England players ‘shocked’ at Qatar human rights abuses, says Henderson

Jordan Henderson has described Qatar’s record of human rights abuses as “shocking, disappointing and horrendous” after he and his fellow England players received a detailed briefing on the situation in the Gulf state.

It seems certain that Gareth Southgate’s squad will issue a collective message challenging the stance taken by this year’s World Cup host country towards the rights of women, the LGBTQ+ community and the migrant workers responsible for building the stadiums on show at Qatar 2022 among much other infrastructure.

“When we were given the briefing, which was really important, it was quite shocking and disappointing,” said the Liverpool captain as he prepared for a role in Southgate’s midfield against Switzerland at Wembley on Saturday. “It’s horrendous really when you look at some of the issues that are currently happening and have been happening over there.

“As a team we’re just sort of digesting that, coming up with ideas of what we want to do going forward because it’s an opportunity to maybe shine a light on the issues and use our platforms to make change for the better.”

Southgate was joined by Mark Bullingham, the FA’s chief executive, and Edleen John, its director of international relations, on Tuesday as they spent 30 minutes relaying detailed information from, among other sources, Amnesty to the squad at St George’s Park. “It’s provoked a lot of conversations among the players,” England’s manager said. “The FA have never stopped anybody speaking about these matters … And it would be dangerous for us to be telling them what to do on something like this; they have their own thoughts, their own minds, they’re bright people.”

Despite his evident concerns about the human rights landscape in Doha and beyond,