David Zirin

... only in a world so upside down could “the Beautiful Game” be run by an organisation as corrupt as FIFA and by a man as rotten to the core as FIFA President Sepp Blatter. Only Sepp Blatter, whose reputation for degeneracy approaches legend, would hire a war criminal like Henry Kissinger to head “a committee of wise persons” aimed at “rooting out corruption” in his organisation. And only these two twinning avatars of amorality would use “the Beautiful Game” as an instrument of Islamaphobia.

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Those who bleat that "sports and politics" should be kept separate when an athlete dares express an opinion, should turn their outrage toward Blatter, Kissinger, and FIFA's decision to see soccer as a tool to sideline Muslim women. We should call upon FIFA to revoke the forfeits and adhere to the three words that should bind all leagues, all countries, and all people who believe that sports can reflect the best of our species: Let them play.