FOOTBALL has no special place in society.
There can be no exceptionalism for football, any more than there can be exceptionalism for the church, or business, or the law, or the police, or the press.
For too long, some sections of the footballing world have thrown dust in the eyes of civilised society - from the sickening levels of high pay for players, to the treatment of women, members of the LGBT community and ethnic minorities.
Now, this country - which prides itself on championing human rights and decency - will have to endure playing host to the Scotland v Qatar game this coming Friday: a match which symbolises the scandals at the heart of this week's ongoing allegations about corruption at the heart of Fifa, the game's governing body.
When Qatar won the right to host the 2022 World Cup it embarked on building stadiums and infrastructure which led to the deaths of at least 1200 migrant workers due to poor and dangerous conditions. The International Trade Union Confederation expects 4000 more worker deaths by 2022.
Fifa is facing the collapse of its top-dollar sponsorship deals following the arrest of senior officials on suspicion of corruption. A criminal inquiry has been launched into the choosing of the location of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. With this kind of backdrop, some leading lights in football have compared Scotland playing Qatar at Easter Road in Edinburgh next Friday to taking to the pitch against South Africa during the apartheid era.
The SFA, which has called on Sepp Blatter to go, has even floated the idea of boycotting World Cups, yet is happy for Scotland to play Qatar. It seems an absurd position, and the SFA is tying itself in logical knots.
Scotland needs to take a stand. By allowing this game to go ahead, the SFA is not only bowing the knee to Blatter and saying his reign is acceptable, but also condoning the granting of the World Cup to Qatar, and accepting the dire human rights abuses suffered by workers in that country.
The Scottish Government - which often talks of human rights - needs to get its hands dirty. It too has spoken out about the need to hold Qatar to account over the abuse of workers, but it has not spoken out about the morally questionable position of hosting the Scotland-Qatar match in Edinburgh on Friday. That the match going ahead endorses actions which all right-thinking people, whether football fans or not, find abhorrent.
Scotland is building a reputation for itself as a beacon of progressive values. But talk is not enough. If you want to talk the progressive talk, you need to walk the progressive walk - whether you are a football apparatchik or a member of government. So, we want to hear those in power - in Holyrood and in the SFA - say four simple words: call off the match.
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