Fame Day: Reddit’s Response to the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar

I’m writing this a few days ahead of time, so at this point I have no idea who’s even playing in the finals. Don’t tell me you don’t know which finals I’m talking about, either, because a) it’s one of the world’s largest international sporting events and b) it’s right there in the gosh darn title.

To stop you before you get to that particular stepping stone, I get it, Tim Howard jokes are hilarious. I agree that he is a very good keeper. Let’s not move in that direction and instead concentrate on the fact that FIFA is essentially an organization of lesser demons. There’s no way I’m going to be able to sum it up better than John Oliver, though, so here-

I also realize that there are those among you who simply can’t spare a mere 13 minutes out of your day to take in an entertaining video about FIFA’s moral and ethical shenanigans, so I’ll share a few of their issues with you minus Oliver’s jokes [which are great, so go watch it].

First of all, there’s the fact that the organization “[forced] the Brazilian government to lift a decade-old ban on beer sales within stadiums – a ban designed to end brutal and sometimes deadly violence between rival fan bases.” Yes, you read that correctly. FIFA straight-up changed a country’s law. A law that was saving lives.

Just imagine that it’s a World Cup trophy.

The other issue I want to concentrate on is that the 2022 World Cup will be hosted by Qatar, a decision that people continue to be confused by. To be fair it’s only thoroughly confusing for people who don’t understand bribery and corruption, though everyone is at least a little bewildered by the event possibly taking place in a country that has weather akin to the afterlife people go to when they have not been very good.

Okay, I realize that this is a Fame Day post, so let’s concentrate on the positives here. This past Monday night [the day that I’m actually writing this] a post called “Coca-Cola’s Irrelevant Response to My Letter Protesting the 2022 World Cup in Qatar” made it to the front page of Reddit. The original poster’s letter mainly concerned the human rights violations that are going on, and will no doubt continue, if the World Cup ends up actually taking place in that country. They asked the company to work against this taking place.

You may or may not know how we at CWR feel about Coca-Cola. Here is their response [which I would give an F as far as reading comprehension is concerned]:

“As a FIFA Partner, we do not play any role in the administration of the sport, the organization of the tournament or in developing the rules that govern the game. We understand that not qualifying for the FIFA World Cup leaves fans disappointed, but as a sponsor it would inappropriate for us to join the debate about the result of any match.”

But look, this isn’t meant to be a takedown of the company, especially since I linked to an exceptionally good one up above! Good things are resulting from this! In the thread people are commenting and saying that “this is definitely the way to go: pressure the sponsors.” They’re doing even more than that, too, actually providing lists of sponsors and even a link to a PDF and Word document containing a generic letter to send to these companies.

Another redditor suggests that everyone:

“Send tweets to coca-cola, sony, Budweiser, continental tires, Adidas, Hyundai, emirates, Johnson & Johnson, McDonald’s, visa, and castrol

Tell them you are switching to their competitor (Pepsi, samsung, coors, kumho, puma, Toyota, united, unilever, yum! Brands, Amex, pennzoil, or whatever you think) until they stop supporting FIFA and its corrupt and disdainful practices RE Qatar 2022.”

These are people who are not just passionate about “the beautiful game”, but about human rights as well. They’re not just sitting around on their hands, either, they’re brainstorming ways to actually put a stop to what could smear that which they love and harm people in the process.

That is worth not only our praise, but our added efforts.