Brondby fans want Eriksen's Danes to boycott the World Cup
The supporters of the traditional Danish club Brondby Copenhagen have called on their national football association (DBU) to boycott the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The club's leading fan representatives announced on Tuesday that the DBU is calling for a number of national associations to gather around and boycott the World Cup. Another possibility is to send only the athletes and coaches to Qatar, but to show resistance to the controversial host at every game.
“We are for football as we know it. We are against the betrayal of football that the World Cup in Qatar is expressing,” said the fans. Modern football is no longer about healthy values, sport and competition, but more and more about power and money. The Qatar World Cup is the best example of this worrying development.
The club reacted immediately to the demands of its supporters, but without speaking out in favor of a boycott. The DBU must enter into a closer dialogue with fans, partners and other associations in order to jointly bring about changes in Qatar, explained Brondby.
Boycott calls for boycotts had also recently been loud in Norway, but not only from the fans, but from several clubs. A boycott of Denmark would have much more weight: In the current FIFA world rankings, the country is currently in tenth place. However, it is very uncertain that this will happen: So far, the signals from the DBU have indicated that there should be no boycott, but rather other ways of working towards changes at the World Cup host.
After the first three qualifying games, there are only minor doubts that the Danes will participate in the World Cup. Christian Eriksen and Co. are also leading thanks to a 4-0 win against the ÖFB team in Vienna with four points and a significantly better goal difference in front of Scotland, Austria is one more point behind in fourth place.
Norway, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands recently raised awareness of the human rights situation in Qatar with T-shirt campaigns at their World Cup qualifiers. Before the Denmark match, Austria's national team presented a banner with the words “Protect human rights” during the anthems.
The World Cup host has come under international criticism for exploiting guest workers. According to research by the Guardian, more than 6,500 workers from five Asian countries have died in the rich emirate over the past ten years. Qatar's government said that reforms in recent years have significantly improved the situation of workers.
