Stars & Gripes

Remember the audio track when Sky Sports first began broadcasting the Premier League? It consisted of music and the words ‘this is it.’ Only it was hardly ever ‘it’; at least not until a few minutes before the actual kick-off.

That’s how the World Cup has felt for me. Like it was almost it. But finally it - after what seems like about three months – is here. The last-16. The business end. The final stages.

Hard to believe that the first World Cup I saw – full disclosure: by ‘saw’ I mean for about six seconds as I was dragged off to bed past a TV with a game on – only had sixteen teams in it.

The knockout rounds have been a little more like it.  The World Cup has exploded into life now that it really matters as Germany and The Netherlands went home early. France excelled. Morrocco and Egypt kept alive Africa’s hopes of a first win. Cape Verde became this tournament’s much-loved underdog, Brazil; the one-time giant that’s fallen on hard times. England, as usual, didn’t make it easy for themselves but live to fight another day. VAR has got everyone hot under the collar, but Croatia and Senegal fans especially.  Oh, and red cards no longer mean that much.

Goals have been plentiful too. The race for the Golden Boot alone is one for the ages as Mbappe, Haaland, Messi and Kane fight it out (consider this: the last time the World Cup was held in the US, it was shared by a Russian who scored 5 of his 6 goals in one game and went home after the group stage).  

It is, however, possible to separate all the great on-field action and intrigue from what is going on when it comes to the fans.

But while the TV pictures and rhetoric show people having an amazing time, and I’ve no doubt most of them are, one of the legacies of this World Cup’s will be that FIFA really screwed over the genuine fans.

Here are three ways where this has happened and didn’t need to.  

Dead Rubbers

I went to the 2006 World Cup in Germany as a fan; two weeks of driving a camper van around the countryside snaking from Dortmund to Stuttgart, via Koln, Frankfurt and Munich, taking in a few neutral games before seeing England play Ecuador.

While in Frankfurt, we wandered to the stadium about three hours ahead of the Argentina versus The Netherlands game that night, hoping to pick up any spare tickets (the cheapest were €800). It was a dead rubber as both teams had qualified easily and were rumoured to be resting players for the next round. We watched the game in an Italian restaurant in the city centre, extremely relieved we had kept our euros in our wallets.

The two teams have – since 1978 – played out some incredible World Cup matches. This was not one of those games. It was as uneventful a goalless draw as was possible without FIFA starting an investigation into both teams for ‘impersonating a football match.’

I recalled it as I watched highlights of Argentina playing Jordan in Dallas. Argentina had already won the group so could afford to leave Messi on the bench for the first hour. Jordan had already been eliminated. But even if Jordan – at their first World Cup – had beaten the holders by eight goals to nil, they’d have still gone home (as it happened, they would anyway, as Algeria and Austria drew 3-3 and both went into the knockout round on four points).

But Jordan would have still been in with a chance at kick-off if goal-difference was in play. They could have pulled off a massive shock victory, and if the other game had produced a winner, been in the mix for a best third place spot.

The point being, however unlikely it was, they never stood that chance. The move from goal difference to head-to-head to decide placings saw to that.

Surely no-one wants dead rubbers? Especially the fans. Some would have planned to fly in for the third game, especially as Argentina were the opponents. They’d have made visa arrangements, purchased tickets at astronomical prices, paid for expensive flights, booked hotels and transport, only to arrive with their team already out of the tournament and with nothing to play for. That is unforgivable, especially given the inflated costs as it is. And so avoidable.

There was already too little jeopardy in the 72-game group stage. In 2022, there was a lot and almost every game in the third matchday had something riding on it. This time, very few did, and several teams had already qualified while a similar number were already unable to.

This lack of jeopardy was caused in part by the bigger format and the introduction of best third-placed finishers. But the change from goal difference to head-to-head exacerbated the problem. Whoever came up with this idea should take a long, hard look at themselves.

Not Just The Ticket

After the hullaballoo around the Knicks finally died down, it seems to have crept more and more into everyone’s consciousness and all three hosts ‘going deep’ has helped increase excitement levels too.

It’s not always easy to know how many fans have travelled, given the huge diasporas in many of the host cities. Locals wearing the shirts of their adopted teams makes it ever harder (the fan in a Mexico shirt putting his head in his hands when Spain scored against Austria was especially confusing). I recalled the Argentina versus Mexico match in Qatar, when it seemed like ninety-five percent of the crowd had an Argentine Messi 10 shirt on.

It only became clear where these fans were from when the band struck up the national anthem. A quarter of those wearing the shirt became teary-eyed and belted the song out with gusto, while the others stared awkwardly and blankly until it finished.  

But for those who have travelled, costs have been extraordinarily high. But the extra round has also made travel even more difficult for fans. The eight teams that finished third, for example, didn’t know the venue for their next match until the group stage was almost over, or in some cases, was over.

I heard one commentator make the point that, by finishing third, the country had lost the right to know. That was their punishment for only ‘scraping’ through. But the fans are punished too, and in far worse ways. The team will get on a plane, arrive at the new venue a few days before and the worst they’ll have to do is pack and unpack (and in England’s case, get used to being over 7,000 feet higher up). The fans – who have to book travel and hotels at short notice – are also hit in the pocket…again.

The worst hit were Paraguay, who’s fans had to travel over 3,000 miles from San Francisco to Boston as their ‘reward’ for finishing third. Ecuadorian fans who left New York for Mexico City had a not much shorter distance to travel, while Algerian fans had to go almost 2,000 miles from Kansas to Vancouver.

Next Article: Stars & Gripes (Part 2) - The Price Isn’t Right