- Are we fast approaching the end of the Premier League as we know it?
- I see the WC is about to start. I must say, it doesn’t really appeal….
By Tony Attwood (not in the USA)
“Chaos threatens World Cup kick-off: Tent city forms at venue for tonight’s opening ceremony, pricey tickets risk thousands of empty seats, US border staff block refs and fans… and FIFA president’s message? Just ‘chill’!”
And no I didn’t just make that up. It is from the Daily Mail and is online at the moment that I write.
Now I must admit that, as a person who started his professional life as a teacher, I was interested to find that “The most visible demonstrations have come from members of the Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educacion, a teachers’ union protesting over pay, pensions and labour reforms.” But then I taught in Inner London so we were all very peaceful in comparison.
But it seems that an encampment has been set up in Mexico City next to the World Cup fan zone, which doesn’t seem to be making the local organisers very happy.
In a different set of campaigns, Greenpeace is highlighting the damage that each World Cup does to the environment, especially by taking place in three different countries. And looking at the news, it is difficult to imagine anyone actually changing his or her mind about such issues. Although holding one World Cup in three countries and 16 cities does seem over the top even for Fifa.
What tends to happen in circumstances like these is that anyone who has a grievance sees the Big Event as a chance to express it, so the country hosting the affair invariably gets more negative than positive publicity. National broadcasters can be relied on to say the right thing, but that’s about it.
And of course, the host has to pay. There is obviously always a promise of profit, but it rarely happens. There is also the promise of positive publicity and more tourism, but as with Mexico at the moment, it is hard to find anyone who is saying, “I’ve never thought of going there, but now I think I might.”
In fact, what World Cup hosting does is it puts a focus on all the grievances that local people have, because they know for sure that the world dis watching. Especially as the price of everything goes up.
Except in this case, the price of tickets seems to have come down, as advance bookings have not been forthcoming. (The Financial Times has said that something approaching 200,0000 tickets for the group stage were still for sale as the tournament approached its launch date.
Mind you, with the cheapest ticket for USA’ v Paraguay this weekend costing over £800, one can understand why, especially as it is on TV and if you want to watch it you’ll have to pay highly excessive transport costs and triple the norm hotel prices. And that’s always assuming you can get a visa to get into the country.
But I suppose at least we have had one new insight – a referee who allegedly is a member of a terrorist organisation and who thus was not allowed into the USA. That was a first. Some of the countries that are taking part are also finding travel difficult, such as Iran, Haiti, the Ivory Coast and Senegal. Mr Trump allegedly expressed surprise that they were even allowed to take part.
Lots of journalists have been banned from entry, which has guaranteed that the blockade of individuals from certain countries has got even more attention.
What is absolutely certain is that the United States, under its leadership, and Fifa under their leader, will both conclude at the end of the affair that it has been an absolutely wonderful triumph despite the desperate attempts of their opponents to wreck the event with negative publicity.
Brazil, Germany, or maybe Italy or France will win, and the US will call the affair a great success despite the best attempts of the anti-American and anti-football lobbies to stop it. The media will probably suck that up, and everything will continue as if nothing went wrong, no one protested, and everything with Fifa is fine.
And it will soon be over and the next world cup will be back to normal… except that err… no it is being held in Morocco, Portugal and Spain with matches also bei
| Host countries | Morocco Portugal Spain
|
|---|
.
