With the 2026 FIFA World Cup set to be hosted in the United States this summer, calls have grown for a global boycott and ticket cancellations in protest of the Trump administration and its increasingly aggressive deployment of federal immigration agents.“I had to cancel my World Cup plans,” wrote R...
Because, contrary to public/fan perception, most top level footballers are not at all principled when there’s large amounts of money and prestige on the line.
Plus the whole “team sport” thing has the downside of peer pressure from other players being a real factor.
I remember Virgil van Dijk defending going to Qatar saying something along the line of that there are only a few chances in his career to play at such a tournament. So he allowed himself to neglect all moral questions on selfish reasons.
Later when asked why he wouldn’t wear the One World-band is that if he was awarded a yellow card he could risk a game and he couldn’t let his team down and claimed that would’ve been selfish.
Yeah, I’ve long since learned to embrace hypocrisy when it comes to football fandom lol.
I can’t stop myself from loving the club and how great most of the players are on the pitch, but apart from weaksauce excuses like this one, three of my favorite Liverpool players (including the one I had previously thought of as the most unselfish “it’s all about the collective over personal wealth and glory” player, Firmino) went to fucking SAUDI ARABIA at a time in their careers where they were only BARELY past their prime and could still be a key player for almost any team in the world.
Add to that the fact that there’s at least one Bolsonaro voter and at least one Orban voter in the team as well and I pretty much HAVE to compartmentalize to maintain my own sanity as a fan of the YNWA club for over 30 years 😮💨