Not Round but Pear Shaped

The following article by Raymond O'Connell was first published in Unity, the weekly paper of the Irish Communist Party.

THE Nations Cup match Israel v Ireland, about which much has been written and debated, finally has a venue agreed. It is in Serbia. Many people in Ireland who love the game, those who love sport in general and those who view the fixture in its broader moral and political context have been at loggerheads for months regarding whether Ireland should, or should not, fulfil the fixture. The issues are well known, and I am not proposing to revisit them here.

Instead, I want to focus on what has been happening, or more to the point, what has not been happening as the world prepared for the World Cup. Prior to the competition starting there was much fear and trepidation in the media as the start approached. Infantino's sickening sucking up to Trump set the scene, the latter's malevolent and vindictive presence, including banning fans and making his now customary racist remarks about certain countries. Then there was the bombing of Iran and the 'punishment' of the team. Added to all this was anxiety that he might upend the actual tournament and destroy the entire spectacle.

As kick-off day approached and teams and officials began to arrive one such referee was Omar Artan from Somalia, "the best male referee in Africa". On arrival he was questioned by US border officials in Miami for 11 hours before being refused entry. As all officials must be based at FIFA's hub in Miami, he could not work from either Mexico or Canada.

Trump's racist comments on Somalia are suitably sickening. He has referred to the people as "garbage", said it is barely a country and that "they just run around killing each other", no, seriously, he did say that. When Omar Artan was refused entry Infantino did a Pontius Pilot as might have been expected. But what did his colleagues, the officials from around the world do? Nothing. They could have brought the competition to the brink by saying either Omar is reinstated or we don't officiate. Countries could have said much the same. It would only have taken some key ones to do so. Not a murmur though. The media circus reported what had happened rather in the nature of a distraction. Distractions were taboo though.

Unfortunately, the "Beautiful Game" is merely living down to its history when it comes to the World Cup. It has been corrupted almost from the start. Villains have sat alongside the game's genuine heroes. It is institutionally and possibly irreversibly corrupt from the bidding process to the presentation of the trophy and all points in between. I have a 'global history' of football titled The Ball is Round but I am afraid that it has been pear shaped for a long time.

The real villainy is that all the hope and dreams, all the adulation of the millions of boys and (increasingly) girls are being cynically abused because no player, official or country wants the gravy train to leave the station without them.