..."So abolish the death penalty — abolish all the penalties regarding sexual and gender identity."

A brave statement and impassioned plea made by fan representative Dario Minden in the midst of a two-hour long "Sport and Human Rights" congress hosted by the German Football Association (DFB) and aimed at "intesifying the discussion."

The criticism leveled at organizers and world governing body FIFA certainly was intense. Minden's words were aimed at Abdulla Bin Mohammed bin Saud Al-Thani,Qatar's ambassador to Germany, who was in attendance at the congress held just 62 days before the 2022 FIFA World Cup gets underway...

"It's not a Qatar question...It's a FIFA, UEFA, Norwegian Football Federation, DFB question — but it should be a balancing of responsibility.

"From the FIFA, the federation's perspective, the most important thing is that we lean in now. That we’re now present in the game of human rights, so we learn, so that when we go into the next stage after the World Cup in a better stage."

"When it comes to FIFA, Qatar and this arrangement, I think it's very important to get a compensation fund because we're obligated to do it as it states in Article 6," Klaveness said, citing the FIFA Human Rights policy. "It's how we move from policy to impact."...