After this week’s round of World Cup qualification play-offs the dust is finally settling and the World Cup is in sight for many. Yes, next year’s World Cup in Brazil (the real home of football?) will be a real spectacle and a hearty congratulations are in order for those who have made it. But what about those who have not?
The repercussions of not qualifying, simple put, are massive. And, what’s more, these repercussions can be neatly split into two categories. There are the repercussions felt by the people directly involved, who have missed out on qualification. And the repercussions felt by us, the fans.
Let’s start with us...
The World Cup is billed as the pinnacle of football, the single greatest football event on earth. And while that does hold some credence it’s hard to see it as such when we already know that so many great players will spend the summer on holiday while their peers toil in the Brazilian sun. Take Zlatan Ibrahimović for example.
Today Zlatan boldly claimed that “a world cup without me is nothing to watch”. This may just sound like sour grapes from a man whose Sweden side lost to Portugal in a play-off second leg on Tuesday night. But while I don’t completely agree that the World Cup will be nothing without him I would suggest that there is some truth in the fact that the competition would have been richer for his inclusion.
It truly is our loss that Ibrahimović won’t grace the World Cup. But when Sweden were drawn in the play-offs against Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal we knew then that one of the world’s best would be missing from the world’s best competition. This makes the qualification process look a little suspect as players of this calibre can be left sitting at home when (with no disrespect intended) Iran, Honduras and Algeria have all already safely booked their passage to the finals. (Panama almost made it too).
Unfortunately, Ibrahimović can join Gareth Bale as a spectator watching the World Cup knowing that he could have walked into almost any of the teams there.
But it would be unfair to say that this is just our loss and ours alone. This morning, like many, Ibrahimović is coming to terms with the fact that his chance of ever playing in a World Cup again has probably passed. At the age of 32 Zlatan has been the first to admit that by the time the next World Cup comes around he is likely to no longer be involved with the national team.
And there are numerous stories like Zlatan’s all over the world, of players who have missed out and probably missed out for good. The old football adage of ‘there’s always next year’ doesn’t quite come into play when your next chance isn’t actually until the 2018 World Cup comes around.
But, in these tough economic times of ours, the biggest loss may be felt by the countries themselves. Through qualification for the World Cup, the English FA can expect to rake in millions in prize money. About £16million pounds in fact if they only go as far as the quarter finals. Plus a further £10million pound to boot in enhanced licensing and merchandising streams.
A good World Cup performance is even more lucrative still. It has been reported that the dire performance of the England team in the 2010 tournament cost the FA mega-money deals with Nationwide and National Express. But just qualification alone is a big enough money spinner to ensure the future prosperity of the FA for years to come. Other reports have estimated that the FA could have missed out on £100million if the team had failed to qualify. The figures change depending which paper you read but are always extraordinary nonetheless.
But that all pales in comparison to the estimated £1billion boost that the English economy is expected to receive.
When figures like that are talked about it’s easy to see why the players of a country like Greece are talked up as heroes for securing qualification. The amount of difference this can potentially make to their struggling economy is mind blowing. Although of course, conversely, there is the loss felt by those countries who miss out.
It’s easy to see why Ireland felt so hard done by when they were knocked out at the play-off stage for 2010 by France, courtesy of a controversial Thierry Henry goal/blatant hand ball. The uproar was such that even the government were calling for their Ireland team to have the game replayed. I promise you, it wasn’t because they were die hard football fans. It was because they knew of the huge windfall that their country was missing out on.
The Ukraine are likely to feel the same way today. Their economy too will be hit by the controversial winner that France scored against them in Tuesday’s qualifier. The French government however won’t have too much to complain about.
So, like with most things in football, World Cup qualification is so vital simply because of how much money is involved. And I guess because of how much it means to the actual players...but it’s mainly about the money.
Forget the winners, forget those who have qualified, at least for now. Enough has been written about them already. Let’s hear it for the losers.