Yesterday was something then, wasn’t it? From a football point of view. We started with FIFA trying to kill football, engaging in the most risibly blatant corruption in memory and overturning a red card at the behest of the president of the host nation and giving them a clear competitive edge.
Had FIFAs action been taken at the behest of Qatar or Russia at a past World Cup, the American press and fans would have been quick to call it out as what it so obviously was—corruption so blatant and with such
disdain for the fans, players, and other national federations that it’s almost difficult to comprehend.
In the tribal world of sport, though, many Americans who would have previously reacted badly to being tied to their controversial president suddenly found themselves as firm fellow travellers, contorting themselves into ugly shapes to make peace with the situation rather than call it what it so obvious was.
Then, mere hours later, England went to the Azteca. Extreme altitude. One of the most hostile stadiums on the planet. Facing Mexico at home, an opponent fully acclimatized to the elevation, and in top form. And somehow England came out on top, even down to ten men and under siege for 30 minutes.
It was a performance for the ages for England to come out on top. For Mexico, it was a potentially generationally scarring sporting result. They had England at the Azteca, and 7,400’, they were up a man and down a goal and they had 30 minutes to hammer and hammer and hammer them. And they lost.
On Sunday, a greedy and corrupt FIFA tried their damndest to kill football. Again. The organization best known for bribes and kickbacks and carrying water for corrupt regimes engaged in some of their most shockingly blatant corruption yet. Football, though, turned around and once again refused to be killed.
Oh, and somewhere in between those two things Brazil lost to Norway. On any other day, this would have been the headline. On Sunday, it was an afterthought. One that means Liverpool player Alisson Becker’s World Cup is over. He played well. Brazil still lost. Erling Haaland and Norway put on a show.
As to all the rest, there is a sense of mixed joy and frustration. In the end, England vs. Mexico was a stunning spectacle. The game of the World Cup. The game of the past few World Cups, perhaps. Yet FIFA exists. Corrupt. Loathsome. Lining their pockets in the service of some of the worst people in the world.
They bring nothing to the sport. If FIFA stopped existing tomorrow, football would survive. It would shrug it off without a care. Not a single thing of value would be lost. If football stopped, so would FIFA. They bring nothing of value to the table, the greedy pricks; the ticks and leeches; the useless parasites.
Football survives in spite of FIFA and Gianni Infantino. Football would be better off without FIFA and Gianni Infantino. They bring nothing of value to the table, only take and take and take some more, and we don’t need them. That might be the best lesson we can take from yesterday at the World Cup.
