On Monday, November 6th, 2021 a Norwegian football club in collaboration with Amnesty International as well as a former migrant worker decided to and they have announced that they are releasing new soccer jerseys that are meant to bring awareness to and protest the human rights violations and abuse that takes place in Qatar. Qatar will be the host country of the 2022 World Cup, and this new jersey launch is designed to highlight the abusive conditions of people in Qatar.
The football club from northern Norway, Tromso, has considered themselves the first professional football club globally that is willing and able to speak out in opposition to what they call, “inhumane conditions,” in the country of Qatar. Back in February of 2021, Tromso formally asked the Norwegian Soccer Federation to boycott the 2022 World Cup tournament if their national Norwegian team had qualified for the major sporting event.
Tromso has now newly released a 3rd alternate jersey / uniform that features a QR – code which if scanned will link to a web – page that, “Will give you more and more information,” regarding what is really occurring in the controversial country of Qatar according to the outspoken Norwegian football club of Tromso.
Tromso explained that Malcolm Bidali has previously spent a lot of time and effort in creating this new 3rd – jersey for Tromso that protests the human rights violations and abuse that happens on the daily in countries like Qatar. Bidali was formerly a Kenyan – native security guard that ultimately wrote extremely convincing dispatches under an alias that was in regards to the everyday challenges and devastating conditions of living as a low – wage worker in the country of Qatar, and he strongly advocates for their rights as human beings.
The authorities in Qatar have formally convicted Bidali of sharing, “fake news,” and they have seized his cellular telephone as well as Bidali’s social media accounts according to the word of multiple civil rights groups. Throughout the judicial process involving Bidali one migrant rights collective covered the $6,800 fine that was placed upon him, and he was eventually released from his months – long captive detention in last August of 2021. Now Bidali is a strong advocate for this truly important human rights cause that is currently being heavily backed up by the Scandinavian football club of Tromso along with Amnesty International.
Media Statements
“We can’t pretend football and politics are unrelated, and we must never look the other way when some use our beautiful game to overshadow human rights violations. We can change this together,” the Norwegian football club of Tromso relayed to the sports media world. “Stop sports – washing. Keep the game clean.”
Sources:
The Associated Press News Services. “Norwegian team launches jersey to highlight abuses in Qatar”. The Associated Press. December 6, 2021.