It’s been a little over four years since the end of a Cup that went beyond expectations, with hard-fought games, the longest game time with a tight score in the history of the World Cups, the lowest number of 0-0 in 60 years and a perspective of evolution in football.
In this interval, not only has the world changed, shaken by a pandemic, with an economic impact in the wake and a war in Europe, but the Cup is landing on a stage that seems to be tailored for the current dark times — even in a country where the clouds are rare.
To begin with, few World Cups have been played on stages with a civic atmosphere so far removed from what one would expect for a party. Only Mussolini’s Italy, in 1934, and Argentina during the military dictatorship, in 1978, had such repressive regimes.
Qatar’s choice was the most controversial of all the World Cups – Argentina’s took place when the country was a democracy. Football’s voluptuousness for more money takes the Cup to countries that do not share the sport’s ideals of freedom and democracy.
This is also the last Cup of the era of former FIFA president Sepp Blatter (1998-2015), who was sidelined for seven years after the Swiss police, with the support of the FBI, invaded a congress of the organization and made several arrests. , including former CBF president José Maria Marin, who would spend more than two years in prison in the US.
Interestingly, the biggest controversy about Qatar is not that it is an autocratic regime. The debate was not about freedom, but about ethics, the climate and football. It started with strong and persistent suspicions of corruption by the delegates who chose the seat in 2010.
The suspicion was reinforced by two facts related to the sport. The weather in Qatar prevented the Cup from taking place in the middle of the year, because of the heat. The change to this season has affected the football calendar around the world. And Qatar is also by far the country with the least football tradition among all that have hosted. Even the US in 1994 had more history.
And after that question came another, about the safety of immigrant workers on the World Cup works. A survey by the British newspaper The Guardian pointed to 6,500 deaths, using as a source the governments of the countries that sent the most workers, such as India, Neal, Pakistan and Kenya.
The Qatari government, with the endorsement of FIFA, admits to just three deaths, although detailed reports of fatalities number in the dozens in the Western media alone, the latest as recently as last month. In comparison, the Copa do Brasil recorded nine deaths, and that of South Africa, two.
The deaths tarnished the image of the World Cup and, therefore, various artists and authorities refused to participate in the event. There is no player who has refused to participate, at least publicly.
This is also the last Cup with 32 teams – interestingly, this model was inaugurated in Blatter’s debut in the center of the tribune of honour. The next one, the work of president Gianni Infantino, will have three host countries, 48 ​​selections, 80 games and a forecast of US$ 14 billion (R$ 77 billion, at current exchange rates) in revenue.
But that’s another story. Sunday, the Cup starts and a few billion pairs of eyes will prefer to forget about all that and focus only on what is happening on the pitch. See if they can.
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