England skipper Harry Kane will aim to hold talks with other national team captains so they can be “unified” in their approach to highlighting the issues surrounding the Qatar World Cup.
Male homosexuality is punishable by a prison sentence, same-sex marriages are not recognised by the government and women’s rights are much tighter than in some other parts of the world.
Accusations concerning the treatment of migrant workers and a poor record of human rights have plagued the Gulf state since it was controversially awarded the finals in 2010.
Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate admits it is a “great shame” that sections of England supporters will not travel to Qatar for the World Cup this winter and stressed that no one is “complacent” about the issues involved.
Southgate led a meeting with the squad on Tuesday night to discuss the issues, with Kane revealing the conversation ran for over half an hour.
“It’s important to understand that first and foremost, as players we didn’t chose where this World Cup was going to be,” Kane said.
“It’s shone a light on important issues that might not have come to light if this World Cup wasn’t there. We have to try to help as much as possible to understand the issues and situations.
“We’re no experts in that field at the moment, in terms of what we know. As always we’ll try to help in any way we can, use our platform to help in any way we can.
We're live with @HKane at St. George's Park as the #ThreeLions skipper chats to the media! 🎙 https://t.co/QACdtT7XDC— England (@England) March 23, 2022
“Obviously there’s a couple of other national captains at Tottenham, maybe also talking to other national team captains to see if we can be unified in how we approach it.
“That’s something that myself and other senior players in the team will try to achieve in the coming months.”
Kane also echoed the sentiments of Southgate when asked about the safety of England fans travelling to Qatar who are members of the LGBTQ+ community.
“I think it’s really important,” he added.
“As a nation we want our fans to really enjoy the tournament as much as hopefully we enjoy the tournament and we want them to feel free to watch the games how they please and to act as they want to act.
“Look it’s really important, like I touched on earlier, that discussions are being had and hopefully progress is being made because football is for all, football is for everyone and the World Cup is a great opportunity to show that.
“There is no bigger stage and Qatar will obviously be on that big stage and the light will be shone on them and we want to be coming away after that World Cup with everyone having an amazing experience.”
England’s players were focused on qualifying for the World Cup before they addressed any questions on Qatar.
But Kane insists they are now learning about the issues at play and how best to highlight them leading into the finals in November.
“We had that meeting last night,” he added.
“It was important to talk with the manager, staff and players. We wanted to qualify for the World Cup before doing that and we’ve done that, so it was our first chance to have that chat.
“Gareth led that meeting. We spoke about what to expect, some of the important issues surrounding the World Cup.
“For us now as players, it’s simple: to talk amongst ourselves at this camp and the camps going forward in June. As a group we’ve never shied away from important issues, we’ve always had our opinions and always tried to show unity in everything we’ve done.
“That will happen now in this camp and the next camp – to try to help in any way we can to support those issues.
“(The meeting) lasted 30 minutes or so and there were some issues raised. What we’ll probably do now is send information around the squad, so people have the information and can learn about it even more.
“Individuals can take advice on their own if they want to learn and understand it even more. It’s an important issue. There’s still a lot of progress to be made but hopefully all of us can try to make change with the platforms that we have.”
In response to Kane’s comments, Peter Frankental – Amnesty International UK’s Economic Affairs Director – said: “It’s encouraging that Harry Kane, Gareth Southgate and others in the England camp are discussing some of the very serious human rights issues surrounding the World Cup, and we’d like to see more of this.
“The manager and players have a huge platform to highlight issues like the exploitation of migrant workers in Qatar and it would be great to see Gareth Southgate and the players using their profiles to bring some of the positive change we all want to see.
“In our view, there is much more that FIFA and the FA could do to challenge the Qatari authorities over the country’s woeful labour rights record and push them to ensure proper remedy for those whose rights have been violated.”
