Editor’s note: This is the Monday, Nov. 14 edition of the “Game Day with Kevin Modesti” newsletter. To receive the newsletter in your inbox, sign up here.

Good morning. A week from today, the U.S. men’s team will begin play in the World Cup in Qatar, facing Wales and LAFC hero Gareth Bale in a Group B game in Al Rayyan. It would be nice if we could think only about the soccer.

First, the headlines:

The Rams fell to the Cardinals, their fifth loss in six games, as Matthew Stafford sat out and Cooper Kupp was hurt late
Columnist Mirjam Swanson writes about what the Rams’ goal should be now.
The Chargers’ own injuries didn’t help in a loss to the 49ers on Sunday Night Football.
The Lakers beat the Nets to end their latest losing streak on a big night for Anthony Davis.
UCLA, down to No. 16 in the AP poll after being upset by Arizona, aims to channel its frustration into this week’s USC game.
Bill Plunkett looks at the Dodgers’ looming decision about Cody Bellinger.
And in Pomona, Brittany Force won the top-fuel season title on the day her father John Force’s funny car blew its top (see the photo below).

Now, looking ahead – if not totally looking forward – to the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

As the five W’s of the 32-team tournament hit our screens and newspapers over the next week, conscientious readers will not ignore the “where,” the matter of this World Cup being held in Qatar.

Qatar, a Middle Eastern country with a population smaller than the city of Los Angeles, is the smallest to host a World Cup and the most controversial.

The fact the extreme summer heat there makes this the first World Cup to be held this late in the year, interrupting most domestic league schedules, is a comparatively minor concern. Qatar’s selection in 2010 remains the subject of corruption allegations, and its treatment of the migrant workers building the stadiums is an ongoing scandal. Its legal system based on Sharia law makes homosexuality a crime and restricts news media and free speech.

National teams have resisted a decade of calls to boycott the event, but players have spoken out and some like Bale and England captain Harry Kane plan to wear “Onelove” rainbow armbands in defiance of FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s call to set aside human rights concerns and “let football take the stage” from the World Cup’s opening Sunday through the Dec. 18 final.

In the rest of the soccer world, they’re used to wrestling with ethical qualms about supporting attempts by bad-actor nations at whitewashing – “sportswashing” – reputations by purchasing popular teams and running competitions. Here in the United States, we’re no strangers to the collision of sports and politics, most dramatically in the Soviet Union-led boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics following the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games. Athletes in North American pro leagues have staged quiet protests on social justice issues and then got on with the competition, but not without turning off some fans.

What’s different about the Qatar World Cup is the scale of the debate about whether enjoying the competition risks supporting the hosts.

“World Cups should be joyous, unifying events,” the London-based Guardian newspaper wrote in asking readers if they’re not traveling to Qatar or not watching at home in protest. “Every four years billions of people across the planet settle down to watch this sport we have made our global fascination. But FIFA has denied football fans the simple pleasure of watching the 64 games and lapping up the entertainment on offer. Everything about this World Cup is complicated and contaminated.”

The French newspaper Le Monde said no team boycotts are occurring because “there is too much at stake economically, it is too late, too risky, and for some, it is an anachronism,” with “particular connotations tied to the Cold War.”

Yet on no less important, individual levels, some LGBTQ fans who ordinarily would attend the World Cup are staying away for fear of hostility from the hosts.

Anyone watching from home starting next week might feel, should feel, an ethical quandary.

The best writing I’ve read on the subject was by Simon Kuper, a columnist for the British-based Financial Times and author (most recently “Barca: The Rise and Fall of the Club That Built Modern Football”) who often tackles subjects of sports and culture.

“I share the outrage about Qatar. But after speaking to footballers, human rights organizations and trade unions, I’ve concluded: it’s right to play and watch this World Cup,” Kuper wrote in the Financial Times. “One good reason not to boycott is that going may do more good than not.”

Kuper refered to 1978, when the World Cup was hosted by Argentina, whose brutal military regime had been advised to use the event to show a friendlier face.

“Argentina’s attempted ‘sportswashing’ backfired internationally,” Kuper wrote, as journalists covering that World Cup put a spotlight on critiques of the hosts.

We’ll see if that happens this time, but that will require reading and watching news of the politics as well as the soccer, being aware of the World as well as the Cup over the next month.

If organizers wanted people to think only about the soccer, they blew that 12 years ago by picking Qatar.

TODAY

Clippers visit the Rockets in the first of two games in two nights in Texas (5 p.m., BSSC).
Kings take a four-game winning streak into a four-game trip starting with the Flames in Calgary (5:30 p.m., BSW). Preview.
UCLA, 2-0 and ranked eighth, hosts Norfolk State in men’s basketball (7 p.m., Pac12N). Preview.

NEXT QUESTION

What or whom do you blame for the Rams’ fall from Super Bowl champions to 3-6 and last in the NFC West? Respond by email ([email protected]) or on Twitter (@KevinModesti).

280 CHARACTERS

After their latest listless loss — this one at home to the unimposing, short-handed Cardinals — the Rams’ goals have gone from defending their championship to making the playoffs to, now, playing to preserve some pride.https://t.co/Q5yUm0xdFM

— Mirjam Swanson (@MirjamSwanson) November 14, 2022

– Columnist Mirjam Swanson (@MirjamSwanson).

1,000 WORDS

Another day, another spectacular drag racing photo: An explosion blows the body off John Force’s funny car in the quarterfinal round of eliminations yesterday at the NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. Force wasn’t injured. Photo by Will Lester of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin and SCNG.

TALK TO ME

Thanks for reading the newsletter. Send suggestions, comments and questions by email at [email protected] and via Twitter @KevinModesti.

Editor’s note: Thanks for reading the “Game Day with Kevin Modesti” newsletter. To receive the newsletter in your inbox, sign up here.

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