Gareth Southgate England
Gareth Southgate England

The 2022 edition of the FIFA World Cup is going to be held in Qatar at the end of this year and as per reports, several English fans are set to skip this massive tournament.

The upcoming tournament has been plagued with accusations of numerous human rights violations and to make matters worse, Qatar is a country that has a lot of restrictions for the LGBTQ+ community.

The country’s government does not recognise same-sex marriages and they also have really strict laws for women(amongst various other restrictions). This is one of the main reasons why many England fans are conceivably going to give this one a skip.

While most of the authorities have shied away from talking about these issues the England manager has finally spoken about the fact that many England fans are not going to follow their national team in the FIFA World Cup.

“I think I’m quite clear on the areas of concern about this tournament,” he said, as per Sky Sports. “The building of the stadiums was the first and there’s nothing we can do about that now. They’re built.

“There are obviously ongoing concerns about the rights of workers and the conditions they live in and those areas.

“It seems universally accepted that it’s better than it was but not in the position where people think it could be. And maybe policies that have been put in place are not always enforced as they might be.

“Then there are the issues that potentially threaten our fans when they travel: the rights of women and the rights of the LGBTQ+ community in particular.

“Sadly, through discussions that I’ve had, I don’t think some of those communities are going to go and that’s a great shame.

“We stand for inclusivity as a team – that’s been the big driver of a lot of the stances we’ve taken in the last couple of years – and it would be horrible to think some of our fans feel they can’t go because they feel threatened or they’re worried about their safety.”

Several humanitarian groups have raised their voices against these issues ever since Qatar was awarded the rights and they have been urging teams to boycott the 2022 FIFA World Cup. But as the tournament is coming closer, all these voices are rapidly fading away.

The Norwegian Football Federation and the German Football Association have already made it clear that they do not wish to boycott the tournament and we are sure that none of the other teams will walk in that direction either.

But now that one of the most popular football managers have spoken out, there’s sure to be a lot more media traction regarding all the problems surrounding the FIFA World Cup.

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