“We have sold about 40 billion quid’s worth of arms to middle eastern countries”- Gary Neville defends doing commentary at 2022 FIFA Qatar World Cup
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Gary Neville
The Sky Sports regular Gary Neville has faced criticism for speaking out on political issues in the UK but has chosen to work for the Qatari broadcaster during despite the country’s poor record on human rights.
The former Manchester United and England defender claims that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are just as bad as Qatar in this regard, despite the fact that both countries have direct involvement in English football through Newcastle United and Manchester City.
“We are talking about Man City like it’s a golden ticket – they’re owned by Abu Dhabi, who have massive issues with women’s rights, worker’s rights, LGBTQ rights… exactly the same, in fact worse, than Qatar,” Neville said to the sources.
“Qatar have had Amnesty International and the International Labour Organisation all over them for the last 10 years because of the World Cup.
“Saudi Arabia have come into our country to own Newcastle and they’ve got terrible human rights issues over there – the journalist killed there a few years ago, for example – and people work for them in this country.”
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Gary Neville says he plans to cover the issues in Qatar fairly during the FIFA World Cup
Despite working for the state-owned broadcaster, Neville says he intends to cover the problems in Qatar fairly during the World Cup. “We either decide we are going to work with these nations in the middle east – we have sold about 40 billion quid’s worth of arms to middle eastern countries over the last 10 years as a UK Government, they own half of London and are probably donating to the Conservative party.
“We either decide that we collaborate with these countries, and try and impact change through football – which is what I think we should always do – or we say we’re never going to let them play sport, we’re never going to have a World Cup there, we’re never going to allow them to compete against us because they don’t have what would be as progressive rights as they should have.
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‘’That is the reality of where I’m at with it. There’s no-one that I think wants workers’ rights to be better than me, there’s no-one who wants women’s rights, equality or diversity more than me, I absolutely believe in it.’’
‘’The way construction workers and hospitality workers get treated in Qatar is not good enough and it is not right at all,’ he said. ‘So for me, I can understand where the criticism comes from because I put myself out there and to be fair try to defend people’s rights in this country all the time and I’ll continue to do that through football in different countries as well.’’
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Ujan Chakraborty
(1240 Articles Published)