Sport journalists!

 The World Cup. Packed, massive, magnificent stadiums; great football; a great atmosphere.

Sure, regarding FIFA—many decisions and statements leave a lot to be desired—but that has been the prevailing view for a long time, especially among sports journalists; so many of them have never even played the game themselves, yet they frequently have strong opinions on absolutely everything.

Especially this year, I feel. And especially regarding the host country, the USA.

They have a tendency to focus on things unrelated to the sport itself, too—politics, the American way of life, and so on.

I don’t recall our various news outlets expressing strong opinions about the host country Russia back in 2014; human rights issues and so on, didn't seem to be a problem then.

Qatar 2022—same thing: human rights, bans on Christian churches, women's rights, and so on—yet no issues raised.

The Olympics in China—no issues; "It’s about sport," they said back then.

Not a word about one of the 2030 host nations: Morocco. The organization Open Doors lists Morocco as a country where Christians need to be cautious. People who convert in Morocco can face execution. Yet, nothing from our sports journalists.

Take the 2034 host nation, Saudi Arabia—it’s the same story there. No human rights, persecution of Christians, gay people, women, and so on. Yet, not a word from the sports journalists.

This year when some teams openly pray that Israel is a curse, these journalists do not react.

Instead, when a "wrong refereeing decision" is made during this World Cup, some journalists practically "spew" with outrage. They get sick to their stomachs—or, as one writer put it, it looked like it was going to be a "shitshow," but it turned out even worse. 

A red card was rescinded; people can debate whether that was right or wrong, but as those writers claimed, it was supposedly worse than so many other things happening in the world right now.

Often all this talk about TRUMP!  Can we please leave him out. 

No, I’m actually doing what I usually do: I watch the match on TV, turn it off during the break, and switch it back on when the second half starts—or I watch it on British TV, where they actually talk about football.