I don’t particularly enjoy watching sports - except for tuning in with friends. This time around, even that little affirmation of solidarity has had the joy stripped out of it - mostly because the USA is making the sport a uniquely horrid “spectacle”. Capitalism is taking the opportunity to normalise all the oversized tickets, environmental damage, racist policing, and God knows what else. So, what is our community’s view on watching this horrorshow play out? Is it something we should be boycotting this time? I can only see this tournament being a way for the US elite to yet again brag about their privilege, to put it mildly. And I can’t imagine that would be good for football as a sport.
Quick edit: I think the question now is not whether we are boycotting it but how we will resist this sportswashing as spectators
Edit: I changed the post title due to the need to convey the message.
I’m less in the world cup mood than I was four years ago. I also don’t like watching sports that much unless I’m watching with others. So I’m going to watch my country’s games in a gay bar, so a more progressive crowd.
All those talks about boycotting Qatar, but I hear a lot less about this world cup, which is very hypocritical. It shows that it was not about human rights last time. Last time I boycotted by not talking about the WC, unless it was to criticize it, this time I’ll mostly do the same. I’ll also not watch a lot of games, but that is mostly because they are in the middle of the night for me lol
Conditions are ripe for radicalising football fans, I’d say. I think anyone can see the sport being killed this time, and this is a frontier that I think is both old and new at the same time. There is a lot of theory about media and consumption, but sports gets viewed as apolitical when it’s just not.