Amy Hamm: Seattle's World Cup 'Pride Match' is pure virtue-signalling

Sport, a great equalizer, transcends politics. Or at least it should.

The organizers of the FIFA World Cup games in Seattle have either never learned about effective sports diplomacy or are too arrogant to care.

SeattleFWC26, the non-profit group organizing the World Cup events in the city, designated a June 26 match between Egypt and Iran as the “Pride Match.” The game roughly coincides with the start of Seattle’s annual Pride Parade. And so, the group has taken it upon itself to unofficially brand the sporting event with messages, and artwork, of LGBT inclusion.

Both Iran and Egypt have lodged complaints about SeattleFWC26’s actions with FIFA. They want the Pride branding cancelled. That’s unlikely, because the Seattle group has gone full bore on connecting soccer and sexual orientation.

“As hundreds of thousands of visitors and millions of viewers turn their attention to Seattle during Pride weekend, we have a rare opportunity to make a lasting impact — one that educates the world, inspires our LGBTQ+ community and uplifts LGBTQ+ businesses and cultural organizations,” SeattleFWC26 explained.

“Our aim was to find a design that connected the FIFA World Cup 26 with a powerful message of LGBTQ+ inclusivity.”

It’s no secret that gay people in both Iran and Egypt face terrible — and sometimes deadly — homophobia. But not at the hands of professional soccer players.

While FIFA’s statutes explicitly state that the organization “remains neutral in matters of politics and religion,” that does not mean that the organization condones discrimination or homophobia.

Its rules prohibit discrimination on all the usual grounds, from race to gender, religion, opinion, sexual orientation and more. Member associations and individuals can be suspended or expelled from FIFA for failing to adhere to its statutes.

Iran and Egypt have not been suspended or expelled by FIFA because they do not bring politics onto the soccer field, where they do not belong.

The Iranian state’s violent and murderous homophobia is abhorrent. The Iranian people, however, are not the Iranian regime — and most (around 80 per cent, according to a June 2024 survey) reject their political leaders.

Iranians are acutely aware of what happens to the country’s dissidents. The state may well publicly hang them from a crane. “Crimes” as minuscule as insulting the Prophet or criticizing the government regularly land young men and women in prison, often with death sentences.

Egypt, meanwhile — where Islam is the state religion, Shariah law is enshrined in the country’s legal system and democracy is about as robust as a boiled carrot — is scarcely safer for gay people. Laws prohibiting “debauchery” are used to oppress gays and lesbians, even if homosexuality isn’t explicitly outlawed.

Iran and Egypt are places where challenging state orthodoxy, on sexual orientation or anything else, won’t just get you “cancelled” or criticized on the internet — it might very well get you killed. A “Pride” soccer match in Seattle is not going to change any of this.

The World Cup, with its global stage, is not the place to virtue-signal progressive politics by provoking officials from Islamic countries — no matter how worthy the cause may be.

Do the organizers really think that some artwork and the word “Pride” will, as they boast, “educate the world”? It will not. It is pure hubris for these activists to taint the apolitical nature of sports. The world knows about the oppression of homosexuals in the Middle East, and it knows that the West is, by contrast, a haven for the oppressed.

It is these Seattle activists who are the ones in need of education, both about why the non-partisanship of sports is sacred and about what real struggle looks like. A hint: it does not look like privileged westerners with a saviour complex attempting to bait and provoke repressive regimes at the expense of athletes who’ve trained their entire lives for the glory of competing in the World Cup.

Get your politics off the turf.

National Post