I am all for taking ethical stands, but if you are going to do so it does help to show a little bit of consistency. Today, Argentina cancelled its World Cup warm-up game against Israel in protest, it seems, at Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. According to striker Gonzalo Higuain, the players ‘have done the right thing’ in refusing to play – and have been warmly applauded by the Palestinian Football Association.
So, the Argentinians will miss out their proposed stop in Israel and proceed directly to the World Cup in, er, Russia. Yes, Russia, the country which four years ago annexed the territory of another state, Ukraine, and which, just three months ago, has been implicated in the attempted assassination of a double agent on another country’s soil. If Argentinian football players really want to make a stand on human rights why on Earth are they turning out for the World Cup at all?
Come to think of it, why are they happy to represent Argentina on the football field? I am not making a comment here on the country’s reputation for cheating on the field of play – though the country will forever be sullied by the fact it owes one of its two World Cup victories to a ball thumped in the back of the net with the fist of a supposed great player (I reckon even I could be a passable footballer if the ref granted me alone the right to handle the ball). I
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