By JOHN BOSCHINI
Two employees of a Swiss television station have been released after being detained in Qatar while filming a story on the 2022 World Cup.
Reporter Christophe Cerf and cameraman Yvan Thorimbert were handcuffed and interrogated at police stations before being fined and released with their camera confiscated 10 hours later.
The Swiss television station said Qatar had granted the pair media credentials but according to The Peninsula,Qatar has denied the station's claims, saying they entered on tourist visas. Cerf and Thorimbert were filming in a permitted area when they were arrested.
The camera was returned and the pair were allowed to leave the country after the Swiss ambassador in Kuwait intervened. This incident comes after Qatar, who sits in 121st in Press Freedom Index, made assurances as part of its World Cup bid that restrictions would be eased on members of the press.
Here are some more stories to keep your Tuesday going.
REAL SALT LAKE FOCUSING ON HOME WIN IN CONCACAF FINAL
Real Salt Lake head coach Jason Kreis is focusing on the team's home leg of the CONCACAF Champions League and has conceded that a one-goal loss would be an acceptable result.
"A win would be spectacular," Kreis told the Mexican media. "Even a one-goal loss, if we're able to score a goal, would have to be viewed as a positive result."
Real Salt Lake takes on Monterrey on Wednesday before returning home to Rio Tinto Stadium on April 27. Real Salt Lake has not lost at home since May of 2009 but Kreis will take on Monterrey coach Victor Vucetich, who has not lost in seven finals appearances.
RANGERS’ DIOUF SAYS HE “ADMIRES” GHADAFI
Never one to shy away from controversy, Two-time African player of the year El Hadji Diouf has expressed public sympathy for Libyan leader Moammar Ghadafi.
“He is a man I have always admired,” the Senegalese striker told an Algerian newspaper. “The situation must be very hard for him and his family.”
Diouf said that he was not familiar with the political situation in Libya but that he knows the Ghadafi family and considers them friends.
INIESTA FACES POSSIBLE SUSPENSION FOR CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Barcelona midfielder Andres Iniesta could face a one-match ban and miss next week’s Champions League clash with Real Madrid. The Spanish international was booked during Barcelona’s match with Shakhtar Donetsk in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals.
UEFA will make a determination Wednesday on whether or not the booking was intentional. Barcelona released a statement saying it did not anticipate a ban being leveled.
Barcelona's chances were given a boost with the news that captain Carles Puyol would be fit to play against Madrid.
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What do you think of today's stories? Concerned about press freedom at the 2022 World Cup? Confident Real Salt Lake can win at home? Upset with Diouf over his controversial comments?
Share your thoughts below.
more bad news from the Qatar WC pick, no surprise here. Blatter will be gone by the time it rolls around enjoying the millions he’s gotten from the backdoor bankrolls.
Ives,
AP reporting they were detained for 13 days, you mention 10 hours. Yours seems a bit more reliable, if the did get detained for 13 days we need to take a piece of bossel wood and shove it up Blatters blatter…..
can’t argue with the AWESOME production rate of 3 goals/year…right?????
He’s Alah send to sane US soccer…..
I’m sorry but the US hosted the most successful WC to date and probably would have broken all of its own records had it been awarded 2022. Maybe the bid committee forgot to tell Blatter that! Or maybe he was too busy counting his riyals…
ummm but it is an arab country.
oh im sorry Benny!! I thought a racist comment was a negative remark toward a particular race. In this case, Arabs—-> oppressing women. Damn……was i wrong! Do enlighten me on this eluding definition of racism
Racist comment? Do you even know the definition of the word? There is no intent of racism in his comment. You might not agree with what he said.I might not agree with it but racist it is not.
Not to beat the racist drum, but women in that part of the world ARE treated horribly. It’s not CNN propoganda or stereotypes, it’s truths. If you have your doubts I suggest you look up FGM or check Amnesty International or UN reports on those states.
I’m not saying it’s a Muslim thing or an Arab thing, but to deny it is happening in the region is insulting to those living through it.
Qatar is relatively good about these things, especially in the cities. It’s no where near the western standard, but it’s not Uganda either. Maybe it will progress in the next 11 years, or maybe their autocracy will be overthrown like so many in the region are now.
Those visiting Qatar thinking that all racism, homophobia, and sexism there are radical propaganda are in for a culture shock.
+1
Can I get a Caipirinha in Qatar?
No?
Not going
Not interested
Next
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Americans are fat people 😛
There was a very good article in either this current issue or the last month of World Football magazine which documents how Qatar bribed their way into the World Cup and how they are going to nationalize as many foreign players over the next 8 years. You will be lucky to see one true Qatar player. Now this with the detaining of journalists. If there is any way of getting this event boycotted no matter how much it hurts to get FIFA turned around and reduce the corruption, this would be it. There is still plenty of time to get FIFA to take this event away from Qatar.
or was it casillas? i know it was two players though.
yeah, it was also xabi i believe. stupid rule, but they need to at least be consistent.
If Stuart Holden wasn’t hurt, he would have fixed it.
Thank the Universe for this madness! At least its discourse.
Women againts Shariah
http://womenagainstshariah.blogspot.com/2010/12/football-qatar-2022-gay-rights-groups.html
Gender Gap
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aZNdtnc15Ues
Freedom index
http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=181
This is what you get for having a World Cup in Qatar, LET THE MADNESS BEGIN!
hahahhaha IM INTOLERANT???!? Why? Because im trying to defend a certain race from a racist comment? Believe it or not JJJ, there are good Arabs out there
Have we Americans not learned nothing? It doesnt matter if the majority of a race does follow a certain remark, we dont label the whole race as that.
Example: In less than a 2 decades, the majority of americans will be overweight or obese. Using your damn idiotic logic of yours, it is “a fair point of view” to say Americans are fat people.
The world could have had painted beer bellies, obscenely large dinner portions, rental cars that get 14 MPG and hotel rooms larger than the average Spanish flat; but instead it gets Qatar, its political turmoil and theocratic baggage. Congrats.
C’mon arent you a Revs fan. That Shalrie Benny combo would be deadly.
You’re offended at the initial post (which was hyperbole and poorly worded) but you’ve responded with a non-answer.
Regardless of one’s regard for Islam, it is a mistake to argue that women in most Islamic countries possess the rights of most women in the West or even Asia. Can a woman drive in Saudia Arabia? How many Islamic countries place the same requirements of dress on a man that they also do of a woman? There are still Islamic countries that don’t allow women to vote.
You try to argue that women in Islamic countries who wear the burka or hijab do so out of choice–you’re mostly incorrect. Women who wear those forms of dress in the US or England might get stared at but they would have the right to wear them or not. But there are other Islamic countries where a woman driving an automobile or a woman native to that country wearing shorts or a tanktop are simply not options and to argue otherwise is factually inaccurate.
Last of all, it is a mistake to argue that coverage of such events is “propaganda”. I think it’s a mistake to argue that all men in Islamic countries treat women badly but it is also not true to argue that women have all of the same political and social rights as men do in Islamic countries. As a result, the WC in Qatar is going to be a challenge. It will either limit many groups (gays, women) or Qatar is going to have to change many of their laws and also become more socially tolerant.
Relax man, it is a fair point of veiw. You my friend sound intolerant. Women in the Middle East are typically second class citezens. That is a fact.
Buys them with freedom, cherry coke, Dodge Challengers and Megan Fox. 😉
First to ban slavery huh? Slavery is alive and well. I reference Sudan where Muslims enslave non-Muslims captured in that country’s civil war. Men, women, and children. Why? Because they can according to Islamic law. They do lovely things like remove slaves’ Achilles tendons so they can’t run away, only hobble. Women and girls are used as sex chattel. Very enlighting and respectful as you say. But I know what I see.
Agreed the situation is unclear regarding whether or not this was repression on Qatar’s part but are you really defending Qatar’s record of human rights/tolerance?
There is fear from many that Qatar’s past history of oppression will be practiced come World Cup time.
You talk as if you know for certain that the Qatari government’s response was truthful.
Its not unthinkable that a government with a prior (present?) record of oppression would use one of the favorite tools of oppressors: lying, redacting, bsing.
Your foolish pseudo-argument attempting to point out the hypocrisy of “the ninnies” (ninnies? really? are you a 5 year old brit?) is an evasion.
You have to be kidding me? You make the Arab world and Islam sound like a bastion of hope and liberty. It is a backwards place. And I travel.
You reference thousands of years ago and you’re right, a long time ago they did some good. I don’t need a history lesson. I know that they are the ones who actually kept Greek literature alive when they brought it over to Europe by way of conquered Spain. I know that they allowed, in Spain, other religions to co-exist rather peacefully. I also know that when Catholic Spain took Spain back they told everyone to convert to Catholicism or leave.
But we are talking about today. And in the here and now the Arab world and ruling by the law of Islam produces nothing but backwards societies.
Feilhaber to Houston, I’m calling it now
“one of the host cities has a total population of less than 10K people. What a great idea is to build a stadium for 50K people and put it in a city of less than 10K people!”
It is a great idea…because they are going to disassemble these massive stadiums and fly them over to Africa. So generous.
They would cool the stadiums not the country but your point still stands.
Interesting definition of historical.
Very true. Realistically what could Gulati do? With what leverage? The English press has already exposed the blatant corruption and with what results?
A big problem with FIFA corruption (aside from the fact that they basically monitor themselves) is the sheer number of countries in the organization. Too many spheres of influence. It dilutes the power of bigger nations that can actually see what’s going on.
And we know how FIFA doesn’t like mixing in politics with soccer.
Chris, I don’t think that US FA needed to do much to sway other members – they just needed to nominate someone to run. In FIFA, the nominations are open, but voting is closed. Thus, countries are more likely to vote for a candidate than to nominate him. According to Wahl’s article, the top official from an unnamed European FA told him that they would likely to vote for him if he secured a nomination. I suspect that many associations are secretly disgusted with the current FIFA leadership. As for the risk of jeopardizing our current influence in FIFA, we are definitely behind Qatar in this category. Perhaps Gulati hopes for WC 2026 or 2030, but he would have to compete against several European nations (a sure loss considering how many votes European have) and probably China (which would put together a very strong bid – it never hosted the WC and is a market of over a billion of people, etc.).
“it’s a disgrace they were awarded the final in the first place and I could honestly care less about it.”
This is the point. FIFA supposedly preaches the values of tolerance then rewards a country with a dismal record of tolerance.
I must say though, that although Qatar’s record on intolerance is well-documented, the country has reportedly westernized much since Al-Thani came to power.
Has anyone been to Qatar who can perhaps comment firsthand on the good/bad regarding Qatari human rights/tolerance?
Yeah, Brazilans are immigrating to Qatar in droves.
He’s been given enough opportunites at 21 yrs to straighten this mess out
Eurosnob, if you read the article then I would have thought that you would conclude the US is held captive by CONCACAF (Warner and his army of small poor nations looking for help) and FIFA. Look at the refs we get in important matches, twice we’ve had Lorrionda whose own FA suspended him for irregularities and then we get Coulibaly in the World Cup, a ref that was clearly either bribed or threatened. The US is already being punished and the ones suffering are the players and the fans. I’ve said myself that I wish Gulati would stand up to FIFA but in reality, and in light of Wahl’s article, I would wager he has made the right decision.
Speaking of sports and politics, you know, ive never understood that argument saying that soccer equals socialism. Someone want to start a 50 comment conversation :]
I’m sorry this is a joke. In modern times, which is the only times that matter as it relates to attending an event such as the world cup 2022, holding up Islam as a religion that shows the world the equality of men and women is BS. Women do not have the same rights under Islamic law as they do in western societies.
see
http://www.ntpi.org/html/womensrights.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharia#Women
Who have we bought? Ignorance, much?
Oh yes, the mystical flying air conditioning clouds.
chuck you are awfully ignorant.
Eurosnob, don’t forget to mention the English press and their investigation of FIFA around the time the WCs were voted on. Also, I would argue against the US being the logical one to shake things up. We just don’t have the sway in the soccer world that we do in the world of politics, and what little influence we have on FIFA we definitely don’t want to jeopardize.
I’m sure chuck probably has one in his delusional brain he will spew forth.
That might be the exact word you use…
My backwards religion is better than yours.
Na na na boo boo.
Charity is one of the five pillars of Islam. Laugh. Qatar’s WC is going to be built on the backs of what is essentially foreign slave labor.
Shane, you are missing the point. None of the European FAs had as big of a mudpie thrown into their face as the US FA received, when Qatar won WC2022. England’s FA might be upset about their loss, but they competed against strong bids from Russia and Spain/Portugal. And England’s campaign with all the drama surrounding it was far from being stellar (resignation of the bid director, skirmishes with Russia’s FA officials, negative press coverage, etc). One might disagree with the decision as to whether Russia was the best bid, but at least it passes the “red face” test. Qatar’s bid does not.
Nominating Wahl is not the same as mudslinging or sour grapes. It is perfectly legitimate to nominate a candiate to challenge the establishment when you want a change. But with all the talk to media about running the clean ship and being disappointed with the voting results, Gulati was not willing to challenge the FIFA establishment and the way they run things.
As for Wahl’s article, I actually read it. The first question from other FAs to Wahl was why the US Soccer Federation would not nominite him since he is a US citizen. Under the circumstances, the US FA is the most logical FA to shake things up and have someone to run to challenge the existing system, whether its Wahl or someone else.