Roy Keane, Graeme Souness and Joe Cole all said their piece, but Souness had more to say.
The topic was Qatar, their hosting of the 2022 World Cup and, between them, the three lads agreed that this whole thing is not right.
“They’ll be praying that the football will make it a great tournament,” began Souness, “and people won’t be talking about [sportswashing and human rights issues] going forward.
“But I’m afraid, you know, there are so many activists out there that they will forever be talking about Qatar and their human rights record,” began Souness.
“That’s a fact of life. They have to deal with that, and by having a World Cup here, they have a chance to make certain things right but they are not going to do everything right.”
Keane was even more forthright in his views.
“The World Cup shouldn’t be here,” added the Cork-man
“The corruption, the way they treat migrant workers, gay people. I think it’s great it’s been brought up. They shouldn’t have the World Cup here. You can’t treat people like that.
“It’s all about common decency, about how you treat people. Let’s go back to basics, it’s about decency,” he added.
"The World Cup shouldn't be here, you've got a country and the way they treat migrant workers, gay people. We're on about spreading the game but dismissing human rights, it's not right. It shouldn't be here."
Powerful words from Roy Keane about the World Cup in Qatar pic.twitter.com/lAUbItPC0Z
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) November 22, 2022
ITV host Laura Woods was about to wrap the whole discussion up but that was when Souness interjected. And that was when, at the risk of sounding hypocritical, the Scots man noted that Great Britain has been ‘far from perfect’ in their own history. He then singled out Ireland, in particular, as a country that the British has a chequered history in.
“Can I just say we’re not perfect as well in our history,” he said.
“We’re not perfect. You know the British haven’t been perfect in many parts of the world, and including in Roy’s country (Ireland). We’ve been far from perfect.”
You can watch the full clip here.
"Can I just say we're not perfect as well in our history. We're not perfect.
"You know the British haven't been perfect in many parts of the world, and including in Roy's country (Ireland).
"We've been far from perfect." – Graeme Souness.https://t.co/OaG4XQop6K
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) November 22, 2022
