Why I'm not looking forward to this summer's World Cup
With just 90 days to go until the World Cup begins, the excitement is yet to hit me ...
The countdown to the World Cup in North America is well and truly under way. Set to begin in just 90 days, there’s an uncomfortable chill running through my veins.
For the first time ever, the world’s biggest football party isn’t bringing me excitement. To take you down the road of why the thought of this summer’s tournament leaves me queasy, we must first go back around 32 years.
Whilst I was alive during the iconic Italia '90 tournament, my first real memory of watching the World Cup came four years later when the competition received the glitz and glamour treatment from the United States for the first time in history. The home nations having failed to qualify, those of us stuck on the other side of the pond were forced to root for another team.
Hailing from the North East of England, it felt only natural to root for a side led by the charismatic Jack Charlton - Republic of Ireland. The Ashington-born lad had done our region proud and deserved a bit of love. Tartan Army fans may have done similar, with two of only three Scottish-based players in Charlton’s squad, namely Celtic’s Packie Bonner and Motherwell’s Tommy Coyne. Aberdeen fans will likely have plumped for the Netherlands, though, with Theo Snelders part of the Dutch squad.
Memories of USA ‘94
Diana Ross’ heavily choreographed penalty, Alexi Lalas’ eye-catching ‘soccer mullet’, the tragedy of Roberto Baggio’s penalty miss, and Bulgaria’s Yordan Letchkov knocking out reigning champions Germany. Despite the pre-tournament scepticism, USA ‘94 produced everything you would want on the pitch, and it will be ingrained in my memory forever.
Four years later, John Collins’ penalty against defending champions Brazil in the Paris sun and David Beckham’s red card for flicking his leg at Diego Simeone in Saint Etienne were watched intently on a vintage 14-inch Bush television in the spare room. Like many, I’ve loved this tournament from the moment we first met, and remember every moment - even those Vuvuzelas in 2010.
So as someone there on the night Scotland ended their wait to qualify for the World Cup via Scott McTominay’s now immortalised overhead kick and Kenny McLean’s halfway line lob, it feels alien to be so disfranchised from the tournament.
That breath-taking 4-2 win over Denmark was football at its very finest. Tasked with handling The Scotsman’s live blog duties that night, the contagious eruption of emotion which spilled into the Hampden Park media section was almost burdensome because no words seemed good enough. Scotland had won their place back at the World Cup after an exhausting 28-year wait and, as football should, it brought people together.
Glasgow comedian Connor Burns jokingly declared that Scotland could have actually qualified for the World Cup in Qatar four years ago, had they wanted to. His notion was they’d taken a ‘tactical out’ due to the alcohol ban and Qatar’s questionable human rights record, only to double their efforts to ensure they’d make the next one in a more Tartan Army-friendly area of the globe.
Qatar 2022 controversy
While it hosted the greatest World Cup final of all time between France and Argentina, Qatar’s treatment of migrant workers, FIFA's decision to threaten captains with yellow cards if they wore armbands in support of LGBTQ+ rights, alongside a behemoth of other issues left an extremely bad taste in the mouth. But had Scotland truly taken the moral decision to miss out on Qatar four years ago, then surely they’d have been reason to do similar at this year’s edition of the World Cup?
Wildly inflated ticket costs and a newly-founded FIFA peace prize for US President Donald Trump - coincidentally the same man who is currently forcing Iran to consider vacating the tournament due to his airstrikes on them - have already polluted my anticipation. We are also just weeks on from the death of three American citizens in Renee Good, Alex Pretti, and Ruben Ray Martinez. The unrest between the American public and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) feels unlikely to cease. And let’s not even start on the list of qualified nations facing US travel bans and Gianni Infantino’s escapades.
Co-hosts Mexico are also facing a multi-faceted security crisis of its own. The death of the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel’s leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes has resulted in widespread attacks across the country, with vehicles and businesses torched. For those of us at home when the tournament takes place, the sinking feeling in our gut when our friends and family tell us about their plans to attend is getting harder to ignore.
At USA ‘94, critics feared that a World Cup in the US could be a poorly attended, over-commercialised event, and one which could ruin the sport's integrity forever. But my memories of it are as cherished as any. It defied scepticism about the popularity of ‘soccer’ in the States, it drew a record-breaking 3.58 million spectators, while a reported 32 billion watched worldwide. Ultimately, it brought people together over the love of the game, like any good World Cup should.
This summer the tournament goes Stateside again. Many Scottish youngsters will take in their first World Cup with the naivety that Andy Robertson could be the man lifting the trophy above his head in New Jersey on July 19. But even if Andy does lift that famous trophy above his head, it’ll not be without Donald Trump sniffing around him trying to steal the limelight.
Will they be treated to the same experience as you and I did at our first World Cup? Or will this tournament will be clad in a red MAGA cap and have very little to do with the actual football? Will it be one that brings us together, or divides us? My fear is it’ll be the latter.
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