Big sports guys pic.twitter.com/O4XgEzIpVx
— Kendall Baker (@kendallbaker) December 18, 2022
I wouldn’t have volunteered to set up all those World Cup posts if I hadn’t thought they’d be appreciated, but I’m glad y’all verified my impulse (special thanks to WaterGirl, who got stuck with hand-posting everything during business hours).
While I was surfing around looking for snippets I could repurpose for those threads, there were many stories that didn’t quite fit the aesthetics of the moment, some of which I thought might still be of interest…
Ryu Spaeth, at NYMag, on “The Last World Cup“:
… The World Cup, in other words, has a way of being itself despite appalling outward circumstances that might mitigate its pleasures. A child watching the tournament for the first time this year will enjoy an experience not all that different from my own first World Cup way back in 1990, perpetuating the myth of the greatest sporting contest on earth, a myth so entrenched that, even in this era in which European club soccer is paramount, the biggest stars humble themselves before it. There have been many examples: Neymar’s devastation after Brazil’s shock quarterfinals exit, Son Heung-min’s wracking sobs after he lifted South Korea to the round of 16 with a brilliant through-the-legs assist, England’s Harry Kane’s skying a do-or-die penalty against France and seeing the first line of his obituary flash before his eyes. But the most revealing may have been 34-year-old Robert Lewandowski collapsing into a heaving mess after he scored his first World Cup goal for Poland in the group stage. Here was a person who had notched roughly a bajillion goals over his storied career, who had played for the best clubs and had won nearly every honor that it is possible to win, made as vulnerable as a little boy by a single goal, a boy’s dream finally fulfilled.
It may seem crass to boil down these dynamics — the collapse of past and present, the merging of the heroic and the human — to mere entertainment, but there is no doubt that this is how FIFA, the sport’s corrupt, unaccountable governing body, views the event. Led by Gianni Infantino, a bald bureaucrat in dark suits who can be seen glowering in the VIP seats like global soccer’s very own Lex Luthor, FIFA correctly bet that the tournament’s entertainment value would ultimately outshine its more distasteful elements. FIFA is sitting on something priceless, a gift that will seemingly keep giving forever, no matter how hard it tries to soil it in the pursuit of profit. Those who don’t follow soccer can’t quite understand the appeal, in the same way that a novice to opera hears only noises, but what they are each offering is the same: emotion at its most naked, drama so acute it verges on melodrama, a concentrated dose of life’s rich pageant. As long as the literally billions of people who watch this sport continue to invest it with so much meaning, then FIFA’s greed cannot dull its luster.
This is surely Infantino’s takeaway: that he can get away with almost anything. The World Cup is well on its way to surviving a host country that likely bribed its way into contention, as well as the breaking of an important precedent in moving the tournament to the winter months. But other changes threaten to diminish its value in the eyes of fans and players. Infantino’s desire to hold the event every two years would deprive the World Cup of its most precious quality: its rarity. Expanding the number of teams from 32 to 48, the format for the next World Cup in North America in 2026, will create a sprawling colossus that will likewise cheapen the experience. (Infantino is relentlessly expansionary and deaf to complaints, announcing on Friday a 32-team “Club World Cup” that would take place in 2025.) There is no popular demand for these changes; it’s all about the tournament’s lucrative broadcasting rights and the banal power struggles behind them: Infantino secured his position as FIFA’s president by promising more countries entry into the tournament…
I can’t appreciate the technical aspects here, but I’m sure some of you will have thoughts:
… Refined technique — the term of art for the instruments of control and precision — is no longer the secretive preserve of the Dutch academy and the Italian training ground. It is now expected that a player be able to bring a hurtling orb to a complete standstill — to kill it dead — and rifle it to all four corners of the field with laserlike accuracy. The gap between the iconic teams and the middling powers has never been narrower, which is why the group stage of this World Cup was so thrillingly unpredictable and why two of the four semifinalists, Croatia and crowd favorite Morocco, came from outside the traditional elite. This was the globalization of the game at work, greased by enormous pools of cash. It was evident in everything from the quality of the players, each of whom represents an investment in cutting-edge training and nutritional technology, to the ubiquitous haircut of the tournament: high and very tight on the sides, as if every player were a Navy Seal, an assassin…
The World Cup has made clear the uncomfortable truth that money has made the sport much better. It’s also made clear that a growing chunk of that money comes from bad places that do bad things. Almost everything a fan could love about a soccer performance these days — the athleticism, the explosive power, the grace on the ball — has a cost, both monetary and human. De facto slave labor may not play a role in the next World Cup, held in Canada, Mexico, and the United States, but that doesn’t mean it will lie beyond the shadow of despots…
Never bet against the Trickster God:
Kind of respect the ruthlessness of the French FIFA team.
Came in knowing they were the evil empire against the scrappy underdog. Didn’t care. Looked God in the eye and told Him happy endings were for Hollywood.
— Checkless Starfish Who Can Change His Name (@IRHotTakes) December 14, 2022
Chief executive of the Qatar World Cup chief criticised for migrant worker death comments https://t.co/ZeegW37upt
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) December 8, 2022
Albert Burneko, at Defector, “Qatar’s World Cup CEO Scolds Reporters For Noticing That Another Worker Died”:
… FIFA and the Fox network’s efforts at distraction notwithstanding, the dire plight of migrant workers in Qatar has been a focus of critical media coverage pretty much since the emirate successfully bought the rights to host this World Cup back in 2010. By now much of the world knows that the tournament’s infrastructure was built with, in effect, slave labor, and that some 6,500 migrant workers—sit with that number for a second—are believed to have died in the effort. Qatar is ruled by an absolute monarchy with effectively limitless riches; FIFA is a bottomlessly corrupt cesspool of graft and self-dealing; neither organization has shown or ever voluntarily would show the slightest inclination toward meaningful accountability for, or even recognition of, this more than decade-long atrocity…
When a Reuters journalist got access to Nasser Al Khater, this deeply accursed World Cup’s chief executive, the subject came up. Here you might expect an even minimally accountable boss type, one encumbered by, if nothing else, a cynical sense of responsibility to good public relations, to affect the appropriate face and recite the obligatory lines about being deeply saddened by this tragic loss of life and about the Qatar World Cup’s absolute commitment to the safety and fair treatment of all the workers who make this possible and so on. None of it would mean all that much, of course, except as a rearguard action to reassure skittish advertisers and brand partners. Still, there’s something chilling implied by an executive apparently unbothered even by those gross mercenary concerns…
“We’re in the middle of a World Cup. And we have a successful World Cup. And this is something that you want to talk about right now? I mean, death is a natural part of life, whether it’s at work, whether it’s uh, in your sleep. Of course, a worker died, um, our condolences go to his family, however, you know, I mean it’s strange that this is something that you want to focus on as your first question.”…
“Workers’ death has been a big subject, uh, during the World Cup. Everything that has been said, and everything that has been reflected about workers’ death here has been absolutely false. This, uh, this theme, this negativity around the World Cup has been something that we’ve been faced with, unfortunately. Um, you know, we’re a bit disappointed that the journalists have been exacerbating this false narrative, and honestly you know, I think a lot of the journalists have to question themselves and reflect on why they’ve been trying to bang on about this subject for so long.”
These are the remarks of a man who needs nothing from the world or the other people in it that he cannot buy a million times over, and whom the world in turn can do no more than annoy. He’s trying to walk from here to there, man, he shouldn’t have to deal with noise about some guy who died, one of several thousand who died. In his aggrieved petulance, the grudging parentheses he practically pantomimes around his hollow expression of worthless condolences to the family of a guy his very own decisions might have killed, is the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come for every working person in a society suicidally dedicated to empowering a tiny number of its worst inhabitants. A guy fell and died, thousands of miles from home and under Nasser Al Khater’s authority, and the sum total meaning of the former’s life and work and death to the guy under whose boot he served is that it gave the latter an opportunity to chastise some reporters for bothering to count the corpses.
Look at the fire we built! You expect us to mourn the kindling?
It’s complicated, you guys!
How Qatar’s riches touch millions of UK lives https://t.co/6Vl2SfQzCB
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) November 24, 2022
‘Being a gay fan in Doha is so taboo we’re invisible’ https://t.co/MfWF0wqmXO
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) November 29, 2022
About 70% of the world’s soccer balls, including the official World Cup ball, are hand-stitched in a single city in Pakistan https://t.co/fFUAu28zHr
— Businessweek (@BW) December 16, 2022
Eugene Robinson, at the Washington Post:
@Eugene_Robinson on the problematic erasures in World Cup media coverage. Free link. Read here: https://t.co/OFKgZzu3lB
— Monica H Green, PhD #VaxTheWorld (@monicaMedHist) December 13, 2022
every awful regime should get to host a world cup so they lose billions of dollars and remind people how shitty they are
— Seva (@SevaUT) November 19, 2022
Anybody gonna follow up on this? Or have the French already announced a blockade at every port?
New Day, New Tweet. Winning Country gets the Buds. Who will get them? pic.twitter.com/Vv2YFxIZa1
— Budweiser (@Budweiser) November 19, 2022
no wonder everyone wants it pic.twitter.com/QpnfwW4J2h
— Jorge R. Gutierrez (@mexopolis) November 21, 2022
SpaceUnit
Thank God it’s over.
Also that is the ugliest trophy I’ve ever seen.
Tom Levenson
@SpaceUnit: Hey! I like a nice kebab!
Another Scott
Thanks for these posts AL. I didn’t watch any of the games; your links and the comments here were just the right amount of distraction for me.
I heard a snippet of the BBC World News one recent evening which said that Qatar had spent $250B on the games. Just mind boggling, if true. (I haven’t looked to see where that number came from.)
I don’t imagine it would have cost them that much more to actually pay their laborers a fair wage and provide sensible living and working conditions. (It’s kinda true from inspection, since no other games have cost anywhere near that much.)
Thanks again.
Cheers,
Scott.
SpaceUnit
@Tom Levenson:
They should award the winners one of those leg lamps from A Christmas Story.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I’ve been out most of the day, but we recorded the hearing. I brought back a strip of chocolate covered bacon for Mr DAW.
raven
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Wrong thread.
Spanky
@Tom Levenson: Is that what that is? I thought it was some kind of tuber.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@raven: Oops
Spanky
@raven: I dunno, that last tweet looks a bit like chocolate covered bacon too.
BellyCat
“Let them eat cake!”
Ken
@Spanky: Or tumor. Especially that meat-colored thing on the left.
And it’s got phallic overtones, but that goes without saying — it’s a trophy.
trollhattan
Perfect cynicism from the cynically perfect.
Floating a biennial World Cup is I guess predictable, as was that Super Duper Super Fantastic Cup or whatever it was idea they floated a couple years ago as yet another tournament. Fact is there are already so many FIFA breaks and mid-season tournaments that pull players from their club teams to play with their national teams, it’s breaking league play into pieces (imagine holding a couple of Olympics during the NBA season) and putting too many miles/kilometers on the top players.
Now, on to the Women’s World Cup in New Zealand-Australia, next June-July. US will have their hands full, defending their title. I hope somebody shoves this FIFA dude out of a helicopter by then.
trollhattan
Florida Man(?) uses his Cessna as an Etch-a-Sketch in an impressive show.
https://twitter.com/flightradar24/status/1604888224249397248?cxt=HHwWgIC-6cfV2sUsAAAA
Dan B
The reaction of the gay soccer fan was telling. When discrimination’s goal is erasure it is difficult for the victims and difficult for others to understand. Quttar’s claim that LGBTQ people will be safe is false just as Don’t Say Gay increases danger for young gays, drag queens, and trans. Just as danger is heightened for all minorities when their reality is concealed.
I’m glad the World Cup is over. This one left a bad taste.
HumboldtBlue
He’s already claiming that the 4-year term he was just elected to in Nov. is actually his first, utterly ignoring the 2018-2022 term, so that he can dance around the three-term limit and win election two more times.
If you watch FIFA Uncovered on Netflix, you’ll recognize Al Khater as the person with the world’s most punchable face. He’s an arrogant asshole through and through, and he was at the tip of the spear paying off Caribbean and African nations to ensure Qatar was awarded the cup.
I’ll say this, however, the “6,500 deaths” attributed to the building of stadiums for this cup is patently false. The number was first published by the Guardian (I believe) in 2017 or so, and those deaths were over a 10-12-year period of all construction in the country, not limited to the cup. Yes, that’s still a lot of dead migrant workers, but it’s repeated use in the context of the cup alone is false.
Mart
@Ken: Looks like gyros meat to me.
planetjanet
OT: Trollhattan sent me down the rabbit hole, but I can’t resist sharing this one. Poll: Who will last longer? Muskrat, Liz Truss or the lettuce?
Ryanair Poll
phdesmond
Anne, thanks a lot for the treat of setting up a community where for three or four weeks, anyone at Balloon-Juice could drop in and get the soccer news and exchange thoughts and opinions about the game in progress. Walter Girl clearly deserves kudos as well!
i’d have to say that, overall, this world cup was my best TV experience since the 24-hour New Year’s Eve extravaganza that greeted the year 2000. but this one was better because there was a community to share it with.
mrmoshpotato
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
@raven: Chocolate-covered bacon has a place in every thread.
mrmoshpotato
@Tom Levenson: YUMM-O!
Wyatt Salamanca
The game winning goal called by the brilliant Andres Cantor. God bless him and God bless soccer!
h/t https://www.mediaite.com/sports/legendary-soccer-announcer-andres-cantor-goes-viral-with-emotional-call-of-world-cup-winning-goal-for-his-native-argentina-one-for-the-history-books/
Delk
RIP Terry Hall.
SpaceUnit
Hopefully now that the soccer is done this blog can get back to Twitter Woe 24/7.
phdesmond
oh, an interesting quote, and on topic.
Soccer star Karim Benzema once said “If I score, I’m French, if I don’t, I’m Arab,” or words to that effect.
Snopes.
Splitting Image
@trollhattan:
My theory, which is mine, is that the push for a biennial World Cup is a last-ditch attempt to crowd out the women’s game from gaining more traction. If all FIFA wants is to double the number of tournaments, promoting the women’s World Cup and the women’s Euros as major events would achieve that without putting any more strain on the premier men’s leagues. It would also serve to promote the women’s leagues in the major soccer countries.
Carefully examining the upper ranks of FIFA management and extrapolating their politics from their observable demographic makeup, I think they would rather see the men’s leagues break from strain than let that happen.
marklar
@Delk: Ouch. One of my favorite albums while in college was Virgins and Philistines by The Colorfield. The Fun Boy Three were great as well (and The Specials goes without saying). He was a terrifically versatile musician and under-appreciated songwriter.
PAM Dirac
@trollhattan:
I am very much looking forward to this. As the article said, the players and fans put so much importance on the World Cup and the margin between winning and losing is so small that there just has to be lots of drama, but for quality of soccer, especially team play, I thought the Women’s 2022 Euro was far better than the Qatar World Cup. One measure is that in the World Cup, 5 games in the knockout round went to penalty kicks, while there were zero penalty shootouts in the Euros.
SpaceUnit
@Splitting Image:
You are awarded 1 point for the Monty Python reference.
HumboldtBlue
@Splitting Image:
One detail, the women’s Euros (which were played this summer) are run by UEFA, not FIFA, and UEFA is not going to allow FIFA to interfere with their men’s Euros (next it 2024) with a bi-annual FIFA tourney. It’s just not gonna happen.
Omnes Omnibus
@phdesmond: The Scots and Welsh are British if they do well and Scots or Welsh if they do not.
sdhays
@phdesmond: I seem to recall someone making the same observation about BBC coverage and Scottish athletes. Last Olympics, maybe? When they’re successful, they’re British, when not, they’re Scottish.
Omnes Omnibus
@Delk: Fuck. RIP
trollhattan
@Delk: @Omnes Omnibus:
Oh man, I loved The Specials. Sixty-three? Double-damn. :-(
trollhattan
Taking out the trash a second time. Fully warranted effort, in this case.
In case it’s not well known, one of the women testifying against Weinstein in this trial was Jennifer Siebel Newsom. So many victims.
Burnspbesq
I was struck by Tim Cook’s absence from that photo. I can’t decide whether (a) he cares about preserving the value of the brand of which he is the chief steward or (b) he had tickets for the Auburn basketball game.
trollhattan
@planetjanet: Love! 🥬🥬 [“leafy green” I swear that’s what it says]
pajaro
One of the podcast hosts that I listened to called this the split screen world cup, and he was able to gush about how great the soccer was (and it was) and condemn the decision to host the event in Qatar. It was ridiculous to give the games to a country with so few fans of their own that they had to pay for a claque and fly them in from Lebanon so they could have supporters of the home team.
One of the things they did achieve was a final that took place during a time when almost all of humanity was awake–starting, if I have this right, at 7:00 am in LA and 10:00 pm in Beijing.
trollhattan
@PAM Dirac: Euros were great!
2019 WWC was predicted to be “the year the rest of the world catches up” to the USWNT but what happened was while they did improve, the US women got better at the same time. Today, I think several nations have their women’s team playing at our level, England included, while USWNT is having a generational turnover in the squad that is creating all kinds of growing pains as Vlatko fiddles with lineups.
Brachiator
@Delk:
I was just listening to some Specials music the other day. May he rest in peace.
The story in the Guardian about Hall is very good. He had at times a very sad life.
PAM Dirac
@trollhattan:
I think the US performance in the 2019 WWC was the finest team performance I have ever seen. They were pushed, Spain, England, France all played excellent games and the US found a way to play better. The precision, the decision making, the awareness of where everyone was on the field were almost surreal. You saw a lot of that in the Euros. You saw stretches like that in the men’s WC like Argentina in most of the first half of the final, but in 2019 the US women did it for 90 minutes in every game. You are right that the upcoming WC is going to be a much bigger challenge, with the European teams especially really battle tested in the Euros. The young US talent is very deep, but it isn’t clear they are going to get enough reps to get the team understanding they need.
HumboldtBlue
Speaking of the WWC, Vivianne Miedema, the world’s best woman player, has suffered a knee injury and will miss the WC.
gene108
Qatar didn’t go out of its way to be extra mean to people who did the construction work to build the stadiums. What’s been reported is how Saudi Arabia and all the Persian Gulf states treat migrant workers.
Western reporters are just upset they have had to notice these labor practices, because they are fans of association football and it tickles their conscience a bit about enjoying their favorite sport.
Instead of just focusing on World Cup related labor issues, the reporters could’ve looked at the broader labor issues in the area. Oil rich countries are entirely dependent on foreign workers to do the work to run their countries. The migrant workers out number the natives.
It’s an absolutely unique situation to that area and an absolutely bonkers way to run a country.
billcinsd
Expanding the number of teams from 32 to 48, the format for the next World Cup in North America in 2026, will create a sprawling colossus that will likewise cheapen the experience
Is pretty much what the critics said when the World Cup went from 24 to 32 in 1998. They were wrong then and likely will be wrong in 4 years. It may take a little while for some of the new teams to get up to speed, but eventually they will, and more big teams will struggle to make the later rounds nd that will be good
Paul in KY
I hate this World Cup expansion.
Paul in KY
@billcinsd: With 3 teams in each group, there is no ‘end of group, both teams playing at same time to see who advances games’.
That sucks, IMO.