You said - defend any perceived slight on Qatar - where it's an obvious assumption to make is the regime (re: country). But what did you mean? Did you mean the country? the people? the world cup? All? None?
Forced is a strong term, but also the wrong and inaccurate term. There's a massive difference between 'forced' and 'offered/accepted'. They literally change the meaning and definition of what happened. Messi has agency - he can easily decline wearing it. From further reading - the official twitter account of Argentinian football have no issues, the Argentinian fans have no issues (there's videos of them being interviewed about it), and given that I was watching in real time, Messi, the man who it was put on, has no issues with it. It seems some people, with no real affiliations, are feeling proxy outrage over such a benign thing, which is just very weird.
So this idea that he was forced to wear it is nonsensical which is why I responded to that poster at that moment.
Ok?
Whether Pele put it on or didn't, I don't care. If it was done by a FIFA or Mexican rep, I'd have no issue - and if it was done and Pele declined, I'd have no issue. It's that minor.
The whole thing is such a dumb thing to express outrage over.
Edit: And going by some of the tweets (and now deleted tweets) I've seen from some twitter journos, there's definitely an undertone of orientalism / colonialism in some of the tweets (such as Mark Ogden) with the whole thing.