Rights of women, the LGBTQ + community, migrant workers… Gareth Southgate has organized a meeting in recent days with the footballers of the English selection and the staff to discuss the issues affecting the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Captain Harry Kane explained on Wednesday that he wanted to take advantage of his notoriety to highlight these considerations and put pressure. Without however mentioning the idea of a boycott.
“It’s something I’m going to try to do. I think it will send a bigger and more powerful message. This is part of a captain’s responsibility. It is important to talk about these things and not hide. And I’m sure the other guys will be happy to talk about it too. I hope we can have a real impact,” he said at a press conference. “For me and our team, it’s about controlling what we can control and it’s about making sure we do what we can and use our platforms (social media) to help in any way we can. . But you also have to remain enthusiastic about the idea of participating in a major tournament. We will have to learn to deal with it and balance the two. »
The Tottenham striker thinks of his selection partners but also of his club colleagues. He notably mentioned his Tottenham team-mates Hugo Lloris and Son Heung-min, captain of France and South Korea respectively, as well as former club mates such as Wales captain Gareth Bale, in contention for the dams this week.
“There are a few other national captains at Tottenham or maybe you need to talk to other national team captains to see if we can be unified, which we are trying to do. We haven’t talked about that yet but over the next few weeks and months that’s definitely a conversation we should be having because when you’re together as nations and you have that unity in terms of captains , you can send a message”.
“I’m not sure just wearing a t-shirt makes a difference,” says Southgate
Is organizing a final phase of the World Cup in Qatar a fair decision? “That’s a tough question to answer, if I’m being completely honest,” Kane said. It was not our decision, it was FIFA’s decision.
Gareth Southgate, England manager, gave a clearer opinion. “There are issues that potentially threaten our fans when they travel – women’s rights and the rights of the LGBTQ+ community in particular,” he said. Unfortunately, through the discussions I’ve had, I don’t think some of these communities are going to leave and that’s a real shame. »
How to participate in the protest without coming to the end of a boycott while taking advantage of the opportunity to play in a World Cup? This is the whole difficulty of these “contradictory emotions”, as Kane put it. The Norwegian, Danish and German selections have displayed messages on their jerseys in recent months. Not England or France.
“We think the World Cup is an opportunity to highlight some of these issues. We also have to do it responsibly, Southgate argued. I’m not sure just wearing a t-shirt makes a difference. I don’t totally know what we can do in all aspects to make a difference. While the draw for the World Cup takes place on Friday April 1, the English Federation plans to give a voice to migrant workers.