Let’s not go as far as that preposterous peacock, Fifa president Gianni Infantino, who had clearly been sniffing his own hype when he declared that this World Cup had been “the greatest human, social and cultural event that mankind has witnessed”.
And that was before Spain even lifted the trophy.
But it has been memorable. Many of us had wondered whether this would be a World Cup remembered more for problems played out off the pitch than matches played on it. Would stadiums be half-empty because of price-gouging? Would ICE officers be rounding up visitors to the US on suspicion of being brown? Would Donald Trump turn up at a load of matches, forcing fans to queue for hours to get through security checks? Indeed, would the insatiable and unquenchable egos of Infantino and Trump overshadow everything else?
Trump clearly enjoyed handing out the medals and trophies. But it was quite right that he was doing that: the US was the principal host nation – of course he would be there. It was no different from a member of the Royal Family handing out the prizes at Wimbledon. I had no problem with the US President taking centre stage last night – though don’t get me started on Infantino wearing a suit and tie with white trainers.
Mercifully, for nearly all this World Cup, it has been the excitement of the football itself that has enthralled me – although we will come to the excruciatingly awful bits in a moment.
If you’re from Cape Verde, you’re going to look back at this with unbelievable pride and affection. They held Spain to a goalless draw in the group stages and took Argentina to extra time in the round of 32. The Egyptians and Moroccans were fabulous, too, while DR Congo stretched England all the way in the round of 16.
Scotland had the best party ever and drank Boston dry, while Norway turned us all into rowers once their drums banged. The stadiums have been magnificent.
At 39, Lionel Messi is still a dazzling magician. There was a final (and maybe overdue) bow for Ronaldo; Haaland was all Viking valour, Mbappé a genius. We eyed the future with budding and dazzling Spanish megastar Lamine Yamal – just 19 and still wearing braces on his teeth. And we sang “Hey Jude” at the top of our voices, in honour of our true superstar, Jude Bellingham.
So, hats off to the beautiful game. But before I get carried away, let’s come back to earth with a bump.
The worst of this sporting event was served up by Fifa itself, ably aided and abetted by the US President. The sheer, foetid rottenness of what happened over the red card delivered to US striker Folarin Balogun is impossible to exaggerate.
French fans protest against Fifa president Gianni Infantino during their match with Morocco (Photo: Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty)Sport only flourishes if everyone agrees to the rules it is played by. And in football, if you get sent off, you miss the next game. Everyone knows it. VAR can overturn if the red card was unfairly given, but once the authorities have decided, they’ve decided. That’s it. Unless, apparently, Trump decides to intervene.
On the night when England played Mexico, I was in the Azteca Stadium. There were 80,000 Mexicans and about 3,000 England fans. It was wild. Our cheers were entirely drowned out. But the moment when Infantino’s face came up on the big screens from his perch in the VIP box, there was utter unity. Everyone jeered him together.
The following day, when I flew back to the UK, my taxi driver had the Belgium vs USA game on in his car. I spoke no Spanish, he spoke no English, but we laughed together as the Belgians kicked the crap out of the US in a game that Balogun was allowed to play in only after Trump’s meddling.
If a study is made on how to lose friends and alienate people, this is the example, par excellence.
It is easy to say politics should be kept out of sport, but when has that ever been possible? This may seem like the carping of a man who’s been fed on a diet of sour grapes, but I remember when the England team at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar were told that if they went onto the pitch with rainbow armbands they would be sanctioned. Fine. No politics and sport.
However, when the Argentinian players – including Messi – were holding up a banner after the England game proclaiming that the Falklands belonged to Argentina, wasn’t that just a teeny bit political? But Fifa has done nothing about it so far. This is a governing body that doesn’t lose sleep over principles.
One last thing: It is also not normal that a host nation (the US) spends the last week of the tournament bombing the hell out of one of the countries that had been competing in it (Iran).
Maybe it’s me, but my expectations were so low about this World Cup that I think the football has won out. Or maybe I should phrase that differently: knowing what geniuses Trump and Infantino are at making themselves the centre of attention, they’ve remained largely backstage but for the red-card intervention.
There was one other notable intervention from the leader of the free world. Trump did publicly comment on Thomas Tuchel’s England tactics against Argentina in the semi-finals. Admitting he knew nothing about football, he said he couldn’t understand why England stopped playing offence and only played defence after they went ahead.
You might know nothing about the sport, Mr President, but on that observation at least, you had tens of millions of Englishmen and women nodding in agreement.
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