The Importance of Sport (NEW CONCEPTS)

[Mick Harper]

I didn't watch the Final, only the ten minute highlights on BBC I-Player. It seemed OK, if one-sided. Then I ran into the storm on YouTube about the disgracefulness of the Argentines. It was a tsunami of denunciation coming at them from every direction. A team that will live in infamy.

Or maybe not, it's always hard to predict these things. But, even if it's short-term, I can't understand why the individual players would want it. Do Argentinians relish being intensely disliked? Is it so woven into their warp and woof they had no choice? What must it be like for Messi? Someone who has always been universally adored, spending the rest of his life as 'captain of that lot'?

It's true their methods were the only chance they had of actually winning the thing, and they came reasonably close to doing so, but would that not have increased the hatred? The team that won with a shots ratio of minus thirty and a crime index of plus a hundred.

We were unpopular winners in '66 but nobody here would want to replay that tournament and emerge as 'sporting losers'. But Argentina didn't win. And they must have known--win, draw or lose--they would be pantomime villains forever. You can't perform the dark arts when the whole world is watching from every camera angle and hope to get away with it.

It will be interesting to see what reception they get at home. Will Argentina regard them as returning heroes, beaten only by the machinations of officialdom. That is what happened in 1966 after the sending-off of Rattin. Will the B.A. tifosi congratulate them on a job nearly well done? Will they get an official reception from a president who is, as far as he is concerned, in the same boat?

Any other country would surely have some reservations about having their entire nation being dragged through the mud. Or perhaps Argentines are like Russians and Millwall supporters, "No one likes us, we don't care." All I can say is rather them than me.

[Wile E. Coyote]

You are suppossed to be gracious in defeat.

It was distateful behaviour, after the whistle, that really rankled.

First they instigated a mass brawl, then they turned their backs on the winners during the ceremony.

Sort of appropriate for a Trumpian World Cup though........

[Mick Harper]

Perhaps FIFA will come up with a 'Non-Peace Prize'.

[Mick Harper]

The bit I don't understand is the turning of the backs when Spain were receiving the cup. All the rest is individual. Each invidious bit of misbehaviour might be part of a group ethos but each act--even a group swarm on the ref--is made on the basis of personal volition. Not the team back-turn. That had to be suggested by someone, specifically agreed by everyone.

After all, they were free to wander away, they were free to express their own personal disapproval. They were free not to line up as a team at all. But to line up as normal, to not face front as normal, to turn their backs nem con is something else again.

Fair enough, that's what they collectively decided to do. But what I don't get is why? What was it they were signalling their dissent about. It could hardly be because Spain did not deserve to win. It could hardly be because of the red card shown to Enzo Fernando. It could hardly be because the ref showed favouritism to the other side. All these reasons they knew, everybody knew, would be patently silly.

So go on, tell me what is was for? Just to emphasise they were arseholes is as near as I can get. I suppose they might as well have done by that stage.

[Mick Harper]

Chelsea have just paid £117 million for Morgan Rogers. After Arsenal had spent months pursuing him and after Rogers himself had expressed a preference to go to Arsenal.

It's all a bit weird but having a look at Chelsea's line-up for the new season, and with a manager who knows his onions and the stature to have his way, I can't see anyone beating them to the title next season. You read it here first.

[Mick Harper]

Final Ratings for Top Fifty World Cup Players
The Athletic, selected

England
04. Jude Bellingham
08. Harry Kane
13. Declan Rice
18 Anthony Gordon
21. Elliot Anderson
40. Bukayo Saka

Arsenal
13. Declan Rice
20. William Saliba (injured)
28. Leandro Trossard (gone)
30. Bruno Guimaraes (soon)
40. Bukayo Saka (charitable)
43. Martin Odegaard (not first team)
48. Mikel Merino (not first team)

[Mick Harper]