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Good morning. England’s footballers arrive in Qatar tomorrow. They’re virtual fixtures in the world cup finals. Their Welsh rivals in the same group haven’t made this stage for 64 years. This is their seriously Big Moment and it’s being revelled in across the nation This is about much more than sport.
But with a share in the reflected glory, also comes a share in the dilemma. Few can now remain unaware of the charges against Qatar’s human rights record – the deaths of migrant workers who built the stadiums, persistent abuse of employment rights, indignation about the status of women, criminalisation of the LGBT community.

Many would argue that the focus has often been unfair and ignores how recently many western countries have changed their attitudes. But any country pitching for the prestige of such a global event is inviting scrutiny. The potentially embarrassing examination is part of the deal. Human rights are a universal principle, which Christians root in such ideas as every individual being created in the image of God and vested with unique dignity because of that.

Many individual players, and some whole teams, have insisted on making their views known, keen to dissociate themselves from any abuses.
What’s a committed fan to do? Maybe they were due to be fulfilling the dream of a lifetime in one of those glistening new stadiums. We’re told that some have changed their minds and now won’t be travelling (though I suspect they’re a tiny minority); and they could just join those who feel so strongly that they’ll even abstain from watching on television (not too many of those either I suspect).

What difference will any of it make? A question which might of course be an excuse for doing what we’d always intended anyway, like holidaying in an attractive destination where we can simply choose not to notice the abuses around us.

I wonder whether Welsh supporters might reflect on their adopted anthem Yma o hyd (a 40 year old protest ballad from the folk singer Dafydd Iwan). It’s electrified the grounds where Wales have fought their way to these finals. ‘Despite everyone and everything, we’re still here,’ it says of the people and language of Wales. It’s affirming a small nation and its identity.

Whatever choices they make about the world cup, I hope that whenever they sing it in future, they’ll hear an echo back from the labourers in many other places being cruelly exploited, from the oppressed and marginalised and demeaned. ‘We’re still here, too,’ they’ll be saying: and what will you at least try to do about it? Long after this tournament has ended, I think those cries should still be challenging all of us.

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