“You Can’t Be Paid By Qatar Or Fifa And Criticize Them” Says Out Footballer Thomas Hitzlsperger
November 17, 2022Thomas Hitzlsperger, the first Premier League player to come out, has spoken about migrant worker abuses in Qatar and money’s malign influence on the game.
It is nine years since he became the first Premier League footballer to reveal he is gay, a decision that improved his life and those of others too. “Even today,” he says, “someone came up to me and said: ‘Are you who I think you are?’ I said: ‘Probably.’ He put his thumbs up, said: ‘Good on you.’
“And that’s so powerful, which is why I say to others: it’s not just your personal situation, which is of course the most important thing. And that’s why I don’t stop speaking up. Now when I reflect, my decision was all about what impact I can have on society, without overdoing it.
“You’d be surprised how many people you can reach,” the former Aston Villa, West Ham and Everton midfielder says, reflecting on the role of LGBTQ supporters’ groups, the increase in symbolism, a shift in attitudes at clubs embracing the gay community. He discusses how more athletes have stood up, how he “would love to see a big, active player come out”, and how there has been a “big, big change”. He says: “The environment is constantly improving in football, at least in most parts.”
And then on Sunday, the World Cup kicks off in a country where being gay is illegal. Only last week Khalid Salman, an ambassador for the competition, described homosexuality as a “mental defect”. Football enabled this, politicians and sports people have justified or normalized it. David Beckham has been paid to promote Qatar.
The former player – who represented Germany 52 times, played in a World Cup and a European Championship and won the Bundesliga with VfB Stuttgart – has grappled with how he should engage with a tournament he will be watching from a studio in Mainz for German television, as the Guardian’ writes.
Examining his conscience, while others such as Gary Neville with beIN Sports, have chosen to go to the Gulf state, Hitzlsperger says: “If I had the option, I wouldn’t: it just doesn’t feel right after what I have seen, the things I have said in public. You can’t be paid by Qatar or Fifa and at the same time criticize them, it doesn’t make sense.
“You see the world we live in: how sick it is that we allowed Qatar to buy the right to send pictures to the world for four weeks, presenting themselves as something they’re not. It’s not just sad, it’s sick.
“A Nepali worker told me he saw people collapse in the heat, so they’re put in a room to cool down for an hour, then you have to work again. The paperwork says: ‘Died in his sleep.’ That’s not the reason. The government says the Kafala system doesn’t exist but it still does, in practice. There are so many things you think: this must not happen. But it does. And to me Fifa allowed it to happen.
“I spoke to a woman from Human Rights Watch who said Qatari officials have figures but don’t publish them. I met a young woman there who tried to show me how open it was and when worker deaths came up, she said the criticism was not justified. She even used the phrase ‘fake news’. She doesn’t get to see it: she thinks the west is against Qatar. So it’s difficult to judge how many deaths there have been, but it’s not three.” [Gianni Infantino, the Fifa president, claimed three is the number.]
“People criticize Qatar, but we have to discuss Fifa’s role, those from the former executive committee who took the money,” Hitzlsperger says. “Because if no one would take it, if no one received it, Qatar would have a problem. But the greed in the football business is just immense.”
Fifa has since acknowledged these wrongdoings and the need for reform, in the 2017 Garcia report.
“There is so much money involved and some people have no morals and just take it. You find a PR agency, you pay them, and they give you a reason. I spoke to Fifa’s media department. They’re incredibly nice, kind people but they make you believe they’re trying everything to get the conversation going and it never happens, so they are smart. It would have been easy for Infantino to explain the improvements, the changes, to say why it makes sense to give Qatar the World Cup. He’s smart enough, but he refuses to speak: why? Why aren’t you more transparent?”
Infantino has sent a letter to the 32 national federations telling them to focus on the football now. “That shows how fed up they are,” Hitzlsperger says.
“The question has been why don’t teams boycott the tournament? They can’t even agree on an armband,” Hitzlsperger says. Besides, this goes beyond sport. “Not long ago the German FA president and the interior minister said they had been reassured by the Qatari interior minister that everybody would be safe. And you think: what world are we living in?! That someone has to give a guarantee!”
And the message may also be lost in the noise. “When it’s every day even people who agree think: ‘I can’t hear this any more,’” Hitzlsperger concedes. “I’m trying to find a balance between saying it, refusing to be quiet, and not saying it every day. It’s a shame: it destroys part of the game.”
Yet that’s the point: for now at least, the game is lost, used and abused, taken from those for whom it is everything. Hitzlsperger is trying to resist, unwilling to let go. “I still love football but people come into it who don’t know what it means to fans, to players.
“Everything changes, money dictates everything. I don’t know at what point I will give up, go and watch Sunday league. But I still love it. It’s tiring: everything that has happened makes you not want to watch, but they haven’t managed to kill my passion for the game.”
Read related myGwork articles here:
Peter Tatchell Arrested in Qatar After LGBTQ+ Protest
Qatar 'Arrested And Abused' LGBTQ+ People
David Beckham Slammed For Reportedly Becoming Face Of Homophobic Qatar In £150 Million Deal
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