The games kicked off this week, and there's rather a lot going on, beyond the pitch.
First off, let's talk about ticketing. When it was first announced that the World Cup would be making its way to the US for the first time in some years, I was intrigued. And when some games were announced for Miami, I was excited. Games in my backyard? Maybe I could catch one! Except that the price point was well beyond what it was 4 years ago (10x the amount!), and there was some weird lottery to get in. There have been investimagations into price gouging, and it appears as though not all tickets have actually been sold, contrary to what we're told.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino assured us that it's all simply okay, because the average price was only(!) $500 per ticket. Then went on to tell us "Let me say that we are very relaxed about it because before starting to sell 7 million tickets, we checked what we would do with the best lawyers or experts In California, we sold 800,000 tickets for the games in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Out of the 800,000 we had three customers who complained. The fourth one has come since. These cases were solved before the investigations started. We welcome any investigations. We'll present everything and make our case. But it's most important that every dollar that we generate goes back into football." (by the way, that's a funny way to say that FIFA takes all the profits and keeps them!)
Then, it was a lot of information about the sheer grift that was happening in host cities. Money was being spent to "upgrade" stadiums and to get fans to games. But at our expense as taxpayers, rather than by FIFA.
And then there was the absurdity of visas for fans travelling from other places. The state department was moving so slowly, and there was an (since rescinded, but not after having the intended effect) "entry bond" placed on some of what this administration thinks are undesirable countries. And many people just couldn't get visas to come and watch their country play.
Some fans managed to secure visas, only to have them later rescinded. Some players and referees had difficulty getting the visas. A few were turned away as they went through customs. Some were subjected to intense searches, and detainments that lasted for many hours.
Infantino addressed this too: "Believe me when I tell you, or don't believe me if you don't want, but we try always to find solutions, always. But then we need to respect that we are not the kings of the world who can rule over governments and police forces and I don't know what. We are a sports organization, we try to do our best with the means that we have."
Referring to the referee who was stopped in Miami - who the US said has an "association with suspected members of terror organizations" - Infantino said "It is unfortunate what happened to Omar, the referee from Somalia, but again we don't control everything. We try, we'll discuss, we'll see. Maybe sometimes it's good as well to chill, relax. We work on everything, we try to resolve everything. Sometimes to immediately start screaming and shouting has the opposite effect in terms of finding a solution. We always try to find solutions, always. But then we need to respect that we are not the kings of the world who can rule over governments and police forces."
Funny that he gave T-rump the first ever FIFA peace prize... and then when the guy in charge doesn't embody that, its met with a shrug and an urgence to "relax"... man is this all dumb.
Meanwhile, hotels, which had expected a surge of customers, have low bookings.
And did I mention the heat due to climate change? Yeah, its too hot in some cities to play soccer, according to the player rep organization. And FIFA says the cutoff to postpone if it hits 32C, which is about 90F. Several cities (Miami included) hit that daily. But you can imagine they won't postpone matches. Because there's money to be made. So instead, they disrupt the flow with hydration breaks (which they've done before, but its all weird)
Its a bit of a mess. Here's to hoping the games we see on TV are good!
