“We Formula 1 or FIFA just say no”: Sebastian Vettel suggests F1 & FIA to create moral compass to say no to countries with bad human rights record

Tanish Chachra | 26/11/2022
"We Formula 1 or FIFA just say no": Sebastian Vettel suggests F1 & FIA to create moral compass to say no to countries with bad human rights record

With the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar, so much controversy has surrounded the event. The event has been tarnished under bribery charges ever since FIFA allocated the 2022 rights to the middle-east country.

During the event, FIFA had to ban football team captains from wearing rainbow armbands, and even $75 million worth of Budweiser beers have also not been transported to Qatar after the country’s last-minute ban on alcoholic drinks in the stadium.

Thus, it has brought bad repute to FIFA from the Western media. On the other hand, even F1 has a decade-long contract with Qatar to hold Grand Prix races. With a regime keeping the rights of the LGBTQ+ population hostage and already having tarnished human rights record. The question arises should major sports go there and help improve their image?

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Sebastian Vettel suggests a moral compass

Vettel, seeing all major sports, going to countries like Qatar and Saudi Arabia isn’t comfortable. He suggests to F1 and FIFA that they avoid going to countries with bad human rights records. They should make a moral code for criteria that makes a country eligible for a big sporting tournament.

“Sports should draw up a moral code [that]…define[s] exactly what the basic political conditions must be for sport to be allowed to take place in a country. Otherwise, we as Formula 1 or FIFA just say no. And don’t just nod in a friendly way and take the money,” said Vettel [translated by DeepL].

Vettel himself, back in Qatar in 2021, wore a rainbow t-shirt. The stewards reportedly reprimanded him for his political messaging, as Qatar sees homosexuality as a crime. But Vettel remained firm and told the officials to remove him from the race if they wanted.

In the end, Vettel continued with the weekend. But he doesn’t expect players to make constant sacrifices like this, as he believes a world cup is a big event in their lives, and for the sake of political messaging, ending their world cup wouldn’t be fair.

The change can still be done

F1 drivers like Lewis Hamilton and Vettel see a positive in visiting these countries. They believe that their presence and inclusion in the outside world and criticism from them would want the younger generation to step ahead against the state-sponsored atrocities.

So, he doesn’t see visiting Qatar as an absolutely bad idea. Vettel believes at this time. It’s difficult for countries to keep their human rights atrocities under the rug.

Or say that it’s the way here. With international media watching them constantly throughout any major tournament being hosted, there is a level of checks against those governments.

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Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
Aston Martin FIFA WC22 Sebastian Vettel

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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