Sick and tired of FIFA’s belligerence and lack of transparency over the awarding of the World Cup to Russia and Qatar?
Concerned about FIFA’s failure to investigate serious allegations of corruption and bribery surrounding the World Cup bidding process?
Horrified at the prospect of world’s premier football tournament being played in 40c+ heat, let alone the thousands of slave labourers risking their lives to build air conditioned stadiums in the middle of the desert?
Then join with the Public Apology and (Geoffrey) Boycott the World Cup.
This is not your typical boycott. It is not about shunning the tournament or refusing to watch its matches.
Rather, like its namesake Geoffrey, it is about doing as much as we can as supporters to make the World Cup really boring.
Geoffrey Boycott was notorious for his ability to occupy the crease for the English cricket team, sometimes for whole sessions, without attempting to score any runs. This tediously negative style of play was the antithesis of entertainment, yet was also very effective.
Instead of not attending the World Cup tournament in protest, we want fans to take a leaf out of Geoffrey’s book. That is, to show up and be incredibly boring. This will include:
- Wearing all beige clothes instead of team jerseys or colours,
- Reading the newspaper or napping during matches,
- Drinking tea instead of alcohol (not that there will be a choice in Qatar),
- Expressing general apathy to the outcomes of games, and
- Generally ignoring everything that happens on the pitch.
This protest will not be violent. Rather, it will be the vein of the civil disobedience espoused by Henry David Thoreau – gentle, conscious opposition through non-traditional means.
FIFA understands money, and the World Cup is its primary source of revenue. If we want to reach FIFA we need to talk their language. By making the upcoming World Cups really boring, the tournament will cease to be an entertaining spectacle.
In doing so, football fans will send a clear message to FIFA to clean up its act.
To join the (Geoffrey) Boycott of the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups in Russia and Qatar sign up to our newsletter on the top right-hand side of the page, or follow us on twitter at @boycottworldcup and @thepubapology
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