Over the next five weeks the greatest show on earth will again show it has the power to enthral, kicking aside Fifa’s tarnished reputation and the murkiness of Vladimir Putin’s regimeWelcome, once again, to the world. Eight years, $19bn and two terms in the glorious 100-year rule of Vladimir Putin in the making, the 2018 World Cup in Russia is upon us. This has been a fittingly Soviet-scale construction project, taking in eight new superstadiums, thousands of miles of new roads and 53,000 civilian volunteers trained in the arts of pointing, waving and – toughest and most Russian of all – smiling at strangers.As ever the greatest show on earth carries its own irresistible heat before the tournament opener on...
North American bid was the rational choice to host the 2026 World Cup but it is difficult to see less privileged countries ever getting the opportunity nowSafe, rational and bountifully lucrative as the Fifa decision is to have the 2026 World Cup hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico, it is also disappointing for romantics fancying another tournament in Africa – and laced with contradictions, too.Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, looked opportunistically quick to immediately put himself forward for re-election next year, and he was followed by US president Donald Trump with a self-congratulatory tweet. Hosting World Cups and Olympic Games is openly a politicians’ prestige-burnishing project now, not only for Russia’s president Vladimir Putin or Qatar’s Emir, seeking soft power...
Infantino is threatened by resistance within his own ranks and political volatility worldwide – not least in the ramifications of a vote to host the 2026 tournamentThe World Cup in Russia has sailed into view with a new Fifa captain at the helm, two and a half years since Sepp Blatter’s presidency crashed on the rocks of corruption and ethics breaches. Gianni Infantino seemed a callow, unlikely president when he was elevated to succeed the banned Blatter in February 2016 as, his tie slightly askew, he tapped his heart in wonderment at winning the vote of the Fifa congress.Yet the better clue to how Infantino would operate has turned out not to be that moment of youthful elation but the...
Ruling body still seems to care more about ambush marketing and trademarks infringement than racism and homophobiaIt is almost two years since Fifa wound up its anti‑racism task force, declaring it had “completely” fulfilled its mission and was therefore dissolved. That a banana should have been thrown on to a Russian pitch eight minutes into a Champions League game a mere three days after this dissolution was obviously unfortunate; that the banana should have remained there until the 15th minute arguably began to look like carelessness.Ditto news that racist and homophobic chants have become more common in Russia in the season building up to the coming World Cup, according to a joint report by the antidiscrimination network Fare and the...
Global political turmoil might be set to wreck Russia’s World Cup but, fear not, Gianni Infantino won’t take his eye off the ball and has some interesting other ideas for us allTwo months out from a World Cup hosted by an aspirant rogue state, what is on the mind of deeply scrutable Fifa president Gianni Infantino?Is it the sense of gathering storm in international relations, at the very heart of which is the tournament’s host nation? Is it the mounting air of absurdity that might attend an event hosted by a Russian leader seemingly bent on playing the pariah, who is engaged in gruesome and increasingly provocative proxy conflict in Syria, and who was at the weekend accused of tampering...