Banned Armbands, Protest Kits, and the “Wrong Orange”: Jersey Dispatches from the 2022 World Cup

The FIFA World Cup kicked off Sunday in Qatar, punctuating but hardly dispelling a decade’s worth of tension that’s built up since the country won hosting rights back in 2010. Soccer fans, players, executives, and governing bodies have struggled to square a morass of grievances—ranging from conservative Qatar’s restrictive laws to reports of corruption and human rights abuses related to the construction-related deaths of over 6,000 primarily South Asian migrant laborers—with the notion of a purportedly inclusive global sporting event. In the lead-up to this year’s games, many participating teams announced they would wear their protest on their literal sleeves…. Read Full Article