This is not just a petition. This is a PLEDGE, a PROMISE.
By signing this petition, I PLEDGE that I will NOT watch any games of the 2022 FIFA World Cup if it is played in Qatar.
Right now, workers are dying by the hundreds to build the stadia and infrastructure for this event. Poor migrants from Asian countries looking for work to support their families are forced into inhumane conditions, forced to work themselves essentially to death. I love soccer, and I love the World Cup, but I value human life and dignity more.
Fox Sports paid $425 million for the TV rights to the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. I want Fox Sports to know that its money will be wasted if it does not push FIFA to move the World Cup to a country with at least a 20th Century perspective on the rights of workers. I ask Fox Sports to push FIFA because I know that FIFA doesn't care, but I hope Fox Sports will listen to its viewers, if it wants us to be viewers.
Dear Fox Sports,
You have paid FIFA for the rights to show the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. We are looking forward to watching them, but we won't watch the 2022 World Cup as long as it's in Qatar.
It is well-documented that the workers building the stadia and infrastructure are essentially slaves, and they are dying by the hundreds. This is not acceptable. The government of Qatar doesn't care. FIFA doesn't care. But we care.
We are pledging, now, eight years out, to not watch any games of the 2022 FIFA World Cup if it is played in Qatar. It must be moved to a country that treats human beings like human beings.
You are broadcasters. You did not sign up to get into the politics of this. We understand this. But, like we said, FIFA doesn't care. It won't listen to human rights groups, or the cries of the families of those who have died and those who will die. So we are turning to you. You're in the business of showing games to people, and we are people who are promising not to watch. (For perspective, the author of this petition literally watched all 64 games in 2010, 62 in 2006 and 58 in 2002.) We want you, as a business, to push FIFA, as a business, to move the World Cup somewhere else.
Thank you,
