Fan representative Dario Minden will also boycott the controversial World Cup in Qatar on television. Even if Germany were in the final, he wouldn’t watch the game, said the deputy chairman of the fan umbrella organization “Unsere KURve” in an interview with the “Frankfurter Rundschau”.
“I’m not naïve enough to think that consumer choices will change anything about the big issues we’re experiencing around this tournament. It’s more a question of individual approach. There’s too much evil coming together in this tournament, I think , I just want to avoid becoming completely deadened,” said the 28-year-old.
The prospective lawyer is probably expecting a spectacle on “the green lawn” in the desert state, but that’s not his indicator.
Instead, he welcomes the fact that there were a lot of protests in the fan stands on the last Bundesliga match days. “These are strong images that make me happy and proud. The much-criticized football chaos in Germany’s curves apparently have an intact moral compass that top football has lost in its decision-making centers,” said Minden.
At least the protest documents that “these fans are not a dull mass of consumers who throw their money after professional football and just want to have fun. That gives me courage”.
Minden became the face of Qatar’s critics after a verbal confrontation with the Qatari ambassador to Germany at a DFB congress in September. “I have sex with other men. That’s normal. Get used to it or get out of football,” Minden said to the diplomat on the podium and received a lot of praise online.
Representatives of the LGBTIQ* community have so far advised against traveling to Qatar. The English abbreviation stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans people, intersex and queer people. The asterisk is a placeholder for additional identities and genders.
Before the World Cup tournament from November 20 to December 18, Qatar has long been criticized for human rights violations and the treatment of workers from other countries. Fatal accidents have also occurred on construction sites in the past. The emirate’s government refers to its own reforms and rejects some of the criticism.