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Colin Sheridan: The beautiful game has been hijacked by moral abdication

The longer Fifa refuses to act in sanctioning Israel, the country that’s currently invading and bombing Lebanon, as well as committing a year-long genocide on the Palestinian people, the more morally bankrupt it becomes

Mon, 14 Oct, 2024 - 07:30

Colin Sheridan

Colin Sheridan is a writer and columnist. A former officer in the Irish Defence Forces he has extensive deployment experience as a peacekeeper with the United Nations, having lived and worked in the former Yugoslavia, West Africa, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Palestine.

Five years ago, in a sad foreshadowing of what was to come, I attended a World Cup qualifier behind closed doors at the Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium in the suddenly famous southern suburbs of Beirut.

Lebanon were playing North Korea, and though it was late 2019 and some months before the covid pandemic would make empty stadiums the new normal, the ground was silent for an entirely different reason, save for some police, the extended squads of each team, and a smattering of press.

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