The World Cup Is Not The Pinnacle of Football

Football unites the world.

At least, FIFA thinks so. The goal of the 2022 World Cup, according to the organization, was to have international football fans cast aside political resentments and come together to celebrate the beautiful game. FIFA’s goal shouldn’t be a stretch: football is more of a lingua franca than even English, and historically, the World Cup has been a source of international unity.

The World Cup is undoubtedly the largest international single-sport event. It has captivated football fans across the world every four years since 1930 and has often succeeded in uniting the world for the short month that seems to last an eternity. The tournament, in many ways, is the climax of football––the world’s superstars facing off for the most glorious prize of all. Yet even with the end goal in mind, the tournament has proved to be a host of political cohesion. At the 2022 World Cup, England and Germany, often tense rivals, stood together in defiance of FIFA’s ban on the One Love armband, as both teams sought to support the LGBTQ+ community. England has also taken a knee prior to every match in protest of racism and injustice, highlighting just how much the tournament can be a host for international cohesion and healing.

However, the World Cup can be quite divisive, evoking an unparalleled sense of national pride in fans. Though only 32 countries are competing, almost every football fan shares the excitement and heightened tensions, even when their respective nations aren’t involved. These tensions are only intensified by the infrequency of the tournament and its focus on one sport. One of the world’s biggest sporting events, the Olympics, draws talent from a much larger host of nations and showcases a multitude of sports, allowing fans to allocate their attention to different competitions. The World Cup, on the other hand, solely focuses on football, allowing supporters to channel all of their national pride into one match. The success of a nation in the World Cup is solely dependent on their performance on the pitch, and since there’s no other sport to turn to after a loss, every game is that much more intense.

The supporters’ passion is only embellished by the players’ hunger for the honor of becoming the World Cup champions. Because of the intense emotions flaring, some matches have seen tensions between teams brew over, which would’ve occurred regardless of the fans. The quarter-final match between Argentina and Netherlands displayed how heightened emotions and national pride causes issues, even between nations that don’t have a history of bad blood. Toward the end of the game, Argentina’s Leandro Paredes put in two particularly aggressive tackles, which alone would have been egregious, but not unexpected when defending a win. However, chaos ensued when Paredes struck the ball at the opposition bench after the whistle, which prompted Dutch captain Virgil van Dijk to body-check Paredes. This led to the largest altercation in this year’s World Cup, as both teams’ benches were involved, resulting in multiple yellow cards being handed out. These tensions carried into the later stages of the game, after the Netherlands forced overtime in the 101st minute. Argentinian goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez motioned obscene gestures toward the Dutch team after heroic back-to-back penalty saves during the shootout, prompting further arguments between the two sides. After the match, Argentina captain Lionel Messi called Dutch manager Louis van Gaal “a fool” in a postgame interview. Messi is normally a calm and collected leader, but the intensity of the World Cup got the best of him after a hot-tempered match.

Though a team’s progression in the tournament is solely up to the players, fans have all the power outside of those stadiums to flaunt their national pride. In many cases, this can be a beautiful sight—a host of different cultures celebrating a game that unites the world, in whatever way represents their culture best. However, many fans have turned to violence following a disappointing loss or elimination. The plethora of upsets in this year’s World Cup has only exacerbated this issue. One of the most dramatic upsets was Morocco’s 2-0 victory over Belgium, the latter who ranks second on FIFA’s international rankings. This sent Belgium into a flurry of anger, provoking riots in Brussels, where cars were lit on fire, large fights broke out, and heartbroken fans rampaged the city.

Riots weren’t all the World Cup instigated, however. After Argentina’s victory over Mexico, a video of Messi seemingly kicking a Mexico jersey in Argentina’s dressing room took Twitter by storm. Messi went viral for all the wrong reasons, and Mexican fans attacked the football legend from all angles––including professional MMA fighter Canelo Álvarez, who called out the Argentine forward for “disrespecting” Mexico. It was clarified later, however, that this was a mere accident on Messi’s part, but this highlights how the intense nationalism elicited by the tournament can lead to hatred driven by irrational assumptions and excessive aggression.

FIFA’s campaign was set up for failure: intense rivalries brewing over was inevitable, but they didn’t make their lives any easier with their selection of Qatar as the host country. On one hand, Qatar represents a revolutionary win for an often unrecognized part of football: this year’s World Cup marks the first time a Middle Eastern or Arab country has hosted it. On the other hand, Qatar represents everything that is wrong with FIFA. The country has a particularly egregious track record when it comes to human rights, which FIFA knew of but conveniently chose to disregard in their vetting of Qatar. To build the infrastructure for the tournament, Qatar relied on the exploitation of migrant workers, resulting in over 6,500 casualties. Additionally, FIFA was aware of Qatar’s laws regarding the LGBTQ+ community. Fans had hoped that they would stand in support of the community, but they instead reinforced Qatar’s restriction of LGBTQ+ rights. FIFA’s lack of action only perpetuates the same narrative we’ve always known––they are just another corporation that will always prioritize money over human rights and lives.

Players weren’t particularly happy with FIFA, either. The sweltering climate in Qatar meant FIFA had to reschedule the tournament to the winter––which directly coincided with the regular season leagues. As a result, stars like Senegal’s Sadio Mané, France’s Karim Benzema and Paul Pogba, and Japan’s Yuta Nakayama, among an expansive list of others, were all ruled out from injury prior to the tournament’s opening match. The World Cup is the pinnacle of players’ careers, and FIFA’s scheduling prevented many stars from reaching their dreams. Players and commentators alike have voiced their disgust at the tournament being allowed to continue and have also reprimanded FIFA for disregarding Qatar’s human rights violations.

Football unites the world. The World Cup does not, and neither does FIFA. While the tournament is intended to bring people together, FIFA’s propagation of discrimination, combined with the heightened political tensions and national rivalries, does exactly the opposite. Simply put, the World Cup is a terrible portrayal of the jogo bonito.