Football and politics are inseparable. It might be true in the USA that sports pacify the population, but in the rest of the world you have football fans start

Football and politics are inseparable. It might be true in the USA that sports pacify the population, but in the rest of the world you have football fans starting wars (real wars), overthrowing governments, politicians and dictators owning clubs (being a director of a football club is a legitimate stepping stone in a lot of European politics), etc. At the football forums I am a regular the top topics recently have all been about Qatar, the World Cup bid, etc. The only reason Human Rights Watch picked up this campaign (they are late to the party) is because The Guardian and its football writers started writing about Qatar (and the example of the player cited within) before and after they won the World Cup bid.