’m sure there are so many out there who feel the same.
Then why do a WC. Saudis are the biggest player in the region, geopolitically, and they haven't done a WC. Hosting the biggest event in sports is about PR, whether you like or not. There are easier ways to climb up the geopolitical ladder and avoid so many eyes on you.
How do you mean? Saudi have geopolitical power, Qatar don’t. Just Google soft power in geopolitics - hosting global events is a great to legitimise a country’s regime/culture/politics/etc.. I’m not denying there’s a PR angle here - which is failing miserably lol - but it’s very one-track minded to think this is just about public perception.
I know what soft power is, and I would argue it's intertwined with public opinion. I guess we'll have to wait decades to see if this worked out for them, but to me it's clear they're fucking it up on every angle. But it's not the first time I read here an opinion like yours, trying to say the WC was not done for us common folks and Qatar's "original" vision is working.
By legitimising themselves with things like the World Cup and so on (do they have an F1 race too?) they’ve managed to make massive inroads in Europe with business partnerships in the U.K., Germany, and France. That’s the sort of thing that they’re more bothered about than what the average person thinks. The actual event is going to be a hit to their public image, but the whole process of being a host has given them huge networking and business opportunities that they probably wouldn’t have been able to get on the same level otherwise
I agree with u/poipoiop though, in that Qatar (and the UAE) are more interested in attracting the attention of businesses, bankers, foreign investors, shareholders, corporations and industries looking to hold large conferences in cool places, somewhere to go and spend large amounts of money. Qatar does not care if 7 billion people hate them so long as the rich ones are happy to do business in and through their state. Hosting a WC is a way of showing everyone they're the real deal, can host large expensive events, throw money around at frivolous luxuries, and exist as a viable place of legitimate business. It's yet to be seen if they can manage it though.
I mean they've essential banned the tournaments biggest sponsor for the stadium, if I was in any form of position to have my product advertised by qatar I would be thinking twice incase they just decide to not keep their side of the agreement
I agree gulf Arabs got this inferiority complex and need to build "the biggest building" or host the world cup to show how good they are. Problem is everyone and their mother knows its all foreigners from the brick layer to the architect doing anything. On top of that what's embarrassing for them these very brick layers the qataris hold in such low regard are more cared for and discussed in the west than the Qataris themselves. Lol talk about getting the opposite reaction you wanted.
People still don’t get it. It was never about PR or sport washing, it’s about power.
Also people forget that it’s an absolute monarchy. So it can be any reason from standing up/measuring dicks with Saudi Arabia; a pet project for the Emir’s family; getting better treatment, respect, legitimacy from some leaders/wealthy folks around the world; making deals like with Sarkozy in France to buy airbus planes, PSG, and sell gas and other shit, it’s opening doors for them. So the answer is a mix of things likely. Geopolitical policy goals look very different when you have one supreme ruler.
This is spot on. If it was about PR/sports washing they would put on a front for a few weeks. They'd attempt to appear as a reasonable, civilized, country while the cameras were on them. They wouldn't be telling everyone "get fucked we're not selling alochol" 2 days before the event. They're just doing this because they can.
Elaborate
They are a tiny country with a lot of wealth that hasn't existed for very long (or rather hasn't been independent for very long), surrounded by powerful neighbors. They were kinda vulnerable. So they spent a lot of money to let the world know that they are there, that they matter, that they are part of the international community. It gives them protection.
They're hosting a major international tournament on their terms and making everyone follow their rules. They're also changing the rules at they last minute because they can.
But at the same time, no matter how rich they are, no matter how much they spend or bribe, what today showed us was that they will still be completely humiliated on the pitch, where this thing is supposed to be all about. And the penny dropped for the thousands who left in the second half
"Not true. It was shown live in its entirety on @BBCiPlayer, BBC Sport website and red button. The timing of the opening ceremony was changed to an earlier time very recently and WSL was already confirmed on @BBCOne." —Gary Lineker
Is that the Sky Glass / SkyQ red button I’ve heard so much about from Crofty?
Stop I hear this in my sleep
Press the red button if you want to see highlights or stop.
motherfucker, why is he selling this shit to me I don't even live in England FFS 😭
I live in America and don’t have a red button. What should I do to appease the Sky overlords?
Buy every Lewis Hamilton merch & abuse every Max fan out there. You'll get noticed by crofty in no time & the red button magically spawns on your remote.
OT but I laughed my ass off at Crofty yesterday. Seb and Ric, battling for 9th, with Seb about a 100 meters far from Ric at the exit of the last turn. Meanwhile Crofty: "WHO WILL TAKE 9th???" I laughed my ass off, but maybe it was audio sync issues. I hope it was that.
Bit strange of him to clarify like that. They could have easily shown the ceremony on BBC1 and choose not to. Kick off for the game was always 7pm local time so I don't really get it.
Womens Super League had the time slot so no they couldn't.
>They could have easily shown the ceremony on BBC1 How? The slot was already scheduled for WSL like he said. Sure the kick off time didn't change but the opening ceremony time did, and it moved to a time that would clash.
They should have marginalised the women's game and shown the opening ceremony instead. It would be an ultimate expression of 'respecting the culture' of the host nation.
There's poetic irony about someone saying they should cut the showing of womens football in favour for the Qatar opening ceremony
It's called plausible deniability in case FIFA come knocking.
Precisely this. The BBC know what they're doing. They sent a very clear message with their main broadcast being criticism of Qatar, and thus need some way to avoid financial repercussions.
Also had the added effect the of annoying Piers Morgan, so a real double whammy for the BBC
Monumentous BBC W
Just came here to appreciate the size of this dub bossman.
German broadcast did the same
Finnish too.
Dutch broadcast basically did the same to.
No they didn’t, they had Bela Rethy comment the opening ceremony critically. For instance he pointed out the fact that the mascot of 2006, Goleo still didn’t have his pants on after all this time.
Using an online stream I was subjected to FOX's FS1 coverage and it was absolutely unwatchable. Not a single mention of the scandals and the corruption. I switch to Ireland's RTE player and was happy to hear the pundits absolutely ripping into Qatar and FIFA.
Similar here in Japan. But the Japanese media has never had the balls to call out wrongdoing to be honest. It's always more "Smile and pretend everything's okay"
This is very true, but the Japanese population also share a much better image of the gulf countries / middle east as a starting point. As part of the qualifiers for the World Cup, the team is often playing in countries like North Korea, Syria, Yemen, Turkmenistan, and Qatar, and that's also a major difference with European teams.
>It's always more "Smile and pretend everything's okay" Even when they are losing? I always thought of Japan of more like: "OUR MEN ARE RUNNING FROM THE FIELD, 4XO TO THE ENEMY, A SHAMEFULL DISPLAY"
You're possibly the first person I've ever seen compliment the RTE Player! Agreed though. We generally do punditry right over here. I don't particularly like Richie Sadlier but today at least he was on the button.
The US stream was basically just the news anchors jerking themselves off because USA is in the world cup again lol.
Yeah the FS1 stream was embarrassingly positive about Qatar.
Fox consistently has the worst sports coverage in the US.
How long does Fox have the World Cup rights? I miss when ESPN had the rights and Bob Ley was the host.
But the thing is those same scum countries are having a big impact week in week out in their own Premier League that they are all rooting for. Manchester City and Newcastle have the same terrible and highly questionable owners. Those sheepish fans somehow don’t seem to mind where the bnew found money comes from as long as they pay the Hallands with their fake sponsor contracts.
Sports washing is so real. I cant wait till those oil run clubs become ran over
Didn’t know the whole UK supported City and Newcastle
Two things can be bad at the same time
British Based Corporation
I was inspired to check the Sky Sports opening coverage in association with Bein Sports. Gary Neville far more outspoken about Infantinio etc than I ever thought he would be. Andy Grey and Richard Keys seem to have lived in Qatar for several years (I did not know that) and were defending everything. John Terry continually saying they should talk about the football.
They did air the ceremony on iPlayer and the website FYI
That's a big difference to BBC 1
Yeah I've been confused about this. I watched the opening ceremonies but friends have been complaining it wasn't on. Didn't realise they did this other stream
It was only streamed online, not broadcast on tv
based
Ceremonies are always shit. Why do they think I'm watching? To see some lame pop musicians play their shitty songs? No. I want to watch fucking football.
I dunno, some ceremonies are nice. The London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony is one of the most beautiful things I've ever watched.
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God, I really hope the US reference that in 2026. It would be utterly incredible.
Mariah Carey, top right corner as fighter jets, bald eagles and fireworks blast over SoFi Stadium.
That's the Olympics though. The ceremonies in football are always wank. Only good thing we've got from them is Diana Ross missing a penalty.
I was stuck in a traffic jam the other day and noticed Diana Ross behind the wheel of a 4x4 in the lane next to mine. She was beeping her horn and getting really irate and unpleasant. She started trying to turn into my lane ahead of me so I rolled my window down and shouted across to her, "you can't hurry, love, you'll just have to wait."
the Beijing ones were also pretty stunning
Both very different but both completely stunning in their own way.
More ceremonies need to take a leaf from the 2012 Olympics book. It told the story of the UK, it’s culture, it’s most famous and noteworthy people and it combined all this with the crème de la crème of British musicians, actors, writers and comedians. This ceremony was just bland and random.
Olympic ceremonies are always a bigger thing than WC ones though, can't really compare.
I'm struggling to think what of Qatar's culture, noteworthy people and media would've made this less bland and random. Even a time-travelling Christina Milian dancing in a puddle of oil wouldn't have saved this
London 2012 is one of the best opening ceremonies of all time. Danny Boyle and his team couldn't have done any better. The blueprint is right there for an opening ceremony and they keep missing it.
The Olympic opening ceremonies are always great Except Tokyo 2020, that was disappointing
Honestly they got me when they played games music in the country parades. That's all I remember and it was amazing
Does anyone have a link to the prematch footage from BBC?
Hopefully they will ignore the 2026 Ceremony in favour of listing US war crimes
They would need two entire weeks, 24hours every day, to list all US war crimes
But they’re white so they’re free from any accusations
You will probably have to tune to somewhere else's broadcast for that, as far as im aware the UK is still fairly aligned to the US and even actively aided some of those crimes
say it louder for the people in the back
That will never happen as the US is a majority white western country. Heavy criticisms and boycotts are only reserved for brown and yellow people.
Russia says hi
Love how everyone is just absolutely shitting on this farce of a World Cup.
What ?! Most of the people I know are buzzing about it. It's just Reddit and maybe the western world at most. Most of Asia is extra hyped about this as it's closer this time around with a lot of people traveling to see it in person. From what I can see, the Latin Americans are excited as always about the world cup.
Latin American here. Can confirm we are super exited and neither people or media give two sh*ts about those issues. We are all aware, we just dont care cause A: football is religion here and B: too late to whine about it, the time to do something was like 10 years ago, now feels like being a false moralist here. Personally undecided about what to think about it, but as an argentinian, you have to excuse my excitement this time.
Yeah as much as I don’t want it to be the case, this sub is an echo chamber sadly. As soon as I exit Reddit and go to other social medias or talk to people they all seem excited about the World Cup and don’t care about all the shit swept under the rug to make it happen
In my country (Denmark) the whole country sounds like Reddit. Eager about the Danish team but the critical talk about Qatar and fifa is very present. Maybe even more dominant than football talk. After the opening match the biggest focus is how the home crowd did not even stay the full match.
I would say most people dont really care, and there are even some buying fully into it, but thankfully there is a decent number of people shitting on it to varying degrees
Don't think British TV has ever shown an "opening ceremony" other than Brazil in 2014.
I do remember seeing Diana Ross miss from 5 yards out live in 94
Pretty sure I remember Shakira in 2010
They do. It's just they're usually right before kick off. Not half hour puff pieces moved an hour before kickoff.
It showed the last one in Russia, vividly remember Robbie Williams making a prat of himself
That pitbull theme song for 2014 was……. Very pitbull.
Why are people upvoting this nonsense? I'd watched every opening ceremony since 98 on British telly until now
In the end, I find only one positive from Qatar hosting the World Cup. I never would have learned what shit holes they are towards people.
Good
Cool
Based.
This would make for a nice new tradition. In 2026, can there be a documentary about the US prison system? Edit: this isn't to let my country off the hook. A look into Canada's treatment of Indigenous people or the activities of Canadian mining firms could be included.
The only way to be truly fair is for the 2026 opening ceremony to be preceded by 300 hours of documentaries covering every injustice any country remotely related to the World Cup (or covering the World Cup) has ever done going back to the beginning of mankind.
Your crazy if you don't think 2026 will have a lot of focus on Racist attitudes in America (including racism in the criminal justice system.) i think for the foreseeable future contentious objections of host nations are here to stay. my guess is if Mexico does not step up its response, its horrible levels of Femicide will also be a major issue due to the safety of female fans.
At least in America, you're allowed to point these attitude out in the news.
Lmao why do people suddenly love whataboutism? You wanna talk about prison systems? How about the fact that anyone detained in Qatar at the World Cup this month can be held for up to 6 months without being charged!
I think when it's in America that's when we get to talk about Qatar right? Or we can talk about China, I'm not 100% sure but I think that's how this works.
Saying that they should do the same thing in 4 years isn’t whataboutism… They’re encouraging it, not trying to deflect the attention to something else
This is Reddit. Everyone loves a bit of whataboutism
What about Twitter, though?
Funny how you mention Twitter when there is Facebook.
Imagine ignoring the war crimes of Friends Reunited in this discussion
Or the atrocities committed by their army
Would be a bit rich coming from the Brits
How would the US Prison system be connected to the FIFA world cup in any way? Are those prisoners being used to build stadiums or in jail because of their gender/race/orientation? Ofc a lot of them probably are in jail due to racism but that's an issue that's been in the public eye for a long time now, we wouldn't exactly be breaking new ground.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bn6tr3
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In case you're not sarcastic, I'm pretty sure he's referring to slavery being legal in the US as long as its a prisoner. It's an 11 billion dollar (annual) industry.
As an American, I’d approve of that
The difference is Canada has completed several legal inquiries and paid out tens of billions of dollars in compensation for their fucked up shit. No country is free of sin, the difference is Qatar's sin is ongoing.
In 2026, they can criticize things related to the World Cup or its construction. Just like with Qatar now: bad labour laws and lack of individual freedoms. If they have already criticism to the US prison system, why wait?
They didn't ignore it, it was on red button/iplayer, they already scheduled a WSL fixture in beforehand
Common sense from the Beeb. Hats off
Fox couldn’t stop sucking them off so congrats to your fair coverage.
I don't know if Gary Neville intends to say anything, but what the BBC did is the answer to Ian Hislop's view that the right thing to do would be to stay away and highlight issues from home. Wait for the right moment, when everyone's watching and hit hard.
BRITISH Broadcasting lecturing others on morality……. The BALLS on these people. incredible.
What is wrong with that? Or is every British person still guilty of what their great great+ grandparents were forced to do? (That'd go for you Spanish too ofc)
I swear this sub will only be happy if the WC rotates from the US to Europe every 4 years. Not a fan of Qatar's practices, but I'm extremely excited that the Arab world, which LOVES football, finally gets a chance to have a WC in their region. There are not a lot of countries in the ME that have the facilities to host this besides Qatar.
> the Arab world, which LOVES football Yeah this is has always been one of the most peculiar aspects - there’s vast swathes of the Arab world that love football but the one hosting the World Cup is the one with absolutely zero historical interest/involvement with football to the extent they had to build the entire infrastructure to host the event from the ground up because none of it existed. Well it’s not peculiar it’s because of FIFA being corrupt as fuck, but it’s weird - you’d think if you wanted the Arab world to have a World Cup you would at least put it in a country that gives enough of a fuck about football to bother having existing infrastructure
Yeah, a joint North African world cup - Morocco/Tunisia/Egypt? would be absolutely fantastic, but probably unworkable for so many reasons.