How Can We Truthfully Write About The FIFA World Cup?

“You knew from the day you were born 

That here in this place you belong. 

You’ve been this brave all along                                      

What broke you once made you strong”

 — Shakira, “Dai Dai”.

“Everything good about football is rooted in community, inclusion and passion – and the World Cup should be no exception. Yet FIFA’s outrageous ticket costs, combined with Mexico’s extreme economic inequality, have priced all but a tiny fraction of the host population out of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attend matches. This is meant to be the people’s game, not a vessel for sportswashing or corporate greed.” 

— Duncan Tucker, 37, UK, based in Mexico City. Amnesty International, fan opinion. 

It is difficult to write an article about the FIFA World Cup.

For so many people, the World Cup is the quintessential quadrennial celebration, which makes the earth feel like a neighbourhood of shared cultures and passions all through something as simple as football. It is a rare coming together of such epic proportions, and it is so special for the moments of iconic connection; the fans who adopt new countries as their own, the underdog stories, the family-function-silencing penalties. 

However, when it comes to the buildup of this year’s World Cup (set to begin on the 11th of June and take place in Mexico, Canada and the United States), you could say that it has been a tale of two articles. 

There are articles that want to focus on football’s positivity exclusively, the causes for celebrations such as the new team-facing communal anthems, FIFA’s most extensive and diverse music project to date and the spectacle of the opening ceremonies in Mexico, Canada and America. 

Then there are articles that will not ignore the context which surrounds the football: the thousand-dollar tickets and commuter fees which exclude the fans, the politically charged visa issues which exclude personnel from the Iranian team, the fears of exclusion by enforced anti-immigration policies and outright bans for other nationalities. When you read these articles, it is more challenging to swallow Gianni Fantini’s statement that it is enough to “unite fans worldwide through the power of music and football” without a dose of politically enforced salt. A tale of two articles: inclusion, exclusion. 

When the World Cup is framed with the rose-tinted glasses of perfect global harmony, it is untrue, but this untruth serves the valid purpose of reducing the everyday faucet of negativity which the media can shower our lives with. By attempting to focus on the talented players, dedicated fans, diverse music and cultural celebrations, the aim is to not let greed and autocracy cloud the celebratory rarity of the World Cup. It could be argued that these articles emulate the purpose of sports itself because, as Colin Sherdian from the Irish Examiner writes: “for one glorious month every four years, football asks us to ignore the noise outside the stadium…” But is this a good or bad thing?

Contrastingly, when the media strips down the world cup into an exposé of FIFA’s hypocrisies, displaying how, as sports writer Dave Zirin notes: “the tournament does not merely reveal existing inequalities but, in fact, intensifies them” through “debt, displacement and the militarization of public space”, it may be more truthful but it is still just as unrepresentative of the whole context. In serving the purpose of unmasking ‘sportswashing’, the sport itself is also at risk of being masked by current affairs. 

One framing ignores the world by spotlighting the cup, the other ignores the cup by spotlighting the world. What happened to the connection between the two? 

If you eat, sleep and breathe football, you may have great cause to be defensive of the prior because sports reporting should be focused on the sports, and the personal passion and individual joy shouldn’t be bogged down by the political unrest which never rests. 

Meanwhile, if you couldn’t care less about football, you have great cause to be defensive of the latter because unethical behaviour and inequality should never be put on the back burner for a facade of peace and love through curated songs and sports matches. 

As is almost always the case, extremism on either end is not the answer; football shouldn’t be forgotten because of our world, but we cannot let football make us forget about our world. We have to continue to fight for equality and justice. We have to report the good and the bad, even if it presents us with some obscene contradictions. 

As seen, a balanced approach to the World Cup’s ethics is, in reality, much easier for some than it is for others. For example, when The Guardian asked for reader opinions on the World Cup, Campbell McGill (from Auckland) mentions all of the negatives but still loves football enough to go and experience the magic live:

 “I have been following lots of World Cup stories, from the ticket and hotel prices, to ICE issues, to what may happen to the Iran team, who New Zealand will be playing in our first match. Almost every story has worried me somewhat, and some of the gloss has been taken off the trip for me. Having said that, as JJ Bull says: The USA kind of sucks, but we will go there anyway.”

However, if we take a fan from Haiti or Iran, they may very well overcome all of these same negativities, but as an outright travel ban to America will not allow them to go and see their team, it won’t do them much good. 

The good and the bad of sport are not limited to an underdog moment and a tragic injury in the span of ninety minutes. No. It is also takes shape in the most artistic, culturally diverse FIFA official album in years, opening ceremonies that put musicians and traditions on the map and a final’s halftime show that will support the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund which aims to raise USD 100 millions to expand access to quality education and football opportunities for children worldwide … and the support of authoritarianism, elitism and human rights abuses beneath the very soil of the pitch, so to speak.

It is the World Cup, of course, it has contradictions, the world is large, it contains multitudes.  But we cannot ignore it. We cannot lose hope, but we cannot wear rose-tinted glasses; this is our World Cup, this is our world. Hopefully, one day, there’ll be less bad than good. Who knows, we’ll keep kicking balls no matter what, I’d say. 

Written By: Ben Lynch

Edited By: Kirsten Baldwin