Philipp Lahm doesn’t plan to travel with Germany to the World Cup
The former Bayern Munich and Germany captain will boycott the upcoming tournament in Qatar because of the country’s poor human rights record.
Philipp Lahm is one of the best players in the history of German soccer and was the captain when Die Mannschaft defeated Argentina with a solo goal from Mario Götze in extra-time to lift the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. The former FC Bayern Munich skipper retired at the age of 34 at the end of the 2016/17 season and now works as the German FA’s tournament director for Euro 2024.
Lahm will not travel to Qatar
Lahm is not happy with FIFA deciding to award Qatar the hosting rights to this year’s World Cup and he expressed how disappointed he is with the decision: “I’m not part of the delegation and I’m not keen on flying there as a fan. I prefer to follow the tournament from home.”
The controversial decision was made in 2010 that Qatar would host this year’s tournament and Lahm is surprised that they didn’t give it to another candidate, given the country’s poor human rights record. Also, for the first time in history the World Cup will be played in winter due to the extreme weather in the summer in the Middle East.
“Human rights should play the biggest role in the awarding of a tournament. If a country is awarded the contract that is one of the worst performers in this regard, you start to think about the criteria used to make the decision. That shouldn’t happen again in the future. Human rights, sustainability, the size of the country… none of that seems to have played a role,” added Lahm.