SFA Should Follow Danish FA’s Lead If We Get To Next Year’s World Cup

Date: 18th November 2021

The Danish players and their fans were a real credit to their nation on Monday night at Hampden. 

The team were professional and showed why they’ve been so good during this World Cup qualifying campaign. They thoroughly deserve their spot at next year’s tournament in Qatar. 

Denmark’s FA have since shown the rest of the world that football can and should be used to highlight major issues that surround Qatar hosting the 2022 event. 

DBU (Danish FA) Chief Executive Jakob Jensen has come out and stated: 

“The DBU has long been strongly critical of the World Cup in Qatar, but now we are intensifying our efforts and critical dialogue further. We’ll use the fact that we have qualified to work for more change in the country.”

They’ve announced a serious of initiatives that they hope will highlight certain injustices that have come about in Qatar and relate to the World Cup, in particular looking at the host country’s human rights record. 

In the tournament the DBU have announced that their commercial partners have agreed to forego their place on the nation’s training wear and they will be replaced by human rights messages.

They’ve also stated that they will minimise their own travel to Qatar and will only go for sports related events or if they can put forward political support for migrant workers in the Asian country. The DBU will also carefully do due diligence to ensure they pick a hotel and certain services that they need that respect labor rights. 

It is also refreshing to see a country’s football association come out and say that they will continue to keep the team’s support in the loop with regards to the current situation. They have also stated that they will continue to talk to FIFA and the Qatari organisers in the hope of improving and respecting the rights of the migrant workers that will and have been vital in getting this World Cup off the ground. 

I applaud The DBU for being this transparent and vocal. We know that football fans from all over the world have been critical of FIFA’s decision of allowing Qatar to host such a prestigious tournament. Plenty of the Tartan Army have been part of that dissenting voice. 

Hopefully The SFA will look at what their Danish counterparts have done this week and will follow that example if our team can secure their place at the 2022 World Cup via the play offs.  

Our nation’s FA should be pushing for changes in Qatar to make it a safer country for everyone and have next year’s World Cup be inclusive to everyone. Hopefully if they can follow the DBU’s excellent example and others follow suit too then that could make things easier for migrant workers in Qatar. That has to be the aim for any democratic country that qualifies for the World Cup! 

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