If you haven’t been expecting me, you should have been. I’ve been drafting this in my head for days while not tossing and turning in bed, because I’m frankly too excited to sleep: It’s World Cup Time!!

I have a lot of thoughts on this Cup to be honest. And I’ll get into some of them, but it could be a whole book and none of us have time for that.

Let me level with you, if you’ve been around for past World Cups, men’s or women’s, I’m not going to bring you that level of coverage this time. My life is a whole lot busier these days, between a much more demanding job and serving as Capo for the Boston Legacy FC supporters group (more on that in a later dispatch? Maybe?). So while I hope I’ll have some time to write about my high holiday, I also may be lucky to even get to watch all the matches this year. Because wow, there are a lot of matches this year!

So let’s get into it. First, the sports, high level only:

This is an expanded pool, with 48 teams playing 104 matches, spread across 16 venues, and 3 countries (USA, Mexico, and Canada). The last Men’s World Cup was in Qatar was 32 teams, playing 64 matches, spread across a single country roughly the size of Connecticut. 

The expanded pool means that a lot of countries that do not normally qualify, or have never qualified, will be there. Last time, Qatar was the only country debuting, and they got their spot by virtue of being the host country. The other outsiders were Wales, who only previously qualified in 1958, and Canada, who had only previously qualified in 1986. This time we have four first timers: Cape Verde, Curaçao, Jordan, and Uzbekistan. 

Semi-related, but if you like JOY, you should check out some of the coverage around Cape Verde and Curaçao. They are absolutely living it up and it’s delightful. Search instagram for some great stuff. 

We also have six teams who are only making their second appearance. DR Congo (last qualified 1974), Haiti (1974), Iraq (1986), Bosnia and Herzegovina (2014), Panama (2018) and Qatar (2022). I could tell you some stories about the paths here, but the most important one is absolutely Bosnia and Herzegovina, who qualified by beating FOUR TIME WORLD CUP CHAMPIONS ITALY in the UEFA Qualifier Playoffs, which is hilarious and beautiful and sometimes, when I’m sad, I think about the fact that Italy has missed out on every World Cup since 2014, where they bounced out in the Group Stage, which is also hilarious. Good work, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

So, who are your underdogs? Pretty much everyone named above. I might also throw in: South Africa, Canada, New Zealand and, for their circumstances, Iran. More on that in a minute.

Who are the favorites? Look, for me, it’s Spain. I don’t want to jinx anything, because that’s my team, but I realllllly feel like we have all the right pieces and it’s ours to lose. But hey, anything could happen and that’s why I love this tournament. 

Now, if you ask The Press, the actual favorites are France, Argentina, England, and Portugal. I’m kind of in awe at how many articles I’ve seen naming favorites that leave out Spain, but some of the most recent (last 48 hours) are mentioning Spain. Likely because France, England, and Portugal all underperformed in their pre-tournament friendlies. Bandwagoners…

Other heavier hitters include Brazil, Germany, Netherlands, and Morocco. Now, Morocco knocked Spain out last World Cup, so they were on my shitlist, but then they won me over with their little Cinderella-ish run (they were ranked 11th in the world, so it’s not like they came out of the depths, however they made it to the quarterfinals which was unexpected). But they have un-won me over after some frankly shameful shenanigans at the African Cup of Nations.

I’m not going to go any farther into the sporting of it all here, because I don’t really have the eye for it, and there is a lot of better writing out there already if you care.

So let’s move on to the other part of the tournament: the drama.

Where to start…

The drama has been building for ages, and I can’t summarize all of it succinctly, except to say FIFA corruption + Trump corruption = chaos. Ticket prices are out of control. FIFA has been moving people’s seats without telling them. Visas are being revoked after being granted. Transportation plans are a disaster, and all have terribly high prices attached. A Somali referee was deported. The list goes on and on.

I was originally planning to empty my bank account, take three weeks off work, and follow the Spanish National Team. I had the savings to pull it off, they would be nearby, and the timing worked out personally. Who knows if the stars will ever align so well again. But then the news kept coming, worse and worse every time. On one hand, this Cup’s controversies are different than Qatar, less of a death toll, more corruption and cruelties, but still. I went from “I’ll follow my team” to “Maybe i’ll go to one Spain game” to “I’ll go to one of the games in Boston*” to “I cannot in good conscience give my money toward this endeavour. Maybe another time.”

*more correctly, 25 miles outside of Boston

I will still watch it though. I’m not that strong as to look away from my favorite quadrennial event.

One thing I particularly want to call out is that Iran’s team qualified. You know, the team from the country that the US, one of the host nations, is currently bombing. I would say “at war with” but I think Congress hasn’t made that official? I don’t know. Frankly, I’m a little underinformed here because the daily onslaught of chaos and evil from the government these days has been hard to follow. 

Anyway, the saga with Iran has been ongoing. The official group stage draw happened in December where two things happened: the Iranian Football Federation (FFIRI) president, Mehdi Taj, was not allowed to come to the US for the draw, and the draw determined that all three of Iran’s group stage matches would be in the US (LA and Seattle, specifically). Then, in February, the US and Israel started bombing Iran. 

In March, Trump met with his best buddy, FIFA President Gianni Infantino and assured him that the Iranian team would be allowed to enter the US. Then he turned around and posted online that they would be allowed, but that it would not be “appropriate that they be there, for their own life and safety” which definitely doesn’t sound like a threat. Rumors started to swirl about Iran withdrawing and someone else getting their spot.

Then things just kept getting worse. The FFIRI kept making pretty reasonable requests (let our personnel and fans into the US safely) and the US kept saying no.

Visas for the team? The players just got their visas on June 1, and some members of the staff were denied.

Accommodations? Iran moved their training camp from  Tucson, Arizona to Tijuana, Mexico for safety reasons AND they will be flying in and out the day of games. 

So let me restate that: There will be at least one match where the team will wake up in Tijuana, fly to Seattle, probably about a 3 hour flight (there are no direct commercial flights between the two cities, I’m using San Diego as a reference point) where surely they will be treated with respect by customs agents upon landing, then play a match against Mo Salah and Egypt at 8pm local time, then fly back to Tijuana to go to sleep. That particular match is also the group stage finale, and could decide whether they move on or go home. No pressure or anything.

Yesterday, the FFIRI announced that its ticket allocation for fans was revoked. So no Iranian fans. All the fans who had already finalized their travel arrangements? They can kick rocks. The players who were hoping to play on the biggest footballing stage of their lives in front of their fans? Empty seats. 

I’m not here to say Iran is perfect innocent victims, but this is some bullshit. Plain and simple. The World Cup, FIFA is always stressing, is supposed to “unite the world.” I won’t pretend that the World Cup has been without fault until this time around. Far from it. In fact, I would argue (and have) that it’s been getting increasingly worse and more corrupt in recent iterations. The “Controversies” section on the Wikipedia pages keep getting more complex.

But there’s something uniquely heartbreaking for me about this situation. To get so close, and nominally have the experience of going to a World Cup as a player or team staff, but for it to be this marred and muted version of the experience? All because some deranged, corrupt fascist who doesn’t even understand the sport decides he’s got beef with your country? Cruel and evil.

So here we are, on the eve of the 23rd FIFA World Cup. Some fans and most of the teams and referees have made their way to North America, and tomorrow the first Trionda will be kicked, and we’ll see what happens…