Your glib rationalization of inhumane governance is… disturbing.
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Uh, wait, what was I rationalizing exactly? I started off describing World Cup as adult boys kicking a ball. The only positive aspect of this whole thing is that it’s not happening in my country of residence, which is the USA, although I bemoan that it’s coming to America in 2026 apparently. It’s really a shame on the Qatari government that they are doing this, a shame how they waste their tremendous resources, a shame how little they care about their fellow Arabs, in case that wasn’t clear from my post.
The problem isn’t people playing soccer. The problem is FIFA being in bed with a country with a horrible human rights record. You seem to believe the real problem here is sports, which… it’s not.
Also…
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Interesting way to put it. I’m curious what race you think America should be helping instead of hosting its World Cup. 
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Green card or visa?
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I really wish the NCAA would move the 2023 Final Four and championship games for men’s (Houston) and women’s (Dallas) basketball from Texas due to the Texas Heartbeat Act. They did this before, in 2017, due to North Carolina’s “Bathroom Bill”.
It’s probably too late to move the NCAA football bowl games that are scheduled to be played in Texas in December and January.
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Clearly not! Sports are great for many reasons! Soccer in particular is great because people can play it almost anywhere, it’s a team sport, it’s exciting, it’s sort of the “universal” team sport at this point.
As you say… FIFA, terrible countries are the problem.
Islam has this concept called the Ummah, which is hard to translate exactly but roughly means community, basically the Islamic community. They are supposed to have a special sympathy for other Muslims. Also one of the five pillars of Islam is Zakat, which is a very deep concept of charity, especially local (neighborhood) charity and for Islamic causes. Qatar has a significantly higher GDP than most developed countries. Their charity and community sympathies should be helping out some of their fellow Arabs who are in terrible situations right now. I don’t fault Islam for having these ideas, do you? In fact these concepts sound positive to me.
Again, I’m pro-soccer, including organized soccer. But what’s going on in Qatar is just so sad. I didn’t see it linked anywhere but there were possibly THOUSANDS migrant worker deaths in the process of building these insane air conditioned stadiums in the desert. I’m trying to criticize this terribleness, in case you don’t notice.
Adding on a sort of cherry on the top of this sundae of terribleness, there’s a claim (disputed) that the entire Saudi team were given Rolls Royce Phantoms to celebrate their victory of Argentina. I really don’t know if it’s true or not but the total excesses of spending that went into this entire thing, in a region of so much need, are really appalling .
Your comment did not reflect that. Made be a bit clearer in your comments from now on, by not slagging off an entire sport, maybe?
Yet you find Qatar “refreshing”…?
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