Eric Cantona has made it clear that he would boycott this year’s World Cup in Qatar.
It was reported last year that over 6,500 workers – from countries such as India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka – have lost their lives building infrastructure for the World Cup (via The Guardian). And you can guarantee that the figure of deaths has since increased.
This is one of the reasons that Cantona won’t be watching the tournament later this year.
“It’s only about money and the way they treated the people who built the stadiums, it’s horrible,” Cantona told The Athletic. “And thousands of people died. And yet we will celebrate this World Cup. Personally, I will not watch it. I understand football is a business. But I thought it was the only place where everybody could have a chance.”
Cantona stresses that it would be wrong to expect current professionals to turn their backs on the World Cup, adding: “If you have a player who says, ‘I will boycott the World Cup’, you say, ‘Bravo’. But you cannot condemn a 20-year-old player, who has a 10-year career, who lives in a world surrounded by people from football 24 hours per day.
“But do speak about the federations, speak about the politicians, who have the power to say, ‘No, we do not go to the World Cup’. We cannot be disappointed if players don’t want to boycott the World Cup, because at the top, the politicians, the presidents, the federations, the ministers…”
A lot has been said about ex-professionals like David Beckham promoting the campaign. It crosses a line ethically and Cantona wasn’t afraid to tell the world his former teammate had made a mistake in doing so.
“I would not do it at all. I do completely the opposite. In January 2022, I started to say that. Maybe I was the first one.
“But I am free to do it. And of course, an ex-player paid to do this kind of thing…
“It could be they don’t know what has happened there. Or, if they know it, I think they did wrong. I think they made a big mistake. A big, big mistake.”
SN’s verdict
I couldn’t agree more with Cantona. You can’t expect today’s players to turn their backs on the opportunity to play at a World Cup, but FIFA shouldn’t have put them in that situation.
Those that have spoken out against the World Cup – like Cantona – deserve a lot of credit.
David Beckham deserves less because he appears happy to be a puppet on a string. All for sports-washing.
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