FIFA WORLD SOCCER CUP : LESSONS TO BE LEARNT

India and FIFA World Cup Football championships cannot go together except viewing part of it. Our national players and coaches should be cajole d or interested on their own in drawing some lessons from this electrifying and rapidly changing game.

PAST SCENARIO

Only once we did qualify for this highly competitive activity in the early fifties of last century but we could not not make it to the tournament proper as our Asian Champion players would play bare footed which was not allowed as per rules of the tournament.

Apart from being Asian Games Football Champion, our footballers did secure 4th position in Melboune Commonwealth Games. Interestingly, number one Indian footballer Chunni Goswami of Mohan Bagan had the rare distinction of representing India in Cricket as well.

FIFA Cup Down The Years

As we know this much awaited cream of tournaments is organised every four years.This year’s 23rd edition has just ended in USA, though the tournament was co hosted by two other countries-Canada and Mexico, for the first time. As compared to 32 teams in 22nd edition hosted by Qatar, 48 teams took part and they played 104 matches as against 64 matches, last time.

Similarly as opposed to grounds in four venues in Qatar, a whopping number of 16 cities played hosts. It has been learnt that during the 24th edition of the Cup in 2030, to be hosted by six countries of Latin America, more countries will be added. The 2034 tournament is going to be hosted solely by Saudi Arabia.

Its Argentina, Argentina All The Way

Argentina has been a force to reckon with as far as a major football playing team is concerned. It began in 1986 when short but very swift Diego Maradona managed a goal in the finals ‘through God’s hand’ which was debated but tolerated, if not allowed. Apart from his playing skills, his drug addiction too began to be talked about till his death in 2020.

Argentina gradually was in a position to check if not break the hegemony of emerging teams, such as, Brazil, France, Italy, Uruguay, Spain, Netherland etc.

Argentina won the FIFA Cup again during the 22nd edition when they beat defending champion France 4-2 after extra time in one of the most keenly contested and dramatic matches.

Earlier they got past Crotia rather easily with the score of 3-0 in the Semi finals. However, Netherland gave them a tough time prior to losing the game by 3-4 at Quarter final stage.

Doubts About Decisions Against Argentinians

It has been learnt that many mistakes of Argentinian players in general and Lionel Messi in particular were ignored during the Qatar tournament. Fans and media persons, who spent hundreds and thousands of dollars naturally felt upset, so were polite and honest match referees.

FIFA Cup was held in Qatar which was nothing but a grand show of wealth. Two of their huge stadiums could be dismantled and again fabricated in a short period of time. Argentina who were the hot favourites, managed to clinch the trophy even when they were not awarded fouls and penalties.This sort of partiality has trickled down to 23rd edition of the Cup as well.

According to an unconfirmed source, 25 fouls of Argentina were not acted against during 22nd Cup at Qatar. During 23rd edition, this number rose to 26.

MAGIC OF MESSI ?

Lionel Messi of Argentina looked dominating not only thanks to his actual 8 goals but also the way he assisted scoring of other goals. Also the manner in which his clear fouls were ignored by biased Referees deserves to be condemned.

In one match he threatened a Referee of Portugal in most unsporting manner. Both Egyptians and Swiss players were furious but their voices were ignored. Kylian Mbappe of France who scored 10 goals to gain Golden Boot, never displayed tantrums like Messi either in this tournament as also at Qatar.

MUCH AWAITED FINAL

Prior to final, England defeated France 6-4 in a formality kind of match at New Jersy on July 18 to grab third place. For the English , Bukayo Saka scored a brilliant hat trick. Though it was their best performance since their winning the World Cup, their players displayed forced smile on receiving Bronze medal.

Final Match

After a lapse of sixteen years, Spain became World Champions for the second time by defeating all pervading, destined and ‘not to lose’, Argentina. They won in extra time when Ferran Torres, their substitute player scored a clear field goal at the packed Metlife Stadium. Their last win in final was in South Africa in 2010. Sixteen years can be a long wait for any team. It was apparent from the restrained response of their fans.

Spain were disciplined, hard hitting and had an amazing control. It was a pleasure to watch the way they orchestrated the passes with full concentration of below 18 players like Lamine Yamal. It may be noted that Yamal had excelled in their win in Euro Cup in 2024 also. On the defensive side, Unai Simon, their goalkeeper performed like a wall who could not be penetrated. Argentinian players made twenty attempts but those ended in failure. Rightly Simon was given Golden Glove award.

Incidentally, Spain did not lose a single match in the current tournament. By the time they won the tournament, number of allegations against FIFA and Argentina, interestingly have multiplied. For the first time, full form of acronym FIFA has been publicized as Fix It For Argentina.

Also it has been heard that FIFA has a long history of corruption. How can one ignore if serious followers of the game say :

It is not Messi’s greatness, it is protectionism and favouritism. He is a protected superstar.

IN A NUTSHELL

Altogether 104 matches were played in 23rd edition of the game in which 308 goals were scored before 65,490 spectators on an average in one match. Each ticket costed Rs,11,600.

Top scorer was Kylian Mbappe (10 goals)of France. He is the first player since Gerd Muller of Germany in 1970 to score ten goals at a single World Cup. His tally of 22 goals makes him the highest goal scorer of all times in the history of the tournament.

Rodri of Spain was declared the Best Player while Pau Kubarsi (22 years) of Spain was adjudged the Best Young Player and the Best Goalkeeper to be named was Unai Simon, once again from Spain. Fair Play Award was given to Netherland. This team otherwise also had performed reasonably well in the initial stages of the tournament.

Villain of The Piece

Was the Referee who celebrated openly, win of Argentina over England in an one sided ‘assisted’ semi final. Thus England was denied a golden chance to create history after sixty years. Later, as noted above, they trounced France 6-4 to secure third place.

FIFA Chief succumbing to pressure from Donald Trump on Red Card issue was extremely upsetting. Being an example of unfair play, it was an open and shameless favour to the team of U.S.A. Sensing humiliation, FIFA Chief left USA prior to Semi finals.

Also Trump’s order to Iranian team to leave U.S. soil after each of their fixtures being inhuman and discriminatory, needs to be taken note of very seriously. As it has no parrelel, participation of USA in future tournaments has to be reviewed / banned.

Can we conclude by saying that not all FIFA Cup matches were being played in the spirit of the game?

(The author is former Chief Secretary, Sikkim. Views are strictly personal)