Personal essays
But I really want to
To watch or not to watch
It’s about an hour until game time and I’m feeling a little conflicted.
On the one hand, there is so much that is awful around the Qatar hosting of the World Cup.
There are allegations that officials were bribed to vote to award the World Cup to Qatar followed by stories that eight Ecuadorian players were bribed more than seven million dollars to to lose the opening game.
Add to this the ill treatment and deaths of workers who built the stadiums in which the games are being played.
And then, of course, there is the hostility to LGBTQ+ people and allies which the governing body has supported in an unusual but not surprising way. The captains of ten teams planned to wear arm bands in support of OneLove.
The OneLove movement was launched a couple of years ago by the Royal Dutch Football Association with a simple message. The message was that there shouldn’t be discrimination and explicitly mentioned heritage, race, gender identity, and sexual orientation.
The captains were told that if they wore the arm bands they would be given a yellow card immediately. Two yellow cards and you’re suspended from a game.
So there are some pretty awful things about supporting the World Cup.
But the US is playing Iran in forty-five minutes.
To cover or not to cover
Meadowlark media hosts many of my favorite sports podcasts.
For the World Cup, they’ve gone all in.
How could they not. This is the biggest sporting event in the world.
They are partnering with Apple for “After the Whistle”, a podcast with Brendan Hunt (the guy who plays Coach Beard on Ted Lasso) and Rebecca Lowe (from NBC Sports).
They launched a podcast with American soccer stars Ashlyn Harris and Aly Krieger called “The Most Important Thing.” It seems like the best way to make a statement while presenting amazing content is to have it hosted by these women who see so much more in the soccer being played than most other spectators. The host country can’t be happy that this amazing analysis is coming from women - particularly from women who are married to each other.
Finally, they have a podcast that appears in their main feed from two of the show’s regulars called “Morally Abhorrent.” Again, there’s no way they couldn’t cover the World Cup, but it seems that they’ve found a way to cover the games while keeping the ethical issue front and center.
Drawing the line
A few weeks ago Scott Galloway talked on the Pivot podcast about all of the problems with the World Cup and why he finds it, well, morally abhorrent.
And yet, he said, he’s going to spend the money and take his sons with him to tournament.
For him it’s a choice between doing some abstractly right thing and having a once in a lifetime experience with his boys.
We lose so many battles to the argument, “but I really want to.” I don’t know what the answer is. As much as I disagree with Scott’s decision, I really like that he owns it. He explains why he’s doing it and he knows the problems with his decision.
It’s not that different than Jon Lovett who finds Elon to be morally abhorrent but loves his Tesla and drives it unapologetically. He understands the issues with doing so - and yet, he loves his car.
I’m actually surprised by the many people who are just noticing the problems with Elon. A year into my lease I started to see him less as a nut who sold a nice car and more as someone dangerous.
I now drive a car that’s not nearly as nice - but I feel so much better.
There are things that I do that are inconsistent and, I’m sure, morally abhorrent.
Sigh.
In ten minutes I’m going to turn on the TV and watch US v Iran in the World Cup.
I’ll watch. But I won’t tweet about it.
Essay from Dim Sum Thinking Newsletter 140. Read the rest of the Newsletter or subscribe