Goaoooooools! For All

The temptation to host a FIFA World Cup is almost irresistible. Nations will give almost anything for the opportunity. But it is a gift that comes with a sting. Brazil’s experience has not been different. It has been painful to watch it sweat to get ready for its big day.

One would have thought that it would have been a cake walk for a country that breathes football to hold World Cups every time it felt the urge. It has won the cup no less than 5 times. Its geography is perfect for a range of climate to suit any taste among the lucky dogs that make the final 32.   But not so. Not everyone has been pleased in the run-up to the tournament. Grumbles have been heard here and there from diffident nations scared to play in someone else’s backyard.

Anyway, such worries are nothing compared with the concerns raised, inside and outside the game, that 2022 was awarded to Qatar. The country scores virtually nil on the climate front, for example. Summer temperatures there can run into a grilling 50 Celsius.

But the climate score is the least of the issues surrounding the Qatar award. There is also the little matter of how the award was given in the first place. Here is this little nation, with a population of just 2M and no World Cup experience, pipping much more plausible contenders. True, the front runner then was the USA, a country in which love of the beautiful game is less than passionate. Nevertheless, it was a surprise that they lost to the small desert sheikhdom that sticks out like a sore thumb into the Arabian Gulf. Now, we are hearing rumours of backroom shenanigans that may have played a role in steering the decision Qatar’s way. It is impossible to say whether these rumours have any foundation but coincidences like resignations of distinguished members of the FIFA board or of other members refusing to answer questions does make one wonder.

Anyway the Qatar award was made and we are where we are now. The Qatari have gone about preparing for the tournament vigorously. They have the money. But curiously, they seem to want to do it on the cheap over the dead bodies of migrant workers. And that is adding to the stink. The smell just won’t go away.

Ghana heads in for a goal against Germany

Back to 2014. Brazil getting this year’s tournament was consistent with its ambitions as a BRICS nation, interposed between South Africa (2010) and Russia (2018). The remaining BRICS have stayed out of the frame. India, the “I” in BRICS wisely keeps away (we are not talking about cricket here) and China, the “C”, probably reckons that its own cred would have been established by the 2008 Olympics. So, it is Brazil that was left to navigate the line between being tournament-ready and satisfying the needs of its poor. It has managed to get its act together eventually after seven long years of preparation and a year or two of popular unrest over the $11B price tag. Indecent, some think, with all that deprivation in the favelas and elsewhere.  Perhaps the authorities were naïve not to anticipate the protests and strikes among the poor who wanted their share of the wealth that a BRICS economy generates. Those protests continued right down to the opening day of the games but evaporated when national love of the game conquered all.

Brazil has now settled down to enjoy one of the great spectacles of the world. And so has the rest of us. The games have been great and scenes from this sector of paradise have been spectacular. News and views from the favelas continue to niggle and sour the conscience somewhat but theirs is a battle that has to be fought on another day. Meanwhile we celebrate the beautiful game, and although none of my favorite teams has done particularly well so far, I still jump, shout and gesticulate at the TV to urge them on. Nevertheless, one goal scored is a goal scored for all.

Tell Fren Tru