‘Now Is All’ – a perfectly legitimate slogan for a World Cup like no other. A World Cup mired by corruption. A World Cup about so much more than football. A winter World Cup, unaffordable to most, constructed on the broken backs of a work force hoodwinked into modern day slavery.
Spare a thought for the Fifa family. Some days over the past 12 years it must have felt like the walls were closing in on their Zurich headquarters, even factoring in the five underground floors.
“Places where people make decisions should only contain indirect light,” said Sepp Blatter, its disgraced former president in 2015, “because the light should come from the people themselves who are assembled there.”
On too many days, the light inside Fifa’s bunker has been extinguished by greed.
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Back in 2010 Sheikha Moza, mother to the Qatar emir Sheikh Tamim, told the Fifa Executive Committee that the time had come for the Middle East to host football’s greatest offering. “In 2022, more than half the population of the region will be under 25 and the World Cup here will have a different impact here than anywhere in the world,” she said. “You can help us realise this elusive dream.”
Other numbers rise and fall at the first World Cup on the Arabian Peninsula, as 32 teams squeeze four matches into each day until the knockout stages. Primetime sportswashing at this two city tournament – Doha and Lusail – an idea so illogical that the 2026 version is being held across the entire continent of North America.
Some other numbers. Seventy-two per cent of Qatar’s 2.9 million population are male. Qatari citizens only make up 11 per cent. The Guardian state that 6,5000 migrant workers have died since the World Cup was secured. Qatar and Fifa’s official number: 39.
Fifa and Qatar continue to bet heavily on an old certainty; the football washes everything else clean at the World Cup as, eventually, the sight of Messi and Ronaldo will silence the unholy racket being made by western media about human rights. About LGBTQ+ rights. About wage theft. About truth versus spin.
About Budweiser. Despite the $75 million sponsorship deal, beer is off the menu, in and around stadiums. Fear not, alcohol will still be available in the luxury suites. Let the games begin.
