Denmark players will head to Qatar without families to protest human rights

Simon Lloyd

‘We don’t want to contribute to creating profit for Qatar’

Danish football’s determination to take a stand against Qatar‘s hosting of next month’s World Cup shows no sign of waning, with reports now claiming Denmark‘s players will travel to the tournament without their family members.

Since controversially being chosen as hosts for the tournament over a decade ago, Qatar has faced waves of criticism from human rights groups over the treatment of its migrant workforce. Concerns have also been raised about the country’s attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community and what this might mean for supporters hoping to go to games.

Denmark communication manager says family members won’t travel

Quotes from Jokob Hoyer, the DBU communication manager, claim that, as a protest, Denmark have intentionally limited how many will travel to Qatar because they don’t want to ‘contribute to any profit’ for the Gulf state.

“We don’t want to contribute to creating profit for Qatar,” Hoyer told newspaper Ekstra Bladet.

“Therefore, we have throttled down as much as possible on our travel activities.

“In previous finals, the players’ wives and girlfriends have travelled with the board, but as I said, we have cancelled those trips.”

“We felt that we cannot arrange the greatest thing in football, the World Cup, on the grounds of dead people…”

CEO @alapnes on why @TromsoIL took a stand against Qatar ahead of the World Cup pic.twitter.com/T7QlZVqdAZ

— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) March 25, 2021

Denmark released protest kit last month

At the end of last month it was revealed that Hummel, the Danish sportswear company who manufacture the national team’s kits, had designed toned-down shirts for the tournament, with their logo and the Denmark national team badge hidden.

‘We don’t wish to be visible during a tournament that has cost thousands of people their lives,’ their statement said, drawing a fiery response from Qatar’s Supreme Committee.

Last year, Denmark announced that it would remove sponsors from its training kits, replacing them with messages critical of Qatar. The DBU also vowed to limit the number of trips they would make to the country to avoid promoting it.

Prior to that, as Norwegian football debated whether to boycott the tournament, Denmark was one of the European nations to hold human rights protests prior to one of their qualifying games.