Eimear Ryan: Boycotting the World Cup in Qatar is not as easy as it sounds for fans
COUNTDOWN: The official FIFA World Cup Countdown Clock on Doha's corniche, overlooking the skyline of Doha, Qatar. Pic: AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty
My Twitter feed is in chaos. Since Elon Musk’s acquisition of the social media app in late October, I’m seeing three broad categories of tweet: (1) users announcing their departure from the platform and explaining where they can be found online going forward; (2) Twitter employees announcing that they’ve been fired in one of Musk’s waves of layoffs; (3) parody accounts making fun of Musk, most of which are quickly shut down. So much for Musk’s much-trumpeted commitment to free speech.
There is another trend, on sports Twitter: longtime soccer fans announcing, in sorrow, that they won’t be tuning into the 2022 World Cup, due to kick off on Sunday week. The deaths of more than 6000 migrant workers during the building of World Cup infrastructure, as well as Qatar’s multiple human rights violations (homosexuality is illegal, for example), have made it difficult for fans to feel excited about the upcoming tournament.
