The football Pope

When Jorge Bergoglio had just become Pope Francis I in 2013 I was at a diplomatic reception in Monrovia, Liberia, and came across a young Argentine priest who worked at the Holy See’s representation in Monrovia. He confirmed he knew the Pope, and we then proceeded to discuss football, focusing on the coming 2014 World Cup. Confessing my own support for Argentina, we were interrupted by a Frenchman who overheard our conversation: “Of course, France also has a great team that could win”.

“Excomulgated”. The Argentine priest replied in good humour. 

It was the same good-natured approach of his Argentine boss, who after having passed away, has been given many tributes by the football community. 

Because Pope Francis may have been the popular leader of the Catholic Church, one of the most important religions in the world, but he was certainly also a follower of the quasi-religion of football. It might have been obvious given that Pope Francis was born in Argentina, and grew up in a society where the religion of football means a lot in every layer of society. 

The Pope was a fan of the club from the neighbourhood of Almagro, in Buenos Aires, San Lorenzo, a club that has incidentally been founded by a Priest. When the club miraculously won the Copa Libertadores in 2014, a year after he had become Pope, the club went to the Vatican to give the Pope a copy of the trophy, in gratitude for the Pope’s near-divine support. 

And the Pople met many footballers who have also paid tribute to him, just as the fans of many teams, including those of Olympique Marseille: 

 

Happy Day to all Mothers

Silvija Greko’s son Nickollas became a Palmeiras fan after meeting Neymar, who had been a Palmeiras fan as a child. When Nickollas was five years old, Silvija took him to Palmeiras' stadium to his first match, although Nickollas was born blind. Initially, she gave him a radio to listen to the matches, but Nickollas wanted to listen to the atmosphere and sounds of the Allianz Parque stadium in Sao Paulo, home of Palmeiras.
Today, Sivija narrates every detail of the match to her son, a fan who lives the marvel of football through the words of his mother.

Champions League in Mexico

Yesterday Mexico inaugurated its first female president, so I was off work as the focus was on this historical event. It was thus a good day to watch some Champions League.

There is scant interest for other teams than the Spanish teams in the CL, most of all, obviously, Barcelona and Real Madrid, so the only option to watch in a bar was Barcelona-Young Boys, even though there were so many interesting matches playing simultaneously.

And Barcelona-Young Boys was indeed as boring as expected, as Barcelona cruised to a victory with 5-0, and it comes at a good time after they lost their first match 2-1 to Monaco. That said, with all its crisis, Barcelona is doing great under German Hansi Flick: top of the Spanish League and giving chances to a lot of young promising players appears to be working for now, but is also what Barcelona needs as they are unable to sign super stars. And surely on the long-term it is better for Barcelona (and Spanish football overall) to be promoting so many young players from the outstanding Barcelona youth academy.

The new format of the Champions League is confusing though. As everyone is in a big league, but without everyone playing one another, one cannot study the teams against other teams that you will face, and most annoying for real football fans, adapt the tactics according to other results and new matches in smaller groups. In my personal view it takes away some of the excitement about the planning. As the 8 initial rounds come to an end, the excitement will not be about the top teams, but about the 7th-8th or 23rd-24th, who will snatch the last position for the play-offs. And the top teams will all go through....

 I appear not to be the only one annoyed at the new format. The fans of Borussia Dortmund (a team that incidentally is first in the league after two victories, the latest trashing Celtic 7-1) welcomed the new CL format at home with a huge banner: "UEFA Mafia", protesting against the new format that indeed appears to be a way for UEFA to make more and more money from the ones who love the game.

In Dortmund 

My recommendation for everyone in the final

After my gloomy previous post I want to give a recommendation to fans, players and any supporter of England, Spain, Argentina and Colombia. No matter what happens in the final, no matter the result or the match, it all has a simple solution:

Spanish racism

Vinicius Jr., the splendid Brazilian stiker from Real Madrid, has again been victim of racial abuse from fans, most recently against Valencia. This has prompted him to come out with some harsh words about Spanish fans and football authorities, accusing them openly of racism.

He is probably right.

I have been to many games in Spain, and I am sorry to say that my impression is that there is an incredibly high tolerance for racist and xenophobic abuse than in other countries. This does not only includes openly racist chants as the ones that have been used against Vinicius, but certainly also xenophobic chants against South Americans or other nationalities. In a society already stratified by regional divisions, one can discuss the reasons behind the behavior, but the only truth is that it is wrong, and that a player like Vinicius Jr. should never be subject to these insults. And this is where the Spanish football authorities are acting so pathetically: it seems that the only solution they propose is “we have reported the case to the authorities”, when the real solutions must be to stop the matches, award the three points to the away team, and then let them play without spectators.

There is no other way from stopping this shit from happening, and they should take action.

Tragedy at Cuscatlan

 Catastrophes happen too often in football, still today in the 21^st century, and sometimes they happen close to where you are. I have been to the Estadio Cuscatlan in San Salvador a couple of times so I know it is a bit old with some bottlenecks. It was thus with shock that I heard that Saturday night, at the match between Alianza and FAS, in an overcrowded stadium, 12 people died and more than 100 injured from a stampede early on in the match. Authorities appear to have been relatively quick to act, but serious and justified questions are being asked about how this could happen.

It happens too often and too often authorities do not really  act on it. I hope that this will lead to increase securities so that the wonderful Salvadoran fans can continue enjoying their football safely.

World Champions in other things

 Croatia are World Champions in winning penalty contests, but that did not help them today against Argentina, who got a thorough revenge for the 2018 loss to Croatia.

It was most certainly the best we have seen Argentina play in the tournament, and although the Croatian team had its moments dominating possession, they never really looked to threaten the Argentines who were concentrated, organised and fought with a spirit that perhaps is better only by Morocco in this World Cup.

And although they were all good, two Argentine players stood out: firstly, the young Julian Alvarez, who joined Manchester City in September, scored two goals and forced the penalty that Messi scored on. And secondly the veteran Lionel Messi, who not only scored on a penalty, but also made a perfect run around Josko Gvardiol to set up Alvarez for the third goal. It was the kind of Messi one saw when he was young, but he is also showing the qualities of a leader that Argentina needs and wants.

Argentina are World Champions in World Cup semifinals: this was their sixth (1930, 1978, 1986, 1990, 2014 and 2022), and they have won every single time, but still only two title to show for it. The way they played today, Argentina can beat anyone in the final. But they still display some weaknesses and nerves (the pressure is enormous on these players), meaning that they can also lose to anyone.

I hope to see them win their third title.

No matter what happens in the final, Argentina are World Champions football fans: the passion the fans have put into the matches is unique, and surely it will carry the team to try harder and harder.

Choripan and CL final

I had gotten all ready to enjoy yesterday's Champions League final between Real Madrid and Liverpool with beer and choripán, but besides the beer, food and company, it was largely a disappointment.

Firstly, the delay in starting the match signaled not only gross incompetence, but total disregard of fans. While a lot of things are being said about what happened, it does seem incredible that these things can happen; this is hardly the first final they have organised...? At the same time one could see UEFA and FIFA dignitaries mingle amid celebrities in their luxurious seats, and a total disregards of the fans for whom they "manage" the game...

Secondly, the match was a disappointment. Liverpool created the match against a Real Madrid side that proved yet again that they only need one chance to win a match, and this time their 14th European Champions title. Vinicius Jr. scored the goal in a Real Madrid counterattack. Liverpool attacked and attacked, but besides a disciplined defense, they faced an incredible Thibaut Courtois, who seemed to save everything that came his way. In my opinion the Belgian goalkeeper is Real Madrid's greatest hero in getting the title.

Disappointment for all of us who were hoping for a Liverpool victory, but congratulations to Real Madrid fans.

Human Savagery

As if the world were not already falling apart, Mexican football had to add another example of humans as pure savages. While it fortunately appears there were no deaths (initial reports mentioned up to 10 deaths) in the Mexican league match between Querétaro and Atlas, the violence was disturbing. In this era of social media there are truly disturbing  images and videos of the raw and hateful violence between the fans.

I would imagine apologists would say that the perpetrators were provoked by the taunts of other fans. But as with other violence there is no other excuse than the very human nature that resides inside all of humanity.

Fucking depressing times to live in.

No Human Rights in Qatar

In the euphoria of qualification we tend to forget that our football teams are qualifying to a World Cup in a country that should never have been awarded the tournament, and where the rights of workers are disregarded, bot to say abused.

A tournament that is built on the sweat and tears of thousands of people who do not have the luxury of enjoying football, but who have to fight to escape poverty. I was disturbed to read on Amnesty International´s site about the continued mistreatment and deaths of migrant workers in Qatar; it appears that having the world's eyes on you make no difference to how you treat people who work for you. 

Is there anything football fans can do? Why can we not scream our lungs out for these migrant workers? Why not carry banners and flags to the stadiums in support of these workers? Just like we carry rainbow flags, why not carry the flags of Bangladesh and Nepal, where many of the workers come from? Carry the pictures of these guys, guys like you and me, who were trampled on by football? Why not make such a fuzz that it can shame FIFA and the Qatari government into a minimum of respect for human rights? 

I hope there will be more of a fuzz to create attention and combat the abuse of migrant workers in Qatar.

The hate engendered by football

The European Championships were great but unfortunately the tournament was accompanied by the eternal problem of bad fans, nationalism and racism. The fans that were most widely discussed were the English fans with their booing of national anthems, breaking into Wembley stadium for the final, and the racist abuse against England players following the final. This appears as just a continuation of decades, many decades, of problems with English football fans (for many years I had a problem supporting English teams at all, still do, mostly because I connected English football directly with the hooliganism of the 1980s, when I started watching football), so this should not be that surprising. However, the problem of these "bad fans" is hardly only an English problem; booing at national anthems happens in every stadium and racism continues being rampant all over footballing Europe, becoming more evident with social media. I am still convinced the vast majority of football fans, English and beyond, are decent people, even the ones that behave in this way!

What is the problem then?

Football is a simple game of kicking a ball in an "us-against-them" contest. While idiots exist in all societies, the simple premise of the game attracts a higher proportion of idiots among the population. Idiocy tends to be enlarged by emotional events such as a football match; add nationalism and a media that pours gasoline on a fire rather than building bridges (including social media, but certainly not excluding the traditional media), and you get the perfect cocktail for idiots to do their thing, while the rest of people wonder who the hell those idiots are!!!???

As a fan I understand the passion: I have also experienced moments of intense disappointment, of injustice, of hating the other team when they score a goal. However, a minimum level of intelligent human beings should realize that these are fleeting emotions that cannot define our lives. That would be idiocy!

I have had long periods of disappointment with football (as I have also shown in this blog), and these were mostly caused by the intensity of hate that I have repeatedly experienced in football: Hate towards other teams, players, fans, countries, races...  I still have a really hard time not seeing football as a sport of hate, but I do love the game, the passion and occasional fraternity between fans (that we fortunately also saw in this tournament, but is in my view all too rare), and have decided that I will try to ignore, as far as possible, all these idiots that are a scar not only on football, but to society at large.

Idiots.

The finals

I had a long trip from San Salvador to Denmark, but I managed to watch this weekend's two great football finals where the home teams, each in their own legendary stadium, lost to the away side.

The Copa America final on Saturday at Maracana Stadium between Brazil and Argentina, was won 0-1 by the Argentineans through an excellent first half strike by Angel di Maria. The Brazilians were not bad, and managed to put some pressure on Argentina in the second half, but in the end the Argentine defense stood strong and Argentina even had the biggest chances for a greater victory.

Argentina's first international title since 1993, and the first time Lionel Messi, losing three finals before this one, had taken a title with his national team, so in every way this was a special (and well-deserved) victory for the Argentineans.

On the European championship final: much of England had for days been prematurely announcing that football would come home, hardly aware that football is already home everywhere else in the world. And this kind of premature celebrations hardly win any sympathy: while the English were (understandably) disappointed most of the world (including myself) celebrated Italy's European Championship triumph.

Having watched the match, England should be disappointed: they went ahead 1-0 after only two minutes on a goal by one of the tournament's best players, Luke Shaw. England kept playing well, but slowly Italy got more comfortable on the pitch, while England, oddly, retreated more and more to defend their lead. One can only feel that they should have kept pressure, trying to close the deal, instead of more or less openly inviting Italy back into the match. 

The Italians do not say no to an invitation and Leonardo Bonucci's second half equalizer was fully deserved as England totally left the match to the splendidly unforgiving Italians.

As  extra time was approaching its end Gareth Southgate made some curious changes, clearly aimed at putting in the kickers for a nerve-wrecking penalty kick contest: Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho came in at the end, and it were exactly those two who missed for England after they had been put in a golden position by Pickford's save of Andrea Belotti's kick. Even though Jorginho missed another for Italy, the only 19-year old Bukayo Saka did not have the nerves to make a proper kick, which was saved by the best player of the tournament Gianluigi Donnarumma (only 22-years old, he may well become one of the best goalkeepers in footballing history), giving Italy their second European champion's title, the first being in 1968.

The most talented young players from England were punished for their infinite talent, and that was the most heartbreaking thing in a final won by the best team of the tournament.

Italy was the best team of the tournament as a whole; a solid, attacking team, scoring most goals (alongside Spain) and with one of the best defensive records, they showed few weak points. All in all, a splendid team, and I reiterate that I find this the best Italy side I have ever seen.

England, in the meantime, won few friends: granted, they played the tournament with the cynical planning required to win a tournament; winning, but not impressing, with a strong defense and some extremely talented players. That said, they seemed too calculating, too careful, despite their immense talent, something that only became too obvious in the final. 

But more than the team, the English fans won no friends in the rest of the world. The vast, vast majority of English fans are good, decent hardworking people (like the vast majority of fans in the world), but they retain a greater minority of brainless hooligans than anywhere else in the world, and their society seems in total denial that they exist: booing at national anthems, using lasers against opposing sides, insults and spits, were sadly overshadowed by the fans storming Wembley before the match and most of all by the racist insults suffered by English players after the defeat.

Who the hell wants to win with supporters like that...?

I have never supported England and never will, but I understand the greatest disappointment that real English fans may feel (even in their denial): that their team's achievement of reaching a final will forever be overshadowed by the memory of the idiotic few ruining the party of the many.

When winning is secondary

Today's semifinal match between England and Denmark was a dramatic fight between the English home-stars and the hard-fighting Danes. The result of 2-1 for England was perhaps not as surprising as how it happened: Denmark taking the lead on a spectacular free kick goal by the young Mikkel Damsgaard and then an own-goal equalizer by Simon Kjaer, before the game went into extra time, where a very weak penalty call gave Harry Kane the chance to score the winner for England after he caught the rebound from Kasper Schmeichel's save. 

Denmark lost with their heads held high. It is of course always disappointing to lose, but if this great tournament has shown anything, it is that winning is secondary. 

What happened to Christian Eriksen in the match against Finland should have underlined the forgotten truth in our post-COVID world: football is not why we celebrate, it is our excuse to celebrate together! Danish fans have every reason to celebrate and be proud of their team and of themselves; decent and hardworking people who just want to enjoy a friendly contest!

Just as the vast majority of fans all over the world.

Maybe it was not a penalty; maybe England did not deserve the victory (I think they did), but in the end it does not matter much, and I am just happy I have been able to enjoy this tournament and a Danish National team that in my view are as much champions as the legendary teams of 1986 and 1992!

For many people it will be impossible to support England in the final: it was disappointing that many English fans booed the Danish national anthem, and as often happens, English media appears only too happy to pour gasoline on the fire of nationalism that sadly continues to haunt football. I will certainly support Italy: I love how they are playing and the joy that some players (notably Chiellini) appear to have at playing.

I hope it will be a great final, and whoever wins will be a great winner (because just as there are bad losers, there are really bad winners), and that fans will celebrate the sport that brings us together, so that we can all be champions!

In the meantime I shall have a beer to celebrate the champions from Denmark!

The unimportance of football

 Just like all Danish and Finnish fans I had been looking forward to Denmark-Finland. For both teams it was a special match: a Danish team full of expectations playing at home in the European Championships, and Finland making their debut in an international tournament.

Finland won 0-1 in what was probably their only attempt on goal in the match, and while that in itself is a historical result, the match will be remembered for Christian Eriksen's terrifying experience when he went down in the 42nd minute of the match. There appeared to be some confusion, but it was soon clear that it was serious, and when we saw medics giving CPR to Eriksen while shocked players stood around in tears, it became emotionally difficult to watch (I personally stopped watching).

Everyone feared the worse and the match was suspended. There will probably be debate about whether it was the correct thing to do, but an hour later the match continued, and despite Danish pressure Finland managed to get their extraordinary victory against some clearly drained Danish players. 

Amid the sad circumstances of the match the mutual solidarity between fans and players was extraordinary, and even when Joel Pohjanopalo scored he refused to celebrate in respect. An hour later, Romelu Lukaku (who plays with Eriksen at Inter) dedicated his first goal against Russia to the Dane.

Football transcending rivalry is beautiful.

It is reported that Christian Eriksen is in stable condition in the hospital. As a sports-man he will probably be disappointed that Denmark lost, but I think that everyone considers his recovery to be much more important than any football result. So we all wish him and his family all the best, and congratulate the Finns for their unlikely victory.

Football 1- Money 0

The Super League lasted only two days, as nine of the twelve clubs involved (except Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus) decided to withdraw after the massive outcry amongst so many people. Since then, some club owners have tried to apologize, while most notably Real Madrid President, Florentino Perez has continued to try to defend the idea with nonsense such as "we will save football". 

Thank God and Fans that the idea has been shelved (for now...).

But one has to wonder: WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?

These people are hugely rich businessmen, who own football clubs, and say that they want to save football; that they are interested in "dialogue" about how to save the game. But in everything they did with this league-idea is contradictory to this: no dialogue (not even their teams knew about the initiative) and no understanding of the traditions and culture that their business is built on. The total proof that a top 0.1% of the richest and most powerful men (always men) in the world, who think that they are the sole owners of the truth.

Truth=Money.

Florentino Perez has been talking about the money they have lost during COVID. I am no businessman; no economist; but I do know that sometimes times are hard, so I have an advise to any football clubs: spend what you have!!!! That is what all us normal people do. But you wouldn't know that.

I am happy it is over for now. But I hardly believe it is over. Money has been sneaking into the world of football for decades. Prices to go to a match are eye-watering (and I am one of the people who can afford it, so I won't be a hypocrite and say I haven't) and it seems impossible to find decent prices or unique TV packages where one can follow matches. 

If we want to save football, that is the dialogue one must have. That said, we must also admit that nothing lasts forever. Football has existed and grown to become a global sport for some 150 years. Maybe it has reached its pinnacle; maybe in 150 years from now football will be a funny quirk amongst historical nerds. Nothing lasts forever, but we are many who don't want to see its early demise.

The Copa Libertadores final of hate

The Copa Libertadores Final in Buenos Aires between arch-rivals River Plate and Boca Juniors had to be postponed today because of River Plates' fans vicious attack against the Boca Juniors bus, which not only left Boca players with minor injuries, but worse, very scared.
Nobody deserves to be in such a situation.
The whole thing was a disgrace not only to Argentina, but also to the rest of South America.
The match has been lauded as one of the most awaited matches of the century as the rivalry is perhaps the most intense in world football. I am sorry to say this, but Boca-River is not a question of friendly competition (not a single fan of either team understands this concept), even for people who outside football would be friends, family or lovers.
Following the cancellation the club presidents were quick accusing 10-15 "impresentables" who were to blame for the whole incident. Besides the fact that you can see much more than 15 guys on the TV pictures, this is not really true!
I do not feel sorry for a single of the 65000 fans inside the stadium who were unable to see the match. They were as guilty as the millions of River and Boca fans who are in fact intellectual authors of the crime; the vast majority of fans may not throw the stones, but were surely applauding.
The problem is football itself which creates these divisions!
Argentina is not the only place this happens, but today's events are just an extreme example. And football managers have no interest in solving it! They are the ones benefiting from this! They will say that football is "peace and friendly competition" but will at the same time be pouring gasoline on the fire of fierce rivalry, because it benefits them, and also takes the view away from society's wider problems.
"Blame society. We have nothing to do with it".
Football is hate. Prove me wrong.

Selective truth

Football is just a mirror of the real world. And as in the real world it doesn't matter what the truth is, but who you support. I recently overheard a conversation between two football fans about Mr. Cristiano Ronaldo, and an apparent ongoing investigation about him and a lady. I don't know what it is about, and will and can not comment on this; the investigation should go its course and justice happen. But this was not the case for these football fans, who had already decided on Ronaldo's guilt because they clearly disliked him (I strongly gather they were Barcelona fans). I am sure that there are also plenty of Ronaldo fans who think otherwise: he must be innocent because he is the great Cristiano Ronaldo!
Cristiano Ronaldo is indeed a great footballer, and for the last years has been the greatest in the world. But that does not make him more or less guilty of anything outside the football pitch than any other person.
But of course, football fans do not think like that.
Truth is a choice.

Who was robbed?

One of the bad things about the World Cup is that people take it way too seriously. People who will never get excited about a Champions League or League match (which are so much better than the vast majority of World Cup matches) will get excited about the game because they get to wave a coloured piece of cloth called a flag, sing the anthem, and support 11 guys who happen to share their passport.
Some people get tears in their eyes because of the nationalistic fervor, others use it to confirm their wrong stereotypes about other nationalities.
The worst are people who in their indignant ignorance see conspiracies in the footballing results: "It is a scandal!!! We were robbed!!!"
Who the fuck robbed you? Did you call the police? And who is "we"? Are you one of the players who were "robbed"?
What did these people rob you? A football result!? Why don't you have a beer and relax? There are way more important things in the world...

https://fromacomrade.tumblr.com/post/171731237118

Viva Rusia!!!

Russia are sadly out after a fantastic match with Croatia, who managed to win the lottery of penalties yet again. Croatia probably deserved overall to win, but as in every match Russia played up to their best, first leading on a splendid goal by Denis Cherysev, but also equalizing after being down 1-2 in extra time.
Russia are not the best team in the world, but their spirit and their fans should be admired by everyone. In particular their fans were great, and deserve the drama they were given because they have been great hosts to the World Cup.
In fact, if anything, the World Cup proves that Russia does not need to win in football to be the best in the world!
Thank you Russia!

My trip to Russia

I had the fortune to go to Russia with a great friend for six days during this World Cup. The fortune was mainly due to visiting a beautiful and friendly country with a great friend. The football was so and so...
Of course, due to the impossibility of getting tickets for the best matches, we took tickets to whatever we could get: Croatia-Iceland in Rostov-on-Don. I have to mention that when Argentina did not win their group, and Denmark were to face Croatia, Argentineans in every street corner of Moscow were offering tickets for the Denmark-Croatia match, as many had bought tickets thinking they would be group winners. Seems strange that I could have bought a ticket off the street from almost any Argentine, while at FIFAs website it was all but impossible...
The World Cup in Russia is well-organised: the FAN-ID system worked fine and there were volunteers to help fans all over the country. Getting to Rostov-on-Don we took Russian-Trains, 19 hours from Moscow in a sleeping wagon.
It was a splendid trip going South, with a nice albeit slow train with eating wagon and very friendly Russians throughout. Perhaps the greatest of the Western myths about Russia and its people is that they are not friendly, but this was quite the contrary throughout, and I am sure that this World Cup is by far friendlier than any pervious or future tournament in Europe or North America, especially from what we will see in the so-called "World Cup" of 2026.
Rostov-on-Don is a nice city in southern Russia that probably does not see that many foreign visitors. One local told me that the city had been thoroughly renewed (among others a new airport that is one of the nicest airport I have ever seen) and that the city seemed in perpetual holiday atmosphere with the World Cup. And indeed the atmosphere was great.
The stadium, Rostov Arena, is beautifully situated next to the Don River and on match day it was a lovely walk across the river to get to the stadium.
Croatia-Iceland was an ok match. Croatia, who did not seem to stretch themselves, were clearly a better team. Iceland, who clearly had more support among locals and neutral alike, fought bravely but were eliminated from their first ever World Cup. Besides the atmosphere, experiencing the famous Icelandic "Hu" Cheer was quite amazing in the stadium.
Fans are the best thing about the World Cup, because the vast majority are nice people out to have fun in the guise of "eleven-guys-kicking-a-ball-who-happen-to-share-your-passport". Petty nationalism is the worst of this (and any) World Cup, but it remains rather in the background as fans meet and have a pint and a laugh. We greatly enjoyed hanging with fans from Iceland, Croatia, Russia and Mexico (Mexicans were numerous everywhere). But here one must mention the so-called Fan Zones: The one in Rostov was frankly, -and excuse my expression-, shit. The Fan Zones are a highly protected corporate propaganda area with watered down beer and large screens. But do not be fooled that it is for football fans! We went to the Rostov Fan Zone when Portugal-Iran and Spain-Morocco were playing, but turns out they only show one match among their 50+ large screens!! It was Portugal-Iran, but there were a huge number of disappointed Spain and Morocco fans unable to watch their teams...
Frankly, that is a disgrace, such as the whole FIFA Fan Zone concept.
Instead, the best thing was to hang out in the many bars and pubs of any of the host cities: in Rostov-on-Don we watched France-Denmark and Peru-Australia simultaneously in a pub before heading to Rostov Arena, and in Moscow enjoyed Colombia-Senegal in a pub with plenty of beer and fans (mostly supporting Colombia).
Moscow is a lovely city and the atmosphere was also great, with an even greater variety of fans than in Rostov-on-Don (on the Red Square saw fans from every place, but particularly the Latin Americans were numerous). We had no tickets for any matches there, but did see England-Belgium in the Fan Zone. As any Fan Zone it was shit, but it was certainly worth the visit because it is the beautifully situated at the foot of Moscow Univeristy. Of course, we had the annoyance with the volunteers after the match, who sent us on a one hour walk to reach a pub, instead of advising us better. That was the biggest annoyance of the trip (I lost my phone on the second day, but being disconnected during the entire trip was in fact fantastic!), but should mention that besides those idiotic volunteers the rest were friendly, smiling and very helpful, just as the vast majority of Russians.
In the end, football should only be a meager excuse to see Moscow (or all of Russia for that sake). A gorgeous city with a rich history, it is worth a visit any time, and that is something I certainly take with me from this short visit: the wish to visit again! And whatever all the petty nationalism, FIFA, as well as poor and unfair football, this World Cup will be remembered for being a great one because it was in Russia!