2022 World Cup Diary – Part Fourteen – the Final
And in the end… FIFA confirmed as Qatar’s bitch
Monday 19th December 2022
And so it ends, confirming one criticism that had been leveled at the host country’s suitability to stage a World Cup. It isn’t actually a country that cares very much about football. And in that sense, it doesn’t really ‘get’ football. So you had Qataris catching the first half of a game and then going home. They’d flavoured the experience, seen a bit of the match, but had better things to do. And in fairness, a culture that got football would have appreciated the sanctity of the occasion of the trophy being lifted, for the winning nation. However, instead of celebrating Lionel Messi’s crowning moment, when future generations see the images, they will think – what the f*** is that black thing he’s wearing?
No disrespect to the gesture of the presentation of the bisht, regrettably an unfortunate anagram of something that many might have expressed about the garment, and to Western eyes resembled something you might buy for the Mrs in Ann Summers to perk up the love life. The Emir of Qatar probably wasn’t aware of the significance of the moment of lifting the trophy in a country’s football shirt might be to football players, fans and history, because the World Cup wasn’t taking place in Qatar out of any great love for the sport. And in that case, it was up to Gianni Infantino to respectfully put it to the Emir that football has its own customs that should be respected. Except he didn’t. Worse still is the likelihood that the Emir knew exactly what he was doing, making the lifting of the trophy not about Argentina and Messi, but Argentina, Messi and Qatar. And if this was the case, Infantino was a willing partner in the totally inappropriate spectacle. Then again, Infantino has been living in grace and favour accommodation in Doha for a while now and has basically sucked up to all of Qatar’s demands. Moving the tournament from summer to the middle of the season. Moving the date of the opening game weeks before the tournament started. Banning beer sales at matches two days before the first game. The captain’s armband saga. (How the f*** does it offend anyone to wear a rainbow with a heart on an armband?) And finally making Messi look like some kind of pantomime dame in the what should have been the defining moment of his career.
Messi has taken Qatari money for a variety of different advertising, and is now in bed with Saudi Arabia. Already as compromised as David Beckham, he kind of got what he deserved. When you get into bed with the devil, you have to do his bidding. Messi also plays for the Qatari owned PSG. So him showing disrespect for the absurdity and totally unfootballing nature of putting on the robe was a difficult ask. Ultimately, FIFA should have stepped in and laid down the law. But having taken the not inconsiderable Qatari bribes to give the country the finals back in 2010, they have become lapdogs. Infantino is the Emir’s bitch.
The bshit, sorry bisht, could have been presented to Messi in a separate ceremony – even during the damned presentation – God knows it took long enough anyway, and then we could have got back to football tradition. However, it was kind of fitting that, symbolically, the robe of Qatar was draped over the tournament’s biggest star to take the focus away from football at the moment the world was watching. There is a time and place for everything, but this was Qatar symbolically gatecrashing a party it had already poured plenty of cold water upon. The hypocrisy of allowing VIPs to drink alcohol behind screens at the stadium whilst the great unwashed weren’t allowed to touch a drop in the cheaper seats. There are your values. Pay us enough and we are prepared to forget any respect for our precious culture. On a side note, fair play to Emi Martinez for his gesture after receiving the Golden Glove award. He spoke for a lot of people in that moment.
Amazing. I thought, before the game I would be writing about football. And it probably was the greatest ever World Cup Final. I never like to see a final of any sort settled by a penalty shoot-out, but that’s the way it is these days and at least the better team won. Mbappe was, granted, brilliant, but man for man, Argentina played better over the 120 minutes. It wasn’t all about Messi, in spite of him contributing heavily to the cause. The return of Di Maria meant a more attacking line-up, and in midfield, the trio of De Paul, Mac Allister and Fernandez were top drawer. For the first time in the tournament you really felt that France missed the likes of Pogba and Kante. Griezmann was allowed far less influence.
Fair play to Didier Deschamps for hauling off two underperforming forwards before half time. It needed to happen, not least because of Dembele’s appalling defensive work. Giroud just wasn’t getting any joy against his markers and little in the way of service. Argentina’s second goal was a thing of beauty. All one and two touch with running into space. You have to credit Scaloni’s players for their fitness and hunger. They seemed to want it more, and won most of their battles except for the short spells in the game when France scored their goals, very efficiently thanks to Mbappe. Argentina had more than twice the French’s attempts on goal.
There was a theory that France were a bit off the pace due to the flu that had laid low some of their players. Who knows? Argentina were certainly more energized. It would be so ironic if that were the case, given the contribution of air conditioning to the spread of these things. Because if there’s one thing synonymous with visiting anywhere in the Middle East, it’s A/C. And on that front, the temperatures reached the high 20s during daylight, but there were a total of 15 matches played in daylight – seven at 1pm and eight at 4pm. I’d venture it was far hotter in Mexico in 1986 and at certain more southern stadiums in USA 1994 (Ireland v Mexico anyone?). No artificial cooling required. A lot of money was spent on air conditioning stadiums that was ultimately wasted money. My guess is the plans were done before the tournament shifted to winter and the project was so awash with funds, they just decided to go ahead anyway. The tournament was moved because of the situation outside the stadiums – you can’t air condition a 2 kilometre walk to the public transport that takes you away from the area of the stadium.
Back to the game and more substitutions were made. Mbappe’s second goal was a thing of wonder, but long before that Argentina should have wrapped up the game. Being pulled back to 2-2 reminded me less of the game against Holland in the last eight and more of the 1986 final when West Germany pulled back two goals. Argentina won that in 90 minutes thanks to a moment of brilliance from Maradona. Messi unleashed a wonderful effort at the goal before normal time concluded, but it was straight in the middle of the posts and Lloris punched it over.
Extra time saw more drama, a goal for each side and arguably the key moment in the whole game when, at 3-3, Emi Martinez stopped a goalbound shot from Muani with his outstretched boot. If that had gone in, we’d have been talking about a South American nation in mourning today. So penalties it was and Martinez psyched out the opposition sufficiently enough for his team to take the trophy. France have now lost two World Cup Finals this way. Italy have lost one and won one, and Brazil are the other team – winning in 1994. Roberto Baggio skying one in a way that we’ve become accustomed to seeing England players do. Such are World Cup memories and this game provided a very decent chunk of memorable moments, unlike many more cautious affairs over the years, it must be said.
It was a fitting end to a tournament that had plenty of drama and many a twist and turn. On the field, it was a very good World Cup. How much this had to do with being held where it was, it is difficult to say. The stadiums were excellent – and given the cost of building them, so they should be. The smaller crime here is the minimal amount of use most of them will subsequently see and soon enough they will either be reduced in size or flattened, with one packed up and likely parked in the desert somewhere awaiting a buyer. The bigger crime is the circumstances in which they were built, which doesn’t require repeating here. Except to say that this is the story of the oil rich Middle East. Exploitation of third world labour is par for the course and it’s how Dubai and Abu Dhabi were built. There are an awful lot of people in all kinds of jobs being paid peanuts and being denied the kind of rights we in the West take for granted. And that is their culture. I don’t respect it, and I can’t see any reason I would ever return to Qatar.
For further confirmation of how it is there is a documentary you can view at your leisure -
Qatar - State of Fear
There are also some excellent articles on the experience of migrant workers that worked to make the tournament happen on theathletic.com - although unfortunately you have to pay to read the content. Search 'migrant workers' if you can get access.
And here’s David Squire of The Guardian putting it into cartoon form that shouldn’t make anyone laugh.
1) A Qatar World Cup worker's death by natural causes
2) Qatar 2022 - the invisible man - World Cup migrant worker
That second cartoon refers to the culture of fear of those who are given orders to carry out their jobs and worry about their work being unsatisfactory. And so you can get ridiculous over-efficiency, which kind of extends the blanket of repression to the country’s ‘guests’ in certain situations, like not being allowed to jump over a barrier to have a pee out of sight, or take a plastic replica World Cup into a stadium. But in truth, the majority of fans weren’t genuinely wanted at these finals. They provided the backdrop for the games, but on the budgets most people were on, they are not really wanted back. Qatar 2022 was a marketing exercise to fill newly built hotels in Doha that cost more than the majority of people are prepared to pay. My prediction is that unless they organize major conferences and the like, there will always be plenty of capacity. The souks had some character, but outside of that, a hotel is a hotel and a shopping mall is a shopping mall. There may have been some more culture to see, but in honesty, the mere act of attending a match was exhausting – you never really had the energy to do anything else that meant even a minimal amount of being on your feet. If you want to see the Middle East, go to Egypt is my advice.
This was my eighth World Cup. I’ve only seen Messi play in the flesh at these tournaments a total of three times, the same as Maradona (all in 1990). Being held in Qatar was not going to stop me going once I found out it was just about affordable. And I am pleased that I was able to experience it myself rather than rely on the accounts of others. I’d have preferred it to be elsewhere, and splitting it between 3 or 4 countries in the area would have been far more sensible. Still, money being money, and FIFA being FIFA I suspect we’ll all be back in the region eight years from now. Another winter World Cup co-hosted by Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Greece. At least all of these countries have some kind of football culture, certainly the latter two. But in terms of Qatar, 2022 will become a memory as I don't see them taking part in another finals elsewhere, or their stadiums being preserved for the occasional super cup match in front of a half-full stadium. The advert’s over. We might hear the occasional peep of PR with David Beckham persuading us to visit, but now, it’s a case of been there, seen it, done it. Didn’t even bother buying the overpriced FIFA branded T-shirt. I don’t hear anybody saying they can’t wait to go back. See you in Tenerife.
Next entry in this blog will return to its raison d’etre… and Arsenal’s Boxing Day match against West Ham.
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