Philip Patrick Philip Patrick

Will the end of zero Covid be the real legacy of the World Cup?

(Photo: Getty)

You often hear about ‘legacy’ when international sporting tournaments come around. It’s a weasel word used by the organisers to justify the colossal expense by promising some lasting benefit – which usually comes to nothing. But perhaps with the Qatar World Cup, one of the most controversial in the competition’s history, there may be a worthwhile legacy, though not one the organisers could possibly have anticipated.

Ironically, it is probably the sheer boringness of much World Cup football that has led to so much of the TV coverage focusing on the crowd

For it is being suggested that the scenes of maskless supporters in Qatar’s soccer stadia has helped push the Chinese, suffocating and desperate after repeated lengthy and fiercely enforced lockdowns, to take to the streets and mount the most serious challenge to Xi Jinping’s regime yet seen.

The World Cup seems to be seriously undermining the foundations of the zero Covid policy. On the popular WeChat messaging app on Tuesday an open letter was posted questioning the country’s Covid-19 policies. ‘Audiences at the World Cup are not wearing masks or required to have PCR tests with them. Are they on the same planet we live? Doesn’t the virus hurt them?’ the person asked. The message was quickly removed by the censors. In response to the terrible optics it seems that Chinese TV is trying to edit such scenes by cutting to shots of the coaches instead.

How can it be, some Chinese people appear to be thinking, that such an array of nationalities co-mingling with wild abandon, singing, dancing, and embracing has not led to countless deaths? Qatar even dropped its negative PCR requirement for entering the country at the beginning of November and there is no regular testing to see if you have acquired the disease post arrival. There is plenty of face paint in evidence, but hardly a face mask in sight in the stands in Qatar.

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