Nine absurd ways this World Cup changed football forever
Certain fears around this World Cup have been largely avoided. There were no notable security issues to the public. The stadiums were largely full after a slower start. The football has not been low intensity and the weather didn’t interrupt much.
But don’t think that this made the World Cup free of controversy. From Iran to Folarin Balogun and suspended referees to gaudy glitz, here are nine things that have ground my gears over the last six weeks…
Omar Artan’s absence
Artan is an elite referee who was selected by Fifa for this tournament. He held a valid US visa and a diplomatic passport organised through the Somalian embassy in Nairobi. And he was blocked from entering the US when he arrived for the officials’ pre-tournament camp in Miami.
US border and customs subsequently accused Artan of having links to a terrorist organisation, something that he strenuously denied. Uefa then appointed him as the referee in the Super Cup final, which you have to say is magnificent PR.
First, Trump told the Iran team that he could not guarantee their safety and therefore they should not come. Then Iran were forced to move their training camp from the USA to Mexico and fly in and out for each match. Then members of the coaching staff were delayed from being allowed across the border.
In addition, members of the Uzbekistan squad and staff faced severe and targeted treatment by border officials when they arrived in New York City.
On the Road USA
Join Daniel Storey on his 7,200-mile odyssey across the US to tell the stories of a World Cup like no other.
Major football tournaments have opening and closing ceremonies that are always rubbish but can be ignored because they do not interrupt the flow of the football. Until this World Cup, when Fifa announced mid-tournament that not only would there be an additional half-time show (like the Super Bowl) during the final but that it would cause half-time to be doubled in length.
So we are changing the fabric of the match, going against Ifab laws and causing the players to shift their own preparations in the biggest match in world football because Fifa want to make some more money? Yeah fair enough, that sounds exactly like something we should have predicted.
Super Bowl-style rings
The glitzy sporting Americana doesn’t stop there. In the build-up to the final, it was announced that the winners of the World Cup would receive 30 Super Bowl-style rings as a prize. As well as, y’know, the actual World Cup trophy and medals that were enough until 2026.
The good news for anyone who has saved up their pocket money is that there will also be 1,996 of these rings for sale to people who want them, just to make sure that even the novelty value of a player having a ring is entirely eroded. The bad news? They will cost a reported $150,000 (£111,000) each.
Ticket pricing
After some early setbacks for Fifa, whatever their social media accounts claimed at the time, matches were generally played out to full stadiums. Fifa will inevitably reason that supply and demand trumps any other principle when they are spreading every single penny back to world football. Or whatever.
But the ticket pricing for this tournament remains a disgrace and that will never change. You can choose to look after supporters, to make it possible for those outside the wealthy to attend games, whether that be locals in the host countries or those travelling from abroad.
The Balogun ban
Probably the controversy that will live longest in the memory, purely because of how it subverted our expected norms around major tournaments.
We thought that a red card meant a ban with no appeal – wrong. We thought that political interference was banned – wrong. We thought that Fifa would not take calls from leaders over football matters – wrong. We thought that more than one person on the committee would decide this stuff – wrong.
The USA lost 4-1 to Belgium with Folarin Balogun in the team. I hope it was worth it to sell your soul up the river.
Hydration breaks
Having a break in Miami or any other outdoor stadium where the conditions demanded it caused no anger at all. But the extension of that procedure to games with no extreme heat and even those in climate-controlled stadiums? Nonsense.
The breaks allow managers to speak to their players (Photo: Getty)
And we all know why it happened. In the US and other countries around the world, broadcasters inserted an advert break that effectively turned a two-half football match into four quarters. Which was a low moment for the Americanisation of football.
Tournament expansion
Another moment in which we all had to prepare to feign surprise. After a difficult fortnight for Gianni Infantino during which we heard that he had lost internal support over the Balogun affair, Fifa’s president needed a PR shot in the arm. Cue his admission that Fifa would look at extending to 64 teams for 2030.
It’s not that a 64-team tournament would be worse than 48; it wouldn’t. It’s that the first expansion was clearly a placeholder, that expansion would magically create a need for more hosts and thus make more money and that Africa and South America, where Infantino has his core support, would most benefit.
Trump making his play for more
Speaking on Friday afternoon before Sunday’s final, Trump spoke in a press conference in which he “joked” that Fifa should give the USA the World Cup back very soon, but this time without bothering to include Canada and Mexico. As ever with these jokes, Trump absolutely means it.
With 2030 and 2034 already confirmed (and I don’t think even Trump can talk Infantino out of that), put your money on USA hosting in 2038. Either with New Zealand if Fifa pay heed to Oceania’s turn in the queue, or without if they ride roughshod over that principle. It’s so transparent that it hurts.
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