One day to Curtain Up on the world's greatest soccer show and the "Mondiale" already has a comfortingly familiar look to it. The reigning champions, Brazil, are fighting amongst themselves; the referees are being given a new rule book; fancied teams like Nigeria and Italy are losing warm-up games; English squad players have become suddenly "tired and emotional"; an Argentine player (not Maradona) is involved in an alleged doping scandal; one African soccer executive is accused of illegally selling tickets meant for his country's fans; the CFO, the World Cup organising committee in France, express their outrage at unscrupulous behaviour by travel agents who have sold World Cup packages in numbers they could never expect to meet; etc, etc.
Over the next five weeks, two and a half million fans will fill the stadiums that host these World Cup finals. An estimated 37 billion people (between two and three billion per big match) will tune in to TV sets all around the world. No one can say for sure if the soccer they see on their screens will be any better than at previous World Cups but we do know that the cost of getting the show on the road has never been higher. The French state and the French Organising Committee have spent approximately £1.2 billion pounds in preparing France, its stadiums, its railways, its undergrounds and motorways for the competition and for a "footballing tourist" invasion expected to touch the six million mark.
Amidst the hype, the polemics, the ticket rows, the transport chaos and the TV-sponsored glitz, will we get to see any good soccer? The answer is, surely, YES - despite everything. Take the reigning champions, Brazil, for example. Here, the omens are good.
Brazilian coach Mario Zagallo had barely struck striker Romario out of his squad last week when his number two, former star Zico, was receiving threats from Brazilian fans convinced that Romario, the man who played a large part in Brazil's triumph four years ago, had been omitted from the squad because of personal differences with Zico. Such was the menacing nature of telephone calls, that Zico hired security guards for his home and forbade his wife and child to either answer the phone or read their email.
Just when the fuss prompted by Romario's omission was beginning to calm down, up popped his substitute, the Fiorentina striker Edmundo, to say some critical things about his team mate and rival, Bebeto. Furthermore, Edmundo's forceful ways and less than diplomatic declarations almost resulted in a bout of dressing room fisticuffs with another team mate, the AC Milan player Leonardo.
All of which might not sound like the ideal pre-World Cup team camp climate. However, this being Brazil, it probably means only that the reigning champions are gearing themselves up for a terrific World Cup.
Which also tends to be our conclusion when learning that Nigeria and Italy, to name but two, have lost pre-World Cup friendlies. Given that Italy lost to both France and West Germany in the months before winning in 1982, no one, not even the hyper-critical Italians sports media, were much worried about a 1-0 defeat by Sweden last week. Nor was Nigerian midfielder Sunday Oliseh too upset by his side's 5-1 defeat by Holland last week, saying that he felt sorry for the team's recently appointed coach, Yugoslav Boris Milutinovic, but added:
"Everyone has problems . . . before, everybody was saying Nigeria would win the World Cup. It's much easier now that nobody believes in Nigeria. But we believe."
That English players might get themselves into trouble for leading too lively an off-the-pitch life is nothing new either. As with Brazil, so too with England - it could be that tabloid reports of "tired and emotional" late night sessions involving English squad players are merely the prologue to a good World Cup for Glenn Hoddle's men as well.
AS for that doping story in the Argentina camp, we can happily report that it was merely a case of a negative reaction to a anti-flu vaccination administered to midfielder Juan Veron. Those news hounds who had hoped that Argentina would continue on in the inglorious tradition of Diego Maradona (hounded out of the 1994 finals after failing a dope test) are headed for disappointment. As indeed are, most probably, Argentina's opponents.
As for the tickets scandal . . . Cameroon Federation President Vincent Onana is due in court in Yaounde, Cameroon, after he had been arrested at the airport last week as he was about to fly to France. Onana stands accused of having sold a hefty whack of the Cameroon Federation's ticket allocation to an English travel company and that furthermore he pocketed most of the revenue himself, via a federation account under his control.
Despite the adverse publicity, however, Cameroon could still live up to a reputation forged by good performances in 1982 (they embarrassed winners Italy in the first round) and in 1990 (they came within minutes of eliminating England in a quarter-final clash). Under French coach Claude LeRoy, a man with huge experience of African soccer, Cameroon could again embarrass Italy in the first round and maybe a few others, too.
Ah, yes . . . Who will win the World Cup? The competition has never been more wide open but if we have to make a fool of ourselves, then the (cautious) vote is for Argentina.
