It’s a perfect time for reflection, a chance to bask in the glow of what has been a tremendous World Cup while speculating on the wonders that it is still to bring us. The first knock out round has passed and we are left with 8 teams. All of which have arrived at this stage on merit and all of which must now believe that, having reached the quarter finals they harbour at least a small chance of winning it.
We could be discussing the emergence of the Belgians, the improbable rise of the Costa Rican’s or the fact that Lionel Messi has at long last announced himself on the biggest of stages. But football, oh football, cruel and uncompromising mistress that you are. You won’t let us stay up here on cloud nine will you? You couldn’t leave us with an untarnished tournament to enjoy. No, every magical moment or last minute winner can and will be tainted by that nagging siren in the back of our heads that screams corruption, diving, cheating, biting.
Luis Suarez, what a World Cup this could have been for you my friend. Suarez, as much as anyone, seemed to have this competition at his feet. He was coming in off the back of a hugely impressive season with Liverpool and certainly had enough to have fired Uruguay into this quarter final and perhaps beyond. But no, every negative aspect of our perception of Suarez have been brought to the forefront once again.
It’s almost as if he has become a caricature of himself. It’s the kind of act that the nation’s office banter would expect from him. “Yeah he’ll cause Italy problems....or he’ll just end up eating one of them haha”. Lol’s all round. But he did it, again. Inexplicably, Luis Suarez has now bitten three different players in his career (so far). It’s hard to fathom how that can possibly happen. He has apologised, of course. Well, he has now. At first he claimed that it hadn’t happened, then he claimed that it was an accident and wasn’t how it appeared. Now he’s admitted it and admitted at the same time that he was a liar for denying it in the first place.
There’s so much in this situation that shows the game of football in a negative, albeit humorous, light. There’s the fact that his official apology borrowed quite a few lines from the official apology he gave to BranislavIvanovic last year (oh my god, he actually has a stock apology on file for when he bites someone). The fact that the Uruguayans claimed that Suarez’s subsequent ban was merely reaction to British and Italian media blowing the situation out of proportion was also laughable.
Congratulations Luis, you’ve given football yet another black eye (and perhaps some teeth marks) that it will be difficult to recover from.
That’s all bad enough, of course. But there’s more, there’s always more.
Arjen Robben. The Dutch winger somewhat unwittingly gave the image of football a swift kick to the gonads twice in the space of two days, all stemming from one incident. Firstly by admitting a dive in his sides win against Mexico. Furthering the stereotype that footballers are, at best, soft, flimsy pansies who fall over when breathed on or, at worst, are play-acting cheats. But he then pointed out the hypocrisy of football and its media when he is lambasted for actually being honest.
Further to that there’s the fact that FIFA are having to step in and investigate whether Cameroon’s game with Croatia in the group stages was fixed after allegations from a major football publication. It’s widely thought that these allegations are unfounded but the fact that corruption at all can be investigated by an institute like FIFA is preposterous. FIFA’s own corruption is seen to be widespread and has been for years. If you don’t believe that then ask the question again in 2022 when you are watching a World Cup that’s between 5 and 10 degrees hotter than this one has been. Why would a summer football tournament be held in the unbearable heat of (exceptionally oil rich) Qatar?
As it stands, at time of going to press at least, that’s all that the World Cup has had to contend with. But it’s a shame that this tournament, or the game of football itself, has to contend with any of this. And not just today but on a regular basis. The nature of news is that it covers anything out of the ordinary, anything that breaks our social norms and that will more often than not constitute something negative. Most of the news that we receive on any platform is of course bad news. But the fact that bad news is so readily available within football is something that will continue to bother us and put a dampener on this or any other World Cup (or any major completion for that matter).
At least there’s plenty to talk about I suppose.