There wasn’t time to answer all the questions from the floor. The fans got stuck in to our panel at the football Supporters’ Summit today, where the Football Supporters’ Federation had invited Playfair Qatar to talk about FIFA reform and – of course – the Qatar World Cup. With us were former MP and sports campaigner Tom Greatrex, and our old mucker Jaimie Fuller of SKINS, with whom we launched the “Hypocrisy World Cup” sponsor campaign earlier this year and who has been working Sharan Burrow and the ITUC supporting the Save FIFA campaign.
The summit, with well over two hundred fans in attendance, is the annual get together of FSF members and those of their companion online fan group Supporters Direct. Launching the conference with a panel on FIFA reform turned out to be extremely zeigeisty, as the ITUC and SKINS revealed last night that Coca Cola had back their call for an independent FIFA reform commission (as reported by Stronger Unions yesterday).
Jaimie laid out the plans for the commission, and the kind of reforms might be implemented. Of great interest to those present was the suggestion that fans should elect members of the FIFA executive, and that 20% of the votes for President should come directly from fans, with another 20% from players. New FIFA Now and the ITUC hope that an international figure like Kofi Annan (or someone equally acceptable to the footballing world outside the US and Europe) might be persuaded to undertake leading the commission.
Lynsey Hooper, chairing, kept the conversation flowing and brought in questions from the audience, from the conference’s Twitter followers and also threw in a few of her own. One question from the floor expressed doubts that anything can be achieved, but Tom Greatrex, who describes himself as “recovering politician”, remains passionately engaged in football reform and says he sees a genuine opportunity for change that should not be missed. FIFA, it was agreed by most, is rocking on its heels: it’s now or never.
Lurking behind the technical talk on FIFA reform, however, was always Qatar. The questions came back repeatedly: should there be a boycott? Can anything actually change? Are some opponents of Qatar really just anti-muslim/anti-arab? What can fans actually do to help?
I was privileged to able to address these questions. It’s strange for what could be portrayed (simplistically) as an “anti-Qatar World Cup” campaign to say this, but we don’t want a boycott or a removal of the cup. Yet. What we want is an ultimatum and a clear timescale within which Qatar has to fix its labour and human rights deficiencies or else face the consequences. A recent investigation found around 80% of Qataris in favour of their kafala system, which keeps workers in the total power of their employers. However, that survey didn’t ask them: what would you rather give up, kafala, or the World Cup?
Things can change in Qatar, but it would take years for progress to happen without external pressure. That’s why we’re backing the FIFA review, in the expectation that they will get tough on their 2022 hosts and force them to make that choice. Because, in many ways, we want Qatar to have the World Cup. If they reformed their treatment of workers and their respect for human rights, it would be an astonishing demonstration of the power of football to effect change. We’re not out to bash Qatar – we just want to see decent treatment of human beings, no matter where they are from.
Fans are the key to this. The financial structures of football rest on the commercial incentive of keeping fans excited, and spending. They underpin everything, and are taken for granted by almost every football body from local club management to FIFA, through hiked ticket prices and ever changing kids’ club strips. But through club fan groups and the FSF they are increasing their campaigning power and starting to achieve results. We hope that by lending their support to Playfair Qatar, by joining the campaign and boosting its visibility in the world of football, that together we might make a difference in Qatar too.