Opinion
Football has been producing chaos leading up to the World Cup.
Over the coming weeks, national federations ship their 26 best players plus a congregation of officials and staff to history’s most chaotic sporting event.
Just as a dog howls when storm clouds roll in, so too has football descended into chaos to alert us of the imminent reality of the next month and change.
In Argentina, ten red cards were shown in Boca and Racing Club’s recent encounter, most of which occurred as the 120-minute affair ended after Racing midfielder Carlos Alcaraz’s late winner.
The young Argentine peeled off to celebrate in front of raucously furious Boca fans, who threw bottles in the 19-year-old’s direction. Harassment from Boca’s players ensued, and the match was seen out at half capacity, setting the record for the most red cards in a game.
Seville played host to a fiery derby between Real Betis and Sevilla which saw a further three red cards dished out and a thumping Nemanja Gudelj strike to secure a point for relegation-weary Sevilla.
Andoni Iraola’s Rayo Vallecano surprised the world and Madrid with a 3-2 victory during the week, despite dominating the reigning champions dominating in all the statistics, while Barcelona managed to rescue a victory, returning them to La Liga’s summit, against Osasuna, despite Robert Lewandowski uncharacteristically given his marching order half an hour in and Gerard Pique concluding a storied career with a red card at halftime, despite failing to step on the pitch for a competitive minute.
Chaos ensued right through England. Liverpool’s owners, Fenway Sports Group, announced its intention to explore options for the sale of the Merseyside club. Unai Emery’s Aston Villa found the goals that Steven Gerrard left at the training ground in their rousing defeat of Manchester United, as Leeds and Bournemouth played out a seven-goal thriller.
Unai Emery (Photo by David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
The reason for all this? The advent of arguably the most maligned tournament – won in corrupt manners, preparations and infrastructure forged by cruelty and immorality with no objective outside financial gains and clean slates – is imminent.
Among the chaos of recent fixtures, Sepp Blatter admitted it was a “mistake” to award Qatar the tournament, citing the country’s minute size and the political pressures from the French. A new Netflix documentary illuminated the deep-rooted corruption in football’s governing body that began with former FIFA president Joao Havelanche and continued from when Blatter initially seized power in 1998 through to his eventual indictment on a host of charges, comparable to those levelled at mafia criminals, in 2015
The unpleasant, sobering reality of Qatar is that rather than the World Cup offering escapism from real life – as it has done and should forever do – it has rightly become embroiled in its own corrupt stench, overshadowed by the very process utilised to instil the tournament on the country’s shores and the abusive, inhumane nature the infrastructure utilised throughout was constructed.
Absolutely, the tournament should proceed. But it should not advance, as Gianni Infantino has requested, without mention of the foul politics that put it there in the first place or without discussion of human rights.
Let the football do the talking! The FIFA boss urges. Doing just that is the attitude that got us here.
The idea Infantino is overtly alluding to – that sports and politics should not mix – is one only spouted when the politics in question are questionable: this World Cup, the one in Russia, Argentina ‘78.
FIFA has no problem agreeing and mingling with other inherently social and political issues, net zero emissions targets for example. But begin to question the tournament and speak out against the blatant abuses of human rights in its host? Just kick the ball and refrain.
If diminishing reputations are at stake, sports and politics should not mix – but when the converse occurs, throw them in the blender.
Tournament organisers and stakeholders seem prepared for the inevitable storm surrounding the tournament. All the questions around the excess baggage, hence why they’ve opted to pay for good publicity from attending fans, to turn the radio up full volume and reduce the noise of the hurricane outside.
Qatar’s World Cup begins soon, but the chaos, the chaos many moons ago.
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.
The Matilda scored the first two of her team's goals in the 4-0 win.
With the Liverpool manager leaving the club after this season, his West Ham rival can't wait for him to go - in the nicest…
Arsenal have survived a late scare at Ange Postecoglou's Tottenham to stay narrowly ahead in the compelling race for the Premier League title. A…
At the time this column usually goes live next Monday morning, I’ll be in the stands at Selhurst Park watching Crystal Palace take on…
And just like that, another A-League regular season (sans one game) is in the books and we look ahead to the finals. Let's recap…
Salah was dropped from the starting side for the visit to London - and the striker was involved in a furious confrontation with Klopp…
