By Musa Iqbal

Sports in the era of US-imperialist hegemony have long been weaponized for various nefarious purposes to the extent that sports are no longer pure sports but an extension of Western imperialism.

Countries and athletes who resist the hegemonic grip of imperialism are often slapped with cruel sanctions, smears, or targeted campaigns, while those aligned with imperialist powers continue with their jobs without facing any repercussions in the realm of sports.

Under imperialism, sports become yet another arena to further the agenda of imperialism.

However, pushing these narratives requires a degree of finesse. For instance, when an imperialist-aligned state like the United Kingdom pressures a sports organization to execute its agenda unilaterally, the move risks public backlash, particularly when the state itself is in political disarray.

This is where media influencers play a critical role. They shape public opinion by producing clickbait content designed to provoke outrage, breed racism, and incite nationalist hatred against other cultures.

So it is particularly interesting when a media personality such as Piers Morgan amplifies a campaign to cancel England’s cricket match against Afghanistan in the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy.

On his X account, Morgan declared: “The Taliban’s disgusting and ever-worsening oppression of Afghan women, including banning them from all sport, is unconscionable. Time we took a stand.”

Take a stand, Piers? Is this supposed act of white-knight heroism a genuine call to defend women, or is it something else entirely?

If Morgan truly cared about women’s rights, he could start by condemning his own government’s actions against women—particularly on a global scale.

According to Oxfam, the UK sold an estimated £489 million in arms to the Israeli regime between 2015 and 2023. These weapons, ammunition, and technologies have been instrumental in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, particularly amid the ongoing genocidal war on Gaza.

The UK also hosts Israeli weapons manufacturers like Elbit Systems, which produces killer drones used to target and murder Palestinian women—whether living in tents, receiving treatment in hospitals, or seeking shelter from relentless bombings.

These UK-supplied weapons destroy schools where women learn, hospitals where they seek care, and homes where they live. 

They enable Israeli occupation forces to indiscriminately fire upon women and children desperate for food. They power tanks that demolish buildings where Palestinian women once lived and worked.

Yes, the UK government recently suspended some arms licenses to Israel, but this was a superficial gesture meant to save face amid its own political chaos. Suspending 37 out of 345 arms licenses—especially after issuing over 100 following October 7, 2023—barely qualifies as a humanitarian act.

Has Morgan called for other countries to boycott his country over its complicity in the ongoing genocide of Palestinians – including Palestinian women and children? 

Has he demanded a sporting ban against the Zionist occupation, which recently took part in Paris Olympics as well as top-rung football leagues? Of course not. 

According to Gaza’s health ministry as well as international humanitarian organizations such as Oxfam, women and children comprise the majority of fatalities in Gaza’s ongoing tragedy — almost 70 percent. Where is Morgan’s outrage for them or for those nearly 50,000 lives lost in Gaza so far? 

How many female Palestinian doctors, journalists, students, and teachers have been killed by Israeli genocidal forces wielding British-made weaponry since last October?

For Morgan, these deaths are irrelevant. For him, all lives don’t matter. He regularly invites pro-Zionist voices onto his show, profiting off the bloodshed in Gaza with sensationalist, hate-fueled content.

Despite claiming to present “both sides,” Morgan’s show consistently aligns with imperialism and Zionism, condemning any form of resistance—whether verbal or armed.

In reality, Morgan’s concerns are hollow. He is a shameless hypocrite, leveraging his platform to advance his country’s racist agenda while enriching himself in the process.

His remarks about Afghan cricket have little to do with women’s rights and everything to do with perpetuating imperialist dominance during its evident decline. 

By stoking hatred against Afghans amid rising Islamophobia in the UK—while his government arms a genocidal regime—Morgan seeks to divert attention from Western imperialist crimes.

No one can defend the Taliban government’s ban on women’s education in Afghanistan and concerns over it are legitimate. But it’s unfair to boycott the Afghan cricket team while welcoming Israeli athletes.

As the people of conscience argue, and very rightly so, if a ban on women’s education is outrageous, the massacre of women is even more repulsive and outrageous. You can’t be selective in your outrage.

Morgan is merely one cog in a vast apparatus of imperialist media and entertainment. His hypocrisy reflects the systemic nature of Western institutions that perpetuate these double standards.

Sports organizations should ban Israel, especially as its leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, face arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court (ICC). 

Yet, despite growing calls for accountability, these institutions remain steadfast in their support for Israel. Campaigns to ban the Zionist entity from FIFA and the Olympics have garnered significant support, but voices like Morgan’s have consistently opposed them.

Hence, FIFA continues with its dilly-dallying in banning the regime as witnessed despite the murder of more than 700 Palestinian athletes in Gaza in the past 14 months, including women and children. 

Hypocrites like Morgan will eventually face a reckoning: either admit their complicity in misleading the public or double down on their deceit, further isolating themselves.

Morgan should spare himself the embarrassment of virtue-signaling on imperialist narratives and take a hard look in the mirror. Personalities like him exploit humanitarian issues as imperialist Trojan horses to maintain their grip on power. Morgan knows this well. 

The thousands of Palestinian women killed by UK-made weapons would have loved the chance to attend school, participate in sports competitions, and perhaps even play against England on the global stage.

But they will never get that opportunity, and Morgan shares the blame for their silencing—scapegoating others while refusing to admit or confront his own country’s horrendous crimes.

Musa Iqbal is a Boston-based researcher and writer focusing on US domestic and foreign policy.

(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV.