Breathe
We are less than a month away from the opening whistle of the Qatar 2022 World Cup, yes, that World Cup that has weathered a series of scandals that few have had, a "vote buying" to bring the first World Cup to an Arab country, allegations of human rights violations of workers involved in the construction of stadiums and a myriad of etceteras that have appeared over the years.
It seems that prior to the World Cup in South Africa in 2010 was when everything was forged. Vote buying or not, Joseph Blatter's FIFA was not willing to allow another third world country that did not meet the requirements and complete the works in time and form, with little or a lot of soccer culture, to host a World Cup again, although with Qatar 2022, the impression was to take the soccer party to every corner of the planet.
It was midday on June 21, 2010. Ivan, a great colleague, friend and one of my fellow adventurers in South Africa, insisted on having breakfast at one of the restaurants of the Michelangelo Hotel, right after the press conference given by Zinedine Zidane and Lucas Radebe, which was held in front of the hotel.
After a few minutes of indecision, we crossed the street at Nelson Mandela Square and there was the cream of FIFA's crop gathered. We sat right across the table from Julio Grondona, then President of the Argentine Football Association and Vice President of FIFA, and Eduardo Deluca, General Secretary of CONMEBOL. In that conversation between the two leaders and an agent, I would like to think it was a soccer players' agent (I cannot remember the name and I could not see his face well), both accepted that FIFA was fed up with awarding host cities to underdeveloped countries, insisting that Brazil would be the last one in the third world and that the host cities for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups had already been defined, Russia and Qatar, there was no turning back.
In that conversation, there was also talk of the economic potential of the Arab country and that this, in part, would erase the little or no passion for the sport in Qatar compared to other regions, stressing that FIFA's interest was to bring the World Cup to countries with greater economic capacity so that nothing would go wrong.
Both Julio Grondona, who died in 2014, and Deluca, who passed away last June, were named in the FIFA Gate scandal, a scandal that uncovered a series of corrupt practices within the world football governing body and led to hundreds of arrests in the various confederations.
Qatar is less than a month away from living what is considered the most important sports festival in the world. The Technical Directors of each National Team have presented their pre-lists and have in mind those players who will not be taken into account.
Twelve years have passed since that breakfast at Michelangelo, more than a decade of waiting... the countdown to enjoy the 2022 World Cup has begun, the eyes of millions of fans have started to turn to the Middle East.
@RCova18
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of Opinion 51.
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