Harry Kane has said that England’s players will use their voice on the “issues” surrounding the Qatar World Cup after revealing that the squad held a 30-minute meeting on the Gulf state this week.
The England captain stopped short of suggesting that Qatar should not have been selected as hosts by organisers Fifa and said that further talks would be needed among the group in the build-up to the tournament.
Concerns over the treatment of migrant workers and a poor human rights record, including the criminalisation of the LGBT+ community, have dominated coverage of Qatar 2022 since the state was awarded host status in 2010.
Gareth Southgate, the England manager, had previously said that the national team set-up would discuss human rights issues in Qatar as a group once qualification for the tournament had been secured.
This month's camp for international friendlies against Switzerland and the Ivory Coast is the first time that the England players have come together since qualifying in November, and Kane confirmed that the controversy around Qatar has now been discussed between the squad.
“We had that meeting last night. It was important to talk with the manager, staff and players. We wanted to qualify for the World Cup before doing that and we’ve done that, so it was our first chance to have that chat.
“Gareth led that meeting. We spoke about what to expect, some of the important issues surrounding the World Cup. For us now as players, it’s simple: to talk amongst ourselves at this camp and the camps going forward in June.
“As a group we’ve never shied away from important issues, we’ve always had our opinions and always tried to show unity in everything we’ve done. That will happen now in this camp and the next camp – to try to help in any way we can to support those issues.
“We’re no experts in that field at the moment, in terms of what we know. As always we’ll try to help in any way we can, use our platform to help in any way we can.
“I understand there’s been some progress on certain issues in the country so far. My hope is having the World Cup there, having a light on these issues, will help progress some of these issues which have been going on for a long time.”
Kane said that he and his teammates would need to discuss the issues in question in greater depth in future camps, with two more meet-ups scheduled before the tournament begins in Doha in November.
The Tottenham forward suggested that he may encourage his fellow international captains to come together to take up a shared, unified stance.
“It’s not something we’ve had deep discussions about. The meeting last night was the first time we’ve spoke about it. I think over this camp and the next camp, we’ll talk about what we can do.
“Obviously there’s a couple of other national captains at Tottenham, maybe talking to other national team captains to see if we can be unified in how we approach it. That’s something that myself and other senior players in the team will try to achieve in the coming months.”
When asked whether he felt it was right that Qatar was awarded the World Cup, Kane declined to say one way or another.
“It’s a hard question to answer if I am totally honest,” he said. “Like I touched on it wasn’t our decision, it was the decision of Fifa. As players all we can do is look forward to an amazing tournament and hope that everything else around it, the issues around it, can be resolved as well as possible.
“Obviously we are not expecting everything to change overnight, these things take time. It’s a different culture, it’s a different religion, so we as players, I guess... it’s a hard question to answer just yes or no. We just have to do what we can and I feel will are going to do that and will do that from now until the World Cup.”
