RE:WORLD CUP
STATEMENT FROM THE SF CITY FC MEMBERS’ BOARD ON THE 2022 WORLD CUP
The 2022 FIFA Men's World Cup is set to kick off on Monday in Qatar. Normally, this quadrennial tournament is a source of great excitement for the club. We would be eager to host watch parties with our fans for USMNT matches, the final, and other compelling games, as we have done in the past with organizations like the Japan Society. But, because of the abuses surrounding this year's World Cup, we feel the event is counter to our values as a club, and we cannot in good conscience run programming to support it.
We realize that each individual will make their own decision about whether to watch the tournament, and we acknowledge that our own membership was divided on the matter. A majority of our members did not support SF City FC running events around it, and we have concluded that, as an organization, upholding our ideals is more important than supporting a soccer tournament.
Since Qatar was awarded the World Cup in late 2010, more than six thousand migrant workers have died in slave labor conditions. The organizers built the infrastructure for this tournament with no regard whatsoever for the human cost. We stand with these workers and with those who have lost loved ones to this atrocity.
Qatar is also hostile to the LGBTQ+ community. Neither same-sex marriage nor gender transition is recognized, and homosexuality is literally a crime. We will not support a World Cup in a country where so many members of our own community would be persecuted just for being who they are.
We emphasize that we place the blame for this World Cup's moral failings squarely on FIFA. The decision to award the event to Qatar was corrupt and anti-democratic. The problems in Qatar were well-known in 2010, but FIFA ignored them for the sake of greed. FIFA’s corruption is nothing new, but even by their abysmal standards, this year’s tournament is a particularly egregious instance of money over integrity.
Instead of spending your time and money on the 2022 World Cup, we recommend you support the following causes:
Petition to end forced labor in Qatar: https://freedomunited.org/advocate/qatar/
Majal: https://majal.org
Street Soccer USA: https://streetsoccerusa.org/
Soccer can and should be a force for good around the world, and we hope many more will join us in holding the sport’s organizers to a much higher standard.
— San Francisco City Football Club Members’ Board of Directors