Gary Neville has stated he was ‘surprised’ by Harry Kane’s comments on Qatar after the Tottenham striker was willing to join Manchester City last summer, as he told Sky Sports.
The England captain has openly spoken about wanting to shine a light on Qatar’s, who will host the 2022 World Cup, human rights record.
But Neville pointed out that Manchester City, the club he wanted to sign for, is owned by an Abu Dhabi based group that have ‘similar issues’ to the 2022 World Cup holders.
So to put it simply, it’s correct that an individual or individuals are raising the issues of Qatar’s human rights record, but they can’t then be hypocritical and turn a blind eye on others.
That was pointed out by Neville, who shared that if we there is a ‘problem’ with Qatar, then there should also be a ‘big problem’ with Abu Dhabi and the Saudi Arabia group that has taken charge of Newcastle United.
“If we have a problem with Qatar, then we also should have a big problem with Abu Dhabi,” said Neville. “We should also have a problem with Saudi Arabia.
“When we talk about Qatar and mention workers rights. When we go to Dubai on holiday and a lot of people in this country do.
“We talk about Saudi Arabia. They are far worse workers rights and human rights issues, at this moment in time than Qatar because of the progress and scrutiny it has made over the last ten years of the World Cup.
“The reason why I don’t think some of the England players don’t come out. The reason why I was a little surprised about Harry Kane talking about Qatar was that he was willing to play for the Abu Dhabi group from Manchester City team last summer, which have got similar issues to Qatar.”
This issue clearly going to go away and will be highlighted further as we edge closer towards the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
In truth, there shouldn’t be a World Cup that brings up these issues, they should be talked about beforehand.
But those heading to Qatar will either feel they can make change by sending out a message whilst they are at the world’s biggest tournament.
Or they will be seen as hypocrites because of the UK Government engaging with a country like Saudi when they too have records that aren’t acceptable.
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