United States of America’s football team has launched ‘Be the change’ initiative ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2022 to raise awareness about the social issues in Qatar.

The USA men’s national team coach Gregg Berhalter on Tuesday, 15 November said that Qatar had done things to improve the conditions of human rights in the country, but much still needed to be done in the modern age. The USA national team has been using a rainbow badge in their logo signaling support for the pride community in the build-up to the FIFA World Cup. While the team will not be using it on the pitch, the manager said that the team wanted to bring awareness to the social issues present in Qatar.

“We’ve been talking to the team for the last 18 months about some social issues in Qatar. We think it’s important. When we are on the world stage and when we are in a venue like Qatar, it is important to bring awareness to these issues and that is what ‘Be the Change’ is about. It’s not just stateside that we want to bring attention to social issues. It’s also abroad. We recognise that Qatar has made strides but there is still some work to do. Be the Change represents everyone’s individual opportunity to make change and have change start with them so I think it’s appropriate that we have it here as well,” the manager said.

Qatar World Cup has found flak from the football world over the treatment of the migrant workers in their nation. Many died while building the world class facilities at Qatar that will serve the World Cup, but there was little outrage from the footballing community at that time. A conservative country – Qatar still has not legalised same-sex marriage and does has been criticised for the extension of freedom that women enjoy in the country as well.