The former German player Philipp Lahm, captain of the winning team of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, will not attend the Qatar 2022 tournament, which will take place at the end of the year, as a protest against the social situation in the Qatari country. “I will not be part of the German delegation and I am not interested in going there as a fan either,” the former German side told Kicker magazine. “I prefer to follow the tournament from home,” he added.
Lahm, director of Euro 2024, which will be held in Germany two years from now, has criticized FIFA for allowing the organization of the World Cup in Qatar. “Human rights should play an important role in the adjudication of tournaments. If a country that is doing poorly in that area gets the prize (to host), then you have to think about what criteria the decision was based on,” he said.
In addition to the human rights situation, the issue of sustainability and the size of the country “apparently did not play any role”, according to Lahm, in terms of the award of the 2022 World Cup. On the other hand, Lahm also encouraged the current team of Germany so that at the World Cup, which begins on November 21 and ends on December 18, they dare to talk about these issues.
Lahm is not the first authoritative voice in European football to attack the next World Cup. At the beginning of the year, the Scandinavian federations (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Faroe Islands) published a statement opposing the holding of the tournament in Qatar. The Madrid player Toni Kroos He also harshly criticized the organization of the tournament in the Persian Gulf: “Immigrants work tirelessly at 50 degrees, with insufficient food and without drinking water,” the midfielder said in an interview.
Van Gaalcoach of the Netherlands national team was another of the voices that opposed the tournament (“It’s about money”), while Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp attacked it for holding it in the middle of December, which will force it to start in two the club season: “It is celebrated at the wrong time and for the wrong reasons”.
