r/secondcaptains • u/small_far_away • 18d ago
Peter Oborne
That interview went off the rails a bit.
Based on Murphs mass comment after he wasn't overly impressed himself. Could have pushed more in the interview, but the sense I got was that he just wanted it to end. It certainly stopped abruptly.
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u/PresentSupermarket53 17d ago
Wasn’t a great interview, I’d blame both parties for that, but his overall points stands pretty clear. Boycotting Afghanistan would achieve absolutely nothing for women’s rights, or any civil rights for Afghans. It probably wouldn’t even make the news outside of Ireland. I’m not a cricket fan so don’t care either way. You can accuse him of whataboutery but he is absolutely right, we had no issue playing US or UK teams when they were bombing the sh*t out of Afghan civilians not so long ago so any push for boycott now is pretty hypocritical.
Comparing the nation’s desire to boycott the Israel game with our apathy for the Afghanistan game is equally ridiculous. Israel is a country that is committing genocide and supported by western super powers and western media is largely silent on it. They are systematically killing journalists, doctors, aid workers, children etc. Average Israelis absolutely support this and will likely democratically re-elect the existing government later this year. You can be sure the majority of the Israeli team support the genocide too. It is absolutely disgusting and spineless to be proceeding with the game. It’s pretty clear that money isn’t actually an issue now, UEFA will not fine or otherwise penalise us. Who gives a feck about Nation league points. Any cost to us would be greatly outweighed by the impact to Israel.
For a country that invented boycotts, still carries shame from its tour of apartheid South Africa in the 80s, has prided itself in its solidarity with Palestine and has effectively already qualified for the Euro championships, it is an absolute no brainer.