Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The fun outweighed the controversies at the World Cup

Well, I think we can probably call it: in the end, no one cared enough about the controversies at the Football World Cup. We all just had a really good time watching it.

Anyone hoping, and there were definitely people hoping, that this would be the World Cup where the corruption would finally be too much, the controversies would finally be too much, and something would be done about it, will be horribly disappointed.

Already, it sounds like UEFA is ignoring calls to deal with FIFA president Gianni Infantino after US President Donald Trump involved himself in getting the red card overturned. And already, more than 200 of FIFA's member associations have formally backed Infantino for re-election.

I think those two things should tell you more than anything else that nothing is going to come from any of the politics or any of the controversies.

Instead, what's going to happen is that Infantino will celebrate yet another successful tournament. The football was great. It wasn't diluted by the extra teams, which is what people were worried about. It wasn't predictable. You had surprise successes like Cape Verde.

Nearly seven million fans passed through the gates. 

That is, by the way, enormous.

That's double the previous record, which was set in the US 32 years ago. Ninety-nine-point-seven percent of tickets were sold. They think the final will be the most-watched football match on record.

Now, sure, in years to come we're going to remember that Trump got a red card overturned, just as we're going to remember the rainbow armband drama in Qatar. But, we're also going to remember that the Argies got really heated up and had a fight after the final, that Lionel Messi got a hat-trick and that Eli Just scored a double for the All Whites, who actually turned out to be not half bad and gave us some hope that maybe quality football is finally improving in this country.

In the end, the controversies are just part of the story but they didn't stop people going to the games or watching the games, which is so predictable because this is what happens every single time.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, I think we can probably call it. In the end,
no one cared enough about the controversies at the Football
World Cup. We all just had a really good time
watching it. Anyone hoping, and there were definitely people hoping
that this would be the World Cup where finally the
corruption would be too much and the controversies would be
too much and something would be done about it. Anyone
hoping for that will be horribly disappointed because already it
sounds like UEFA is ignoring the calls to deal with

(00:22):
Infantino after Trump involved himself and getting the red card overturned,
and already more than two hundred of fIF member associations
have formerly backed in Fantino for re election. I think
those two things should tell you more than anything that
nothing is going to come from any of the politics
or any of the controversies. Instead, what's going to happen
is Infantino will celebrate yet another successful tournament. The football

(00:46):
was great. It wasn't diluted by the extra teams, which
is what people were worried about. It wasn't predictable. You
had surprise successes like Cape Verd. Nearly seven million fans
passed through the gates that is, by the way enormous, right,
that is double the previous record, which was set in
the US thirty two years ago. Ninety nine point seven
percent of the tickets were sold. They think the final

(01:08):
will be the most watched football match on record. Now, sure,
in years to come, we're going to remember that Trump
got a red card overturned, just like we're going to
remember that there was a rainbow armband drama and Qatar.
But we're also going to remember that the RGIS really
got heated up, had a fight after the final. Messi
got a hat trick and Eli Joss got a double
for the all whites who actually turned out to be
not half bad and gave us some hope that maybe

(01:30):
quality football is finally improving in this country. In the end,
the controversies are just part of the story. But they
didn't stop people going to the games or watching the games,
which is so predictable because this is what happens every
single time. For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen
live to news Talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.