Out MLS player Robbie Rogers has
criticized FIFA's decision to hold the next two World Cups in nations
where its LGBT citizens have few rights.
FIFA awarded the 2018 World Cup to
Russia, while the 2022 soccer tournament will be held in Qatar.
In an op-ed for USA
Today, titled FIFA Fails to Support Gays, Rogers
chided the organization for not living up to its own ideals.
“FIFA is great at lofty rhetoric,”
the 27-year-old Rogers wrote. “They say their goal is improving
the game of soccer 'constantly and promot(ing) it globally in the
light of its unifying, educational, cultural and humanitarian values,
particularly through youth and development programs.'”
“Those are wonderful ideals and its
how I think of my sport and my place in it as a role model to young
athletes. But FIFA doesn't live those words, not when they decide to
hold the next two World Cups, the most widely watched sporting events
in the world, in Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022, two countries that
fall far short when it comes to humanitarian values, not to mention
their seriously anti-LGBT values and crushing anti-gay laws.”
“If actions speak louder than words,
then the message FIFA sends to gay athletes is painfully clear. Not
only don't they have our backs, our lives don't matter. So for any
gay soccer player who has hopes of playing for the U.S. National Team
at the World Cup, being open about their sexuality could have real
consequences when they set foot in countries with laws that could
land them in jail.”