Soccer Players Who Talk the Talk but Don’t Walk the Walk
It was a moment that many had anticipated and looked forward to. Prior to the opening of the 2022 World Cup, a coalition of soccer players from the United States, England, and other European nations planned to wear rainbow-colored armbands that said one love in honor of LGBTQ rights. Unfortunately, their plans were quickly quashed by Qatar’s government, which has a long history of discrimination against LGBTQ people. These soccer players’ unwillingness to stand up for what they believe in shows just how much empty rhetoric can be behind so-called “virtue signaling.”
The term “virtue signaling” is used to describe when someone or some organization takes an outwardly progressive stance on an issue without taking any real action or making any real changes. It has become increasingly popular over the past few years as more and more people have jumped on the bandwagon of various social justice causes without actually doing anything to make those causes happen.
Many of these players are willing to virtue signal when a sponsor asks them to, and money trickles into their bank account. But when it comes to actually loving gay people and standing up to a homophobic country, we hear crickets from these overpaid soccer wimps. Qatar dropped a big turd on gay rights this world cup, and civilized soccer players were not brave enough to stand up to a second-world country.
In this case, these soccer players meant well—they wanted to show solidarity with LGBTQ people around the world by wearing rainbow-colored armbands at the World Cup. But when push came to shove, and they were confronted with actual consequences for their actions (in this case, potential penalties on the field from FIFA), they chose not to go through with it. This shows just how much lip service is being paid by these players and other organizations when it comes to social justice issues—they talk a big game but aren’t willing to put themselves on the line.
What these soccer players should have done is taken a stand against Qatar and its oppressive laws towards LGBTQ people—not just by wearing armbands but also by using their influence (and vast resources) as professional athletes to speak out against injustice. That would have been true virtue signaling: putting your words into meaningful action rather than simply posturing for attention. These players should have boycotted the FIFA world cup.
Ultimately, this incident reveals that even in today’s supposedly enlightened society, there are still many people who don’t take social justice issues seriously enough—or are too scared or unwilling to do something about them. These people would rather see a paycheck than make a point to the anti-gay world. It also demonstrates how important it is for all of us to go beyond lip service if we want real change; otherwise, our good intentions will amount to nothing more than empty rhetoric. We must strive every day to talk about social justice issues and take meaningful action—otherwise, our words will mean nothing at all.