QR are you? Norwegians put new spin on putting pride in the shirt
Fair Game’s Matt Riley explores a new initiative by Norwegian side Tromso that is highlighting human rights concerns
WHEN we wear our club shirt we want to stand for something. Whether it is our city or town (or in the case of Forest Green Rovers a village) or the history of our club. In Norway, Eliteserien club Tromso have released a shirt that is a QR code.
But, instead of it leading us to an ‘engagement portal’ with the club through a wild west NFT or cryptocurrency the kit leads, in collaboration with Amnesty International, to information about how the Qatari government are sportswashing, genderwashing and violating the norms of basic human rights as they gear up to use our game as a fatuous exercise in sporting soft power. To add poetry to their point, the kit for the club promoted as champions of the Norwegian First Division last season uses the palette of the Qatari flag. Just when you think the Norwegians can’t be any cooler, they inspire us again.
Not surprisingly, the club are promoting the kit as the first to incorporate a QR code and wore it yesterday for their final game of the season against Viking FK. The only good news for the Qataris is that Tromso have no chance of playing in the Champions League next season, so they won’t need to see it beamed across global screens to remind people of the insidious process that lead them to be awarded the world’s biggest sporting tournament. Talking to CNN, the club’s managing director Øyvind Alapnes told them:
“We feel it is our duty to speak out. If we don't speak out with a loud voice for those who aren't heard, then who will do it?”
Just when you thought you couldn’t like them more, he added:
“Many people in football are seduced by money and just close their eyes to where the money comes from. Therefore, many don't risk standing up for something. We must dare to ask ourselves: Is it OK that someone dies in order for 'my team' to be successful?”
And who better to model the new design than Malcolm Bidali. A former migrant worker arrested for daring to spotlight the conditions for migrant workers through his blogs, he knows more than most the perils of being decent in a fetid environment. This bright light of goodness in a dark World Cup world was supported by two sponsors of the Danish national team, who gave up their spots on the players’ training kits in exchange for messages sharing human rights abuses in Qatar. The national team, helped by the huge profile of their wunderkind Erling Haaland also warmed up with t-shirts demanding ‘human rights on and off the pitch.’
Of all the things we hold dear, it is our club shirt that weaves in the memories of our family history and serves as a signal to the world of what we, and our club, stand for. It is our true heritage. As Tromso has shown, if we have enlightened custodians of our club, we can wear them with pride, not be forced to promote white-label, ghostship companies making capital out of shirts of hurt.