RichM Hislop is a smart cookie but I think things get edited to make him look sharper on occasion. This being one of them.
It’s an entirely grey shade issue - with Hislop’s suggesting a black / white answer for the applause. e.g. Neville could not go for sure. He could rant about it all from home. but then he’d only be ranting on twitter about It to his 5.4 million followers and would probably do damage to his pundit career. Instead he gets to (hopefully) ask difficult questions on the BBC to an audience of nearly a 3.5 billion viewers. (Russia 2018 WC viewing figures apparently) which is the point Neville was making.
He’s not getting paid off the Qatar. He’s getting paid off sky / the BBC / whoever. Yes, they are getting money from Qatar so should the money question be posed directly to him? Shouldn’t it be posed to the people paying Neville for going? If it wasn’t Neville it would be someone else. Maybe Hislop should be asking the BBC why they are going but they are his paymasters.
Neville was also a professional footballer and manager. His love of the game has got to be a part of why he’s going. He’s already financially loaded so I don’t think the money matters to him at all. Perhaps he could offer to do it for free or donate his money to anti-Saudi charities but that’s up to the private individual really.
Finally, whether people like it or not, the Saudi regime are a state that the UK government works with. They are diplomatic friends doing business together. The England team are going. Trying to look smart by going for low hanging fruit with a football pundit is just playing to the cheap seats imo.
All that said, Hislop destroying Pritti Patel on Question Time over capital punishment is a thing of beauty.
