said again this week that qatar should never have won the bid. so how did it happen? have a listen to what the liverpool manager, jurgen klopp, said last week about where he thinks the blame lies for the decision to go to qatar. you are alljournalists. you have should have sent a message who didn t write the most critical article about it and not about because it s qatar and things nor about the circumstances, which was clear. and this is where we are guilty. that s how it is. but now, telling players you have to wear this armband or if you don t do it, then you are not on their side. and if you do it, you re on their side. no, no, no. it s footballers. it s a tournament we have to organise and the players go there and play and do the best for their countries. joining me isjoey durso investigations writer at rhe athletic, miles coleman, producer and writer of fifa, uncovered a new documentary on netflix, and beth fisher, who s a freelance sports broadcaster. welcome to you all. joey du
so how did it happen? have a listen to what the liverpool manager, jurgen klopp, said last week about where he thinks the blame lies for the decision to go to qatar. you are alljournalists. you have should have sent a message who didn t write the most critical article about it and not about because it s qatar and things nor about the circumstances, which was clear. and this is where we are guilty. that s how it is. but now, telling players you have to wear this armband or if you don t do it, then you are not on their side. and if you do it, you re on their side. no, no, no. it s footballers. it s a tournament we have to organise and the players go there and play and do the best for their countries. joining me isjoey durso investigations writer at rhe athletic, miles coleman, producer and writer of fifa, uncovered a new documentary on netflix, and beth fisher, who s a freelance sports broadcaster. welcome to you all. joey durso let s start with you. isjurgen klopp right that journalists
you know, sports and governing bodies cancel out journalists who ve maybe said the wrong thing. so, has klopp got maybe the right opinion? i would say i don t think he s completely wrong. i think, you know, just like politics, i think sport has a lot to answer for in terms of the journalism that s out there, and basically, who s going out with each other and things like that. so i don t think we can say that we are as innocent as we d like to be. 0k. i mean, miles coleman, joey there was talking about some of the great reporting that s been done, not least the sunday times stuff. there was also the guardian trying to establish how many migrant workers had died during this period of building the stadiums. you re the producer and writer of this new documentary about fifa. what is your take on what klopp said aboutjournalism? i think on the one hand, if we look at the climate in 2009, i 2010, when these bids- were being evaluated, like, nobody took qatar particularly seriously as a bid,
wales as well are in the tournament for the first time in 64 years. it s honestly my worst nightmare. you know, in one hand i ve got, you know, proud welsh woman and on the other hand, you ve got this country which goes against every single value i have in my, in my body. and that, for me, it goes back to fifa and i m so angry at them for making me having to feel like this in a sport which should be for everyone, no matter race, religion, gender, sexuality, whatever. and on this occasion, again, we go back to the case that, no diversity within their top part and surprise, surprise, they ve picked a country which really does mean a minority are kind of cancelled out of enjoying the football. joey, is it going to be, as pr week are suggesting, the worst world cup ever? well, i think a really interesting question is when the football starts, you know, say it is really exciting and there are four games a day, which is more than usual. and i think qatar have thought for 12 years that, yes,
went and reported on it more. that s naturally how. things go in reporting. but i think the important thing to to focus on with| the klopp comments is let s take the counterfactual. - let s imagine that people had published reams and reams l of paper saying how dangerous the qatar world cup would be for workers, i how impractical it d be. let s imagine that there - was just hours of of air time and millions of column inches devoted to it. . it wouldn t have madel a blind bit of difference because the 22 men | and they were all men who voted for this they - didn t even read the bid book, really. we spoke, we interviewed with a gentleman. - we interviewed a gentleman called harry nicholls, - who wrote that bid book for fifa. - he said nobody picked up the phone to him - and asked him . a single question. his conclusion was that these guys didn t even read it. - so what s the counterfactual? ifjournalists had written - everything possible criticising qatar s bid, these guys were not