Zimbabwe: let them play!

Day -991 WorldCup2022

I wasn't planning anything today but then came across this story and felt the need to make a countdown post out of it.

Zimbabwe may not have a stadium to host their World Cup qualifiers, starting in October of this year. They have 2 more African Cup of Nations qualifiers to host before that (this month and September), making the issue quite pressing. The African Confederation (CAF) have deemed all 3 of the main stadiums in the country to be not fit to host international matches.

This sets off a few worrisome issues in my head. Zimbabwe, by all news accounts, has had it's fair share of hardships over the last few years, lives lived in ways that the majority of us cannot even imagine. As very often happens, wouldn't sport, football in this case, be a good distraction, a way to create a bit of a feel good factor in the country? And, maybe, even a way to unite the divisions that split the country so badly for a number of years. Isn't taking international football away from them another kick in the teeth for the suffering country? And wouldn't the sight on TV( (for those who can watch) of their country playing "home" matches in another country be another humiliation that the poor Zimbabweans don't need?

So let them play. Give them that. Are the stadiums really that bad? Are they unsafe? Is their a risk to spectators' lives? If so, where is Fifa's money, Fifa's mandate to help developing football countries all over the world. Wasn't that the rationale for justifying the awarding of the World Cup to Qatar, to take football to new markets. But what do the Zimbabweans think of the billions of dollars being spent in Qatar on fancy new hotels, roads, airports, stadiums when they can't even get what is needed to refurbish one stadium.

And then there's my contradictory self-argument. If money does come, from the government or Fifa or another international organization, wouldn't it be better spent on something more important for the majority of Zimbabweans than a football stadium? There are many initiatives, and investments, that would improve their life.

In the end the injustice is always unfair, and the poor countries always seem to suffer more.