Oliver Bierhoff wants to keep the ubiquitous human rights issues surrounding the World Cup in Qatar away from the DFB team. The Australian national team chooses confrontation instead: in a video, 16 footballers clearly address grievances and call for rapid change.

The Australian national team condemned the human rights violations in Qatar just over three weeks before the start of the soccer World Cup. The exploitation of migrant workers during the construction of the stadium “cannot be ignored,” said the Australian Football Association in a statement, accompanied by a short video of 16 Socceroos players.

Football Australia also called on Qatar to legalize same-sex marriage. Australia are the first participating team to criticize the host country in this form. “We recognize the significant progress and legislative reforms that have taken place in Qatar in recent years to recognize and protect workers’ rights, and we encourage all stakeholders to continue on this path of reform,” the statement said.

The awarding of the World Cup to Qatar has been criticized for years. First of all, it was about the bribes that are said to have flowed in the vote in 2010. Then there was the environmental aspect, as the finals had to be postponed to the winter due to the climate. In recent years, the focus has been on the human rights situation, the situation of guest workers and the conditions for LGBT people.

The Emir of Qatar had castigated the ongoing criticism of the host of the upcoming tournament (November 20 to December 18) as an “unprecedented campaign” including “invention and double standards”. In a televised speech, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani lamented that no host of the finals had been attacked so severely.

Meanwhile, DFB managing director Oliver Bierhoff had recently expressed his intention to keep the discussion away from the team as much as possible. “We hope we can focus on the sport during the tournament.” Instead, association president Bernd Neuendorf should take care of addressing the social grievances in the World Cup host country. The players should be kept “up to date,” said Bierhoff, but despite all the negativity surrounding human rights, he wanted to create “joy” for the tournament.

(This article was first published on Thursday, October 27, 2022.)