Nothing wrong in protesting against such a regime but it's all pretty empty rhetoric and agree it smacks of virtue signalling. If they really wanted to make the point then they should have simply refused to play there but football at that level is all money driven -and Qatar has loads of that (well, some of them do).

As for criticising other people's cultures, I believe that there is nothing wrong in (respectfully) challenging that at all and you should be able to do so as free speech is all about encouraging open debate about things. The problem is that many of the countries you might criticise -especially around human rights-tend to have authoritarian regimes where there is no real free speech.

Still, I'm sure the authorities in Qatar will be on their best behaviour and keen that no incidents of gay bashing or the deaths of poorly paid migrant construction workers are reported for the duration.