COMMENT



By Anil John/Sports Editor


Some 15 years ago, Rene Meulensteen told me something about football that stuck in my mind for its sheer elementariness.
“Football is a simple game played between two goalposts,” the then Qatar junior coach and until a few months ago Sir Alex Ferguson’s right-hand man at Manchester United, expounded.
He was trying to drive home the point that some of the “modern” coaching methods were unnecessary because they turned footballers into robots and stripped the game of its very essence, which is its capacity to captivate and thrill.
Meulensteen’s logic should also extend to the boardrooms of football federations and broadcasting studios, but apparently simplicity is no longer the buzzword among officials and pundits. On the contrary matters are deliberately sensationalised by twisting facts to suit one particular line of thinking.
A few days back, I got a call from the Beeb from London and was asked to join a live radio broadcast at a given time to speak about the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
“We would be asking you to comment on the summer vs winter debate surrounding the 2022 World Cup,” I was told. “We would like to know what the sentiment in Qatar is.”
Now I knew what I was getting into. For one, radio interviews are tricky affairs because of the sheer pace at which questions are shot at you. Also, sometimes you are cut off abruptly to accommodate breaking news leaving you in the lurch just at the moment you thought you had something interesting to say. Occasionally you also have trouble in following the accent, and on top of it if the phone connection is bad, you have had it.
I clearly remember the first time I was on radio several years ago. Qatar and Wales were to play a friendly football match and I was told to be ready to be interviewed by BBC Wales. But despite my preparedness, I was caught off guard by the first question thrown at me.
“So, Anil, what sort of team is this…er… Qatar?” the man at the other end asked me. It took me a few seconds to get off the mark, although in the end I thought the interview went off pretty well. I was even sent a cheque for 36 pounds written in a mysterious language, which I later discovered was Welsh.
At that time Qatar was a relatively smaller player on the global stage when it came to politics and sports, although its ambition was never in doubt.  As journalists new to Qatar we were hearing stuff all the time– most of it off the record – about the country’s plans for the future.
To skeptics like me, some of the plans sounded too grandiose, or even outlandish, and I am only happy to report that I’ve been proved wrong over time. But apparently, there is no shortage of cynics and naysayers worldwide despite Qatar pulling off some incredible feats across all spheres of human activity  –  be it  politics, sports, aviation, education or even space exploration.
The latest radio interview was a case of how complicated things can be. When I picked up the phone, I was told to wait for a few minutes. In the background I could hear British football scores being read out among other stuff.
And then it turned to the 2022 World Cup, with two presenters discussing Qatar’s unbearable summer heat and of course the “problems” young men and women and gays would face in the country during the event.
“It’s unbelievable that couples won’t be able to display affection by kissing in public during the matches,” I could hear one of them saying, adding something along the lines that a World Cup is more than just a few football matches.
His partner agreed whole-heartedly, bringing gays and alcohol into the picture, as if no football tournament is complete without people getting drunk or a few hundred homosexuals rampaging among the crowds inside stadiums!
I was hoping they would ask me my views on these issues, but they didn’t. But had they asked me I would have told them something along the following lines.
“Look, if you are caught planting a kiss on your wife or girlfriend during the World Cup, you are not going to be jailed. It happens often at airport terminals and occasionally at other public places in Qatar and nobody has been in trouble with the law for it.
“But if you decide to make out in full public view just to prove a point, you may well invite trouble. Even in certain so-called liberal countries you could be charged with indecency for such behaviour.”
Had I been asked about gays, I would have told them this:
“Look, when you visit Qatar for the World Cup you are visiting as a football fan. Your ticket doesn’t say ‘this ticket is issued to you because you are gay and therefore you are special’.  Nobody will know and let’s keep it that way.”
About the alcohol part I would have said this:
“Well, even now there are plenty of bars in Qatar, but unlike in London, for example, nobody is stumbling out of them early morning and creating a nuisance. Besides, haven’t you had enough with drunken hooliganism at football tournaments in Europe in the past?
“So cool off and relax. Whether the 2022 World Cup is held in the summer or winter, you are in for a great time. In the meantime, enjoy the interim nine years instead of wasting your breath and mine with your unfounded fears.”