This is no ordinary World Cup, that much is obvious. It’s in the winter for starters. And there has been as much talk about the circumstances of the competition, of FIFA, of the host nation, as there has been about the sport itself.
Human rights, migrant workers, the LGBTQ+ community, equality for women are all on the table as major talking points. In Germany, at least in Berlin, where I live, many local bars are refusing to show the tournament. There are no public viewings. TV ratings are massively down and those who are tuning in regularly have met well-informed, diverse panels discussing everything that has made Qatar such a controversial host nation.
Even the rage at Germany losing their opening game feels relatively muted. And even that match was dominated, right up to kick-off, by conversations about FIFA and the initially weak, watered down, entirely symbolic OneLove armband that just over half the European teams at the tournament planned to wear before they were threatened with vague sporting sanctions.
Now the symbol, and the reaction to its banning, is so much more than Fifa ever had to fear initially. Their incompetence knows no bounds.
And all the while, the conversations on these topics persist, and I’m glad they do. Ignoring them would feel as wrong as sitting here in my slippers with the heating on watching the group stage unfold, yet here we are.
Anyway, I’ve written this little piece because it would feel completely wrong to publish anything about the World Cup without it and these discussions, ones from football that impact society, belong in this newsletter. That’s why I write about German fan culture and protests. This is an extension of all that on the world stage and for anyone wondering how this World Cup is being welcomed in Germany, it really isn’t.
The atmosphere is muted, the general level of interest is incredibly low, and, lucky as I am, right now I wish my income didn’t involve football and I also had the option to step away for a month. I don’t know if I would have, or could have, but the choice would have been nice.