I travelled back to London on Sunday evening. I had only been away for a few weeks and in my absence there was only one story. Not the snow or the student protests. The only residual snow I have seen in the last few days was on the side of the M25. And the students have lost the argument. That just leaves the X-Factor. So, I have been feeling a bit like Cinderella, the only one without an invite to the X-Factor final ball, (I was on a plane at the time).
But I have done my best to catch up with the burning issue of the week. It came down to: one boy band, one black female singer with a great voice, and a painter and decorator from Essex. My daughter was completely outraged that the boy band didn’t win, as was judge Simon Cowell. His face was a picture, especially after all the effort he put into dragging Robbie and Take That onto the show, and pushing the whole boy band thing into the nation’s consciousness at every opportunity. Hey, but we know that Brits love an underdog with a good story, so the painter and builder won hands down.
Now the story that has silenced the X-Factor debate has been the controversial comments by Sepp Blatter, telling gay football fans to ‘refrain from sexual activity’ in Qatar in 2022. That is, if they are worried about their human rights. Well naturally they should be worried. Homosexuality is illegal in Qatar, with some serious consequences for those who get caught, including non-citizens. Is that likely to change by 2022? Probably not. So while he talks about football having no boundaries and fighting discrimination of any kind, he is also the man who said that women footballers should wear ‘tighter shorts’ if they wanted to make their sport more popular. Sounds like some of the men at the top of FIFA, brave anti-discrimination fighters that they are, have some issues of their own to resolve.
Imagine the scenario 12 years from now. Sepp jokes that people, gays or anyone for that matter, should refrain from having sex in public in Qatar. Well, it is probably not the first thing most football fans were planning on doing if they decided to attend that particular world cup. On the other hand, people get sunstroke, (quite likely in Qatar), and do ridiculous things; people get drunk, (a crime in itself in Qatar), and do ridiculous things, often involving sex. Imagine all three things happening at the same time and the people involved are gay. Then there are the prison sentences, the lashes and the diplomatic incident. Sepp’s joking is just not funny, even though plenty of people at the press conference in South Africa seemed to find it amusing, judging by the puerile sniggering that went on.
People joke about Essex man not being that evolved, but in comparison Sepp and the Fifa committee look positively Neolithic. If there were a competition for obnoxious, unreconstructed, white, old men, Sepp would definitely have the X-Factor!
