No surprises: FIFA has failed football fans again
“Can we ask you some questions about England v Iran?”
The two England fans, complete with retro shirts and Budweiser bucket hats, looked sheepishly at us.
“I’m no good at the politics”, one said.
“Oh no, we just want some score predictions.”
A look of relief came over both their faces.
This is the reality of being a football fan during the Qatar World Cup; politics comes before football.
On a grey and drizzly winter Monday there is already enough for fans to compete with to fully experience the wonder that is the World Cup, the political and social backdrop providing yet another hurdle for them to vault.
Rather than simply being able to enjoy watching their team play, fans are forced to walk on eggshells, somehow having to find a way to enjoy the game while also checking their moral compass.
This is not what they deserve.
Football is, both historically and genealogically, a source of joy. The Saturday 3pm kick off literally exists as the passage between the working week and the time for leisure. But this World Cup flies directly in the face of that, against what makes the sport meaningful to so many.
Because of the decisions made by FIFA stemming all the way back to the fateful vote in 2010, everything about England v Iran has had to be prefaced by politics. From human rights abuses, questions over LGBTQ+ rights and state reaction to the protests in Iran, FIFA has turned a blind eye and told the world to instead focus on the football.
No, Mr Infantino, it’s time to focus on FIFA.
Let’s take this morning as an example. While the nation prepared for England’s opener, the build-up was overshadowed by the announcement that European nations would be backing down from wearing the OneLove armband that intended to signify support for the LGBTQ+ community after FIFA decided that players wearing them would be booked.
There is no question that this decision is a total betrayal by the likes of the FA; choosing to stand for a cause only when it suits you shows an utter lack of integrity.
But the point is that this political wrangling shouldn’t be happening in the first place. The World Cup is being played in a country where an armband supporting basic human dignity is the source of conflict, and the fact this is the case is entirely down to FIFA.
Let’s be very clear – FIFA have beseeched that the pitch should be the main focus, and yet the very reason that attention has been elsewhere stems from them. The irony is that fans want to focus on football: it’s FIFA that’s prevented that.
There are only one set of winners in this whole scenario, and that is FIFA and its stakeholders. The fans experience has been diminished while players are under pressure to stand up for what associations will not.
We ought to have stomachs queasy with World Cup fever, not sick with corporate greed.
This World Cup will, regardless, provide some incredible moments both off the pitch and on; indeed as I write this England are already 3-0 up after 30 minutes of play.
And when these moments do happen, it will not be because of but directly in spite of FIFA.
