Europe bows its head to Islamic regimes while civilians in those countries die at the hands of the guardians of the revolution.

“Some people think football is just a matter of life and death, but it is much more important than that”. So said Bill Shankly, Liverpool manager from 1959 to 1974. The interest in the World Cup in Qatar confirms the maxim of the legendary Scottish manager, the same man who had the inscription “This is Anfield” installed in the tunnel of his team’s stadium.

In the second match of the World Cup in Qatar, between England and Iran, the score was 6-2 in favour of the English. But the Iranians won. The English captain finally did not wear a rainbow flag armband for the LGTBI movement while the Iranian players refused to sing the ayatollahs’ anthem in protest against the situation of women in their country. The English were risking a fine in the form of a financial penalty or a yellow card for the captain at the start of the match. The Iranian players have their lives and those of their families, friends and acquaintances at stake. It is to be hoped that some of these European LGTBI powers will grant asylum to the players, their coach, Carlos Queiroz, formerly of Real Madrid, and the rest of those potentially affected.

Some will argue that Harry Kane wore the inscription “No discrimination” on his armband and that his national team players knelt at the start of the match. But that is nothing, a gesture for the gallery, a toast to the sun in the face of the act of protest by the Iranian players and some of the Iranian fans, who unfurled a large banner and posters with the slogan “Women, life and freedom” while the ayatollahs’ murga played in what they call the “pre-match”.

Nothing new. Nothing new on the front line. Europe is bowing its head to Islamic regimes while the civilian population of these countries is dying at the hands of the guardians of Khomeini’s revolution because they are protesting against the murder of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, who was not wearing the veil as required by the imams.

Big win, yes, for England. Remarkable title contenders. Their players must have been pleased. It is worth noting that in Iran the broadcast of the match was cut off at the very moment when it became apparent that the Iranian players were not singing the anthem and that more than a few Iranian supporters were holding up pro-women’s rights placards while whistling. But the result of the match does not help the cause. Or maybe it did. While the English debated the rainbow armband, Iranians weighed up the pros and cons of protesting against the repression in their country that has killed hundreds, if not thousands.

The European hypocrisy is colossal. None of the federations that “threatened” the gay armband are holding out. England, Wales, Denmark or the Netherlands, the new name of Holland, have renounced the symbolic rejection of the violation of human rights in Qatar. The Spanish federation had not even thought about it. What would they say in Saudi Arabia, home of King Pique’s Super Cup?

The most basic human rights are not respected in Qatar, but football is football, Boskov said. And Qatar is not so bad, according to footballers Pep Guardiola and Xavi Hernández and media entrepreneur Jaume Roures. The trio have made a lot of money by whitewashing the Qatari regime. Who doesn’t remember the Blue and Whites’ shirts with the words “Qatar Foundation” on them, Roures’ audiovisual deals with the emirs of Al Jazzera, the substantial stays of the old Blue and Whites’ glories in the Qatari desert, the fact that the Paris Saint Germain club is owned by the family that rules the emirate, or the car, motorbike and camel races in Doha. It was Xavi who suggested that Qatar was a better country than Spain when the Supreme Court convicted the Catalan coup plotters of sedition. In the Islamic paradise they would have been executed. The misleading manoeuvre is to say that in Videla’s Argentina the 78 World Cup was held. That is disgusting.