South Coast RoyalSanguine If the players really did care about what happens in other parts of the world they wouldn't be going, nor would they have gone to Russia last time.
That's rubbish. I'm watching this World Cup. I care deeply about the living conditions of others.
I know that you have a very high opinion of yourself and the importance of your views but I rather think that you are not in a great position to make an impact on the rest of the world, you struggle to get people on HNA to take notice.
Top sportsmen however do have a far-reaching platform, e.g the Yank and his knee, the black power guys at the Olympics etc.
If our players had refused to go to Qatar imagine what a knock-on effect that could have occurred-their jobs would still have been there at home and who knows, maybe the whole thing would have been moved or scrapped.
If people do care strongly about something they don't just go down on the knee or wear a bright armband.
I would suggest that they don't care much, maybe less than you do, and that is up to them but these token gestures are so small that they are IMHO insignificant apart from here where they are being much talked about but also where those rights are no longer an issue.
It's easy to preach to the converted.
I don't think Harry Kane has much more influence than you or I. The English FA do, sure. But the English FA haven't withdrawn from the tournament. If Kane (for example) had refused to go, there would have been headlines for a few days, and then Jarrod Bowen would have gone instead. These gestures matter. Or rather, not doing them, and pretending that issues are important, matters. To paraphrase someone I just read on Twitter, the importance of not doing this is to remind the LBGTQ+ community in the UK that support for gay rights extends only to 'not getting a yellow card'.
