To the middle east, where Fifa’s brilliant plan to bring peace via the medium of football continues apace. Last month, Qatar’s extraordinary win in the Asian Cup was noisily welcomed by Fifa, presumably as retrospective justification for its decision to award the tiny Gulf state the 2022 World Cup. And in some of the regional countries currently blockading Qatar, the headlines on news coverage of the final show just how close the whole peace-dream is to becoming a reality. Which is to say, not very close, if they still can’t mention the match winner in a match report. As the UAE’s Gulf News had it: “Japan come up short in Asian Cup final.” That said, they did have two articles about the final. The headline on the other was “The Samurai’s extra confidence caused their loss.”
Written by Marina Hyde
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/feb/13/gianni-infantino-hakeem-al-araibi-fifa-human-rights under the title “Was Infantino just too busy to get involved in freeing Hakeem al-Araibi? | Marina Hyde”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
