A LO-FUN CUP

 

               When I’m asked about the best events I covered in my 20-plus years as an active sports writer, I have a ready answer. It’s a two-way tie, I say. Number 1 was the 1994 soccer World Cup in the United States.  Number 1A was the 1998 edition of that tournament in France.

               The 1994 event was a revelation to me. Before it I had no great background in soccer and was stunned by the athleticism of the participants and the zest and color generated by the polyglot crowds. The Cup was a month-long carnival that far outdid any such fest I’d witnessed, Olympics included. The ’98 event was equally memorable, made especially so by the five-week stay in France it afforded me and wife Susie, who was along for the ride. The food alone would have sufficed to put the trip atop my list.

               It’s World Cup time again, starting this Sunday, November 20, and running through December 18, but I’m afraid it won’t be much of a treat for all concerned. That’s because it’s in Qatar, a tiny, dusty kingdom on the Arabian Gulf with no history in the sport whose award took “sportswashing” to a new high, as a result of an international bribe-o-rama for the ages. That’s saying quite a bit, because the previous record was held by the 2018 World Cup in Russia, although there most of the widely reported graft stayed home among Putin’s pals.

This Cup has been attended by criminal proceedings in the U.S., Switzerland and Brazil, among other lands. Those charged with bribe taking included Sepp Blatter, the longtime top man at FIFA, the sport’s world governing body, and Michel Platini, the No. 2.  Both were acquitted in a Swiss trial but the prosecution is appealing the verdict, and both still are banned from the sport by the organization that nurtured them.  A dozen cases in the U.S. resulted in guilty findings against corporate and soccer officials and some $40 million in fines and forfeitures.

Some criminal trials still pend, including one scheduled for January against two executives of Fox TV charged with bribing soccer officials to grease the network’s successful bid to televise the proceedings in the U.S.  Like a good little partner, Fox has said it will air Cup games without reference to the offenses that surround them. Maybe its own involvement in them had something to do with that, huh?  

A less likely place for the world’s most-inclusive sporting event (some 200 national teams competed at one stage or another) would be hard to find. Oil-rich Qatar is more a company than a country, the property of the Thani family, a hereditary monarchy whose head appoints the prime minister and his cabinet and all members of the judiciary. Of a total population of about three million people only about 300,000 are citizens, the rest being ex-pats and migrant workers. Stoning and flogging are legal punishments; homosexual acts are punishable by death.

When Qatar was awarded the Cup in 2010 it had just one suitable soccer stadium. It’s dotted the desert around Doha, its only city worth the name, with seven more since, their construction accounting for the bulk of the reported $220 billion it’s spending to stage the event. The grunt work on those was performed by workers imported from Asia who labored, and died, under near-slavery conditions until international condemnation forced some reforms a few years ago.

 Tourist accommodations have been slapped together similarly, with cruise ships and a tent city enlisted to help serve the expected influx. Alcohol use is prohibited in most of Qatar but for the nonce the country is creating “fan zones” around stadiums where visitors can indulge. Those who overindulge will be carted off to sober-up zones, there to stay under threat of arrest.  I’m not making this up.

The World Cup usually takes place in June while the world’s top club leagues are on break. It’s too hot for soccer in Qatar in or around that month so FIFA honchos, their pockets stuffed to overflowing, switched the thing to its November start. Among other things that will mean that players will be joining their national teams hot off competitive regimens, with a larger number than usual nursing injuries.  

The good news for us Yanks is that the U.S. team is in the field. It missed the 2018 fest in ignominious fashion after losing a final qualifying match to a team from little Trinidad & Tobago (pop. 1.3 million) when a tie would have sufficed to advance. A thorough shakeup of team management resulted.

The bad news is that U.S. prospects aren’t brilliant. The team goes to Qatar ranked 16^th internationally, but that may be higher than justified. It qualified for the Cup by finishing third in its regional group, behind Mexico and newly potent Canada, was shut out by lower-ranked Japan and Saudi Arabia in its two most-recent practice outings and has been beset by a number of injuries large by any standard. Its best players aren’t among the international elite, and it lacks the standout goaltending of previous U.S. elevens.

 The team opens on Monday, November 21, against Wales, meets England on Friday, November 25, and finishes group play on Tuesday, November 29, against Iran.  Traditional-power England, fifth in the world rankings, is the group favorite, and Wales and Iran rank just behind the U.S. in 19^th and 20^th places, respectively. It probably will take at least a win and a tie in the three matches to advance to the single-elimination round of 16, and that’ll take some doing.

The saving grace may be a team’s youth—it’s the youngest in the field by one recent measure. That means—who knows?-- it could outperform expectations. It also could bode well for 2026, when the U.S. will co-host the Cup with Canada and Mexico. Meantime, most of us can be glad we’ll be watching at home, out of range of Qatari beer patrols. Have another, if you want.