Fifa president has utterly failed to grasp how football allows communities to celebrate their local heroesThere are times when you wonder whether Gianni Infantino has ever interacted with an actual human being, somebody who might tell him how ridiculous he sounds or do something about his white trainers. Maybe this is how he has always been, gabbling away in the language of the football wonk, involuntarily spewing out inane statistics and ludicrous proposals.Even by the standards of the kneejerk populism of modern political figures – Build a wall! Tax cuts! Universal … err… maths! – Infantino’s suggestion that every country should name a stadium after Pelé was absurd even if Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau have fallen into line. Perhaps he...
Argentina deserved to win the World Cup and it was lovely to see Morocco do well but the world’s governing body must learn from the lessonsSo this is it. Qatar 2022 has been and gone and there is a lot to reflect on. In terms of the football it was a great tournament with a great final. Argentina were deserved winners for the way they dominated a large part of the final against France. One could see they were up for it from the start, with their body language, their tackles, their transitions and the way they used the crowd to create energy.And so Lionel Messi got to crown his career with the one trophy he did not have, the...
There has not been a single conviction and yet nothing changes with metaphorical bedsheets dutifully shielding the suspectsTwo days out from the World Cup final, Qatar finishes hosting its tournament having very recently been declared “a frontrunner in labour rights”. “Today,” the declaration in question continued, “the World Cup in Qatar is proof of how sports diplomacy can achieve a historic transformation of a country.”It feels only mildly unfortunate that the member of the European parliament who uttered these words three weeks ago is currently detained by Belgian police, after the discovery of almost €1m in banknotes in her marital home and a hotel room used by her father. After all, this has been a successful World Cup. Qatar has...
Football federations should take a stand on moral issues, but in Qatar they folded when Fifa put them under pressureThe saga of the OneLove armbands that were going to be worn by a number of team captains has been annoying and frustrating from start to limp finish. In many ways, the clamp down by Fifa on the wearing of them is ironic, too, because everyone within the federations who put together this show of support has worked hard to build a new OneLove brand almost to detach from the rainbow, to dilute and depoliticise an issue that is unavoidably political.The whole episode was disappointing because even the most watered-down attempt to show that football should be an inclusive and welcoming...
As we consume the football on show in Qatar despite knowing the brutal facts, we should at least force Fifa to make change So here we are then. Premier League season on pause while the lower leagues keep chugging away. Knackered and injured players off to a country where it’s illegal to be gay, where women who are victims of sexual assault can be put in prison and where thousands of migrant workers have died since Qatar was awarded the tournament 12 years ago. Welcome to the World Cup.Of course, we all know these things by now. In fact the impact of hearing about them again and again seems to numb you from the brutal facts. It’s easier to just...