Gary Neville was interrogated over his involvement in the Qatari World Cup while hosting Have I Got News For You last night.
Neville will be flying out to Qatar to commentate on World Cup matches, despite calls from the football community for high-profile figures to boycott the tournament.
Thousands of migrant workers are understood to have died in the process of preparing Qatar for the World Cup, with the country itself having an awful human rights record.
Despite all of that, Neville, and others, see no issue in travelling to Qatar to work on the games and presumably receive a healthy sum of cash in return.
Neville was not going to be let off the hook while acting as a guest host on Have I Got News For You, either. He was held to account, and how…
Gary Neville getting called out for his Qatari hypocrisy is a great watch. pic.twitter.com/exrOgBoJFm
— Emily Hewertson (@emilyhewertson) November 4, 2022
It’s a difficult situation for Neville, whose reputation has been tarnished by his willingness to accept money from the Qataris and opt against boycotting the tournament.
You could see that the interrogation made him seriously uncomfortable – and that’s likely because he knows that he’s made the wrong call here.
He should be taken to task at every opportunity. The way the world is now, nobody seems to care and he’ll continue to get work, just like the other talentless git, Corden.
As a united fan and have I got news for you fan this is interesting. First of all fair play to Gary for going on the show as he will have known the reason he was asked to be the guest presenter was just for this.
Ian and Paul are very good at these situations, they are well informed, very clever and can be very blunt. Also while it is an appalling state, and initially a very bad move by FIFA to even have entertained the idea of qatar hosting the world cup it is yet another example of money taking over. Ian does not follow football and so is able to ask these questions as very black and white and not be hypocritical by then watching the tournament.
For Gary I believe he has accepted the work as he believes things should be said and unless he is made to agree not to he will bring up and try and highlight some of these issues on live television and at least put some kind of voice on the commentaries and pre/post game analysis. He could have said no, but like millions of others he would definitely not ( as an ex England player)be boycotting the tournament. Football punditry is now his job, he does not do it for the money he does it for his love of the game and has realised it is a very good place to voice an opinion and highlight issues ignored by others. Prime example is whenever he is asked about the problems with United he goes straight for the glazers, putting full responsibility on them which annoys a lot of people most of all other ex players now in TV. But it is exactly how all United fans feel.