England manager, Gareth Southgate has come out to say that the country will not boycott the Qatar 2022 World Cup later this year. He recently had his say while speaking to the press, and fans have been reacting.
According to him, he really doesn’t understand what any boycotting move would achieve on such a complicated matter, and the tournament would always go on with or without England.
Southgate added that Italy not qualifying for the tournament was a big surprise, but people must know that qualification is never a guarantee.
His words, “I don’t really know what that achieves,”
“It would be a big story, but the tournament would go ahead.”
“The fact, unfortunately, is the biggest issue, which is non-religious and non-cultural, is what happened with the building of the stadiums and there is nothing we can do about that either, sadly.”
“We have known for eight years that this is going to be in Qatar. Is the stance against Qatar as a country? We are intertwined, as we are seeing with Russia, with all sorts of investment in this country.”
“This is complicated. The issues themselves aren’t complicated; all the repercussions of diplomatic relations and dealing with other countries and other organisations are extremely complicated.”
On Italy not making the World Cup, “It was a big surprise. I think qualifying always is [underestimated] anyway.
“I suspect looking at the results and performances that Italy were in that position, but there were fine margins in three or four of their games and that is football.”
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