Sunday, November 20, 2022

Upon Us

 


The Qatar (about the size of Connecticut) World Cup is imminent. 

David Beckham has just blocked the country's first openly gay man on Instagram and FIFA has deployed a textbook version* of the "western plebs cannot criticise because...colonialism" defence. That would be like, hypocritical. 

Anyway, in the end, it can't be as bad as Argentina '78, when they were pushing students out the back of aeroplanes over the South Atlantic, can it?  

In terms of the sporting spectacle, that one was near faultless, I recall. A roaring Concord even passed over our home just as Kempes scored the winner.

Qatar 2022 will be more like The Squid Game where — thanks to those football-sceptic intellectuals — we will all be vaguely aware of of a troubling subtext to do with dodgy contracts, labour relations and violent oppression — yet in the end will just surrender to the hugely entertaining and gory competitive spectacle. 

'Ere we go, 'ere we go, 'ere we go....


* Translated from the Chinese. 

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