- Klopp won't attend tournament
- Criticises media for lack of scrutiny
- Says unfair demands being placed on players
WHAT HAPPENED? In a lengthy exchange with reporters, the Liverpool boss confirmed he would not be attending any games at this year's tournament, and said the football world - and media - were "guilty" for allowing Qatar to host the event in the first place.
WHAT THEY SAID: Klopp said: "I will watch the games, but it is different. I watched an old documentary about the whole situation, about when it got announced that Russia and Qatar are the places for the next World Cups. I think it was the first time in history they announced two in one go. We all know how it happened and that we can still let it happen, with no legal thing afterwards."
He added: "Later on we talk about human rights in terms of the people who have to work there in circumstances that are, let me say it nicely, difficult. We couldn’t play the World Cup there in the summer because of the temperature and there was not one stadium in Qatar, or maybe one. So you have to build stadiums. I don’t think anybody thought about that on that day, that somebody has to build them. It’s not like Aladdin with his wonder lamp and 'Boom, there’s a new stadium'. The situation makes you angry. How can it not?"
AND WHAT'S MORE: Klopp continued: "I will watch it from a football point of view but I don’t like the fact that players now have to send a message. You are all journalists. You should have sent the message but you didn’t write the most critical articles about circumstances that were clear. There, we are guilty.
"But now we are telling players they have to wear an armband and if they don’t do it then they are not on their side. No, no, no; these are footballers, it is a tournament and the players must go there and play and do the best for their countries.
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"Don’t put Gareth Southgate constantly in a situation where he has to talk about everything. He has an opinion but he’s not a politician, I’m not a politician, he’s a manager of England so let him do that. If you want to write about something else then do it, but by yourself without asking us so that it’s ‘Klopp said’ or ‘Southgate said’. As if that would change anything. You, more than I, let it happen 12 years ago."
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GettyWHAT NEXT FOR LIVERPOOL? The Reds travel to Tottenham in the Premier League on Sunday before hosting Southampton next Saturday. In between, they face League One side Derby County in the third round of the Carabao Cup at Anfield on Wednesday.