Afterthought

I did not care much about the final as I was traveling. That said, from what I have seen, it was war, just as I had predicted; a match for the times. Good Spain won, the best team, and it is always good that the best team wins. 

But the final sad reflection for me is a tournament that has lost its magic, at least for me. I never found that magic; on the contrary, I became more and more disillusioned by the bickering, hate and media. That said, I admit I am probably an old nostalgic fart, since it is clear that the tournament was perfect for the society today, and FIFA are brilliant at creating the narrative, the atmosphere and excitement that the world needs in difficult times.

So let me congratulate the World Champions of Spain, but most of all, congratulate FIFA for the best World Cup in history. 

It is just not for me.

War!

I was happy to see Argentina win against England, despite the fact that I no longer live or enjoy football as I used to, and probably never will as I enter the winter of my life.

I have seen it all, been hurt and sad, especially in this tournament, so I was expecting nothing from the semifinal, except the hope of seeing a fair and good match between great sportsmen, and no references to history of politics (where I am frankly also much more knowledgeable that the idiotic rabble).

As expected it was dramatic nevertheless, more intense than pretty, but fair enough. 

As many say that the entire tournament is fixed, they should probably look towards England, who had everything to win the match after going ahead 0-1 by the new Barcelona player, Anthony Gordon. But instead of pressing for another goal, England decided to defend deep, giving away the entire match to the Argentinean World Champions, and notably Messi, who after a poor match, suddenly had space and time to create perfect passes into the English area; the little master (whose skills I do not know how FIFA has fixed) provided the assists for both Enzo Fernandez’ and Lauraro Martinez’ goals.

Spain-Argentina in the final; the two best amid the top four in the world who made it to the semifinals in a tournament that despite 48 teams lacked real surprises (frankly, Cape Verde and DR Congo were not surprises). Two sides that have much in common, whose players in many cases know one another, and specially Messi, who is facing many players he knew as kids in Barcelona. Two different sides, two different cultures, two different nations.

It would be a beautiful story if I believed in any of the beauty. Instead what I see is two sides, two countries, that hate one another. 

This is war by other means, nothing else, and as any war, it sells, the rabble loves it. I have one prediction: it will be ugly, it will be violent, and whoever loses, will not accept it, because what characterises the world of today, is accusing the others of cheating whenever you do not win.

I have been wrong all along

I have been wrong all along. I have mistakenly blamed FIFA for the wrongs of football, but truth is that the wrongs of football are the wrongs of our societies at large, and FIFA are the best guardians of the game in an imperfect world. 

Because contrary to what I have previously and wrongfully argued for, FIFA has been instrumental in keeping the game alive at a time when new generations are increasingly looking to other pass-times and the competition for dominance among various sports is vicious. 

The main problem with football is not FIFA: it is the politicians who see football as a means to take attention away from them, and a willing rabble that through social media  

In a world where borders are being redrawn and nationalism is surging amid dangerous geo-political and economic competition, FIFA has managed to exploit these interests to carve a significant space for a sport that real fans may love, but that also gets all the attention of fans who know nothing about the game because of the way FIFA exploits their ignorance. What is frustrating for real football fans is that every four years suddenly every idiot around us is an expert, and that expertise is based on their stereotypes, rather than the interest in the game in between years. We, the real football fans own the game, yes, but we need someone like FIFA to manage the game in such a world. Because what would otherwise be the alternative? A chaotic world of different small federations with different agendas and interests; the conflicts would be eternal and even dangerous if FIFA were not there to centralize the interests of the game at global level. Surely FIFA can do some things better, but if anything, this tournament has shown that they are willing to listen to criticism, learn and to adapt along the way, ultimately to the best interest of Global Football. FIFA is not the one bitching that everything is against them, but is nothing more than a scapegoat for all the fans who frankly do not belong in a stadium and can in my view be charged millions for going to the stadium. Because let us face it: if prices were 1 dollar a ticket, then some fucking moron would buy all 1 dollar tickets before any real fan got hold of them. I have reservations on FIFA expanding the tournament to 64 teams. I am old-fashioned and believe quality would suffer. I find this already happened in this tournament, but admit that the vast majority of the world likes it and is willing to pay for it, as much as it annoys me that this vast rabble of a pitiful majority knows nothing but to cheer for their “imagined community”. This is good for football, because it brings more money in to promote the game at global scale and give us real fans more experiences and joy. All of this despite our misgiving. FIFA has problems, like any other organisation, yes, but it is the best guardian of the game we could hope for, and must continue its great work and be better to resist the attacks by politicians, media, and the rabble.

Spain u-19 champions!

 The u-19 European championship has been taking place over the last few weeks, and today an exciting final took place in Wrexham where two heavyweights of European youth football faced one another: Spain versus Germany. Spain won a well-deserved an impressive tenth title with a 2-0 victory with goals by Villarreal’s Hugo Lopez and Real Madrid’s Mario Rivas after a first half where Spain was in control. All in all Spain was the best team of the tournament and we may see more from some of these talented youngsters: Quim Junyent from Almeria was named player of the tournament and Betis’ winger José Antonio Morantes is one to watch. On the German side Francis Onyeka, newly signed by Bayer Leverkusen, is a player to watch.

Great and strong victory, with a view to the future, in a fair and balanced international tournament.

Champions League qualification 1st round

 Without much of relevance happening in the world of football these days, real football fans can celebrate the start of the best tournament in the world this week: the first qualification round for this season's UEFA Champions League started. This may not appear to the most glamorous round as it includes teams from smaller nations without much social media attention, but it still counts the champions from leagues with ambition to get as far as possible in the tournament. In the first leg we had some less surprising results like the Finnish champions KuPS defeating North Macedonia's Vardar and U. Craiova from Romania defeating Belarussian ML Vitebsk, but also saw the hope of teams like Faroese Kí, Iceland's Vikingur Reykyavik and Malta's Floriana to advance to the next round.

Although we will probably not see any of these sides in the CL, it is exciting that the tournament has started and that it engenders great excitement and fair competition between champions of the greatest football continent in the world.