The Liverpool manager will not be attending and admits he is unenthusiastic about a tournament shrouded in controversy, from the abuse of migrant workers to the treatment of LGBTQ+ fans. Klopp believes there should have been a strong challenge to FIFA awarding the competition to Qatar in 2010. In the absence of one, he insists the likes of Gareth Southgate and Harry Kane should not have led any protests. “I watched an old documentary about when it was announced that Russia and Qatar are the venues for the next World Cup,” the Liverpool manager said. “We all know how it happened and we all let it happen. No legal stuff then led to a real… what can I say? It was hidden everywhere, but now it’s out in the open, now everyone knows, and you think: “How could it happen?” It was 12 years ago. It has nothing to do with Qatar. They won the World Cup and now they are there. But the moment you put it there, all the things that followed it were clear. And the people involved at the time had to know it. “Then we talk about human rights in terms of the people who have to work there in conditions that are, let me put it nicely, difficult. We couldn’t play the World Cup there in the summer because of the temperature and there wasn’t even a stadium in Qatar, or maybe one. So you have to build stadiums. I don’t think anyone thought that day that someone should build them. It’s not like Aladdin with his magic lamp and, “Boom, there’s a new stadium.” The situation makes you angry. How can it not be? “I will watch it from a footballing point of view but I don’t like the fact that the players now have to send a message. You are all journalists. You had to send the message, but you didn’t write the most critical articles about the circumstances that were clear. We are guilty there. But now we tell the players they have to wear an armband and if they don’t then it’s not on their side. NO NO NO; These are footballers, it’s a tournament and the players have to go there and play and do their best for their countries. It has nothing to do with the circumstances. “There are wonderful people there and it’s not that everything is bad there, but how it happened was not right in the first place. But now they are there, let them play the game as players and coaches. Don’t constantly put Gareth Southgate in a situation where he has to talk about everything. He has an opinion but he is not a politician, I am not a politician. he’s England manager so let him do it. If you want to write about something else, do it, but do it yourself without asking us, so it’s “Klopp said” or “Southgate said”. As if that would change anything. You, more than I, let it happen 12 years ago.” Klopp was quoted as saying that the media have done more to expose human rights abuses in Qatar than anyone in the football community. “But not then,” he replied. “There were a lot of chances over the next three or four years to say the process wasn’t right and a lot of people got money for the wrong reasons.” The Football Association will challenge Klopp’s £30,000 fine for his red card against Manchester City as it seeks a more severe punishment. Klopp was fined by an independent regulatory body after accepting a misconduct charge for harassing assistant referee Gary Beswick during Liverpool’s 1-0 win over City on October 16. The FA and the Liverpool manager could appeal against the punishment after reviewing the committee’s written reasons and, with Klopp having avoided a ban, the former confirmed he would contest the sanction.
