World Cup shrouded in shame Only Messi hoisting trophy in Qatar can salvage what little is left of FIFA’s reputation Kickabout
By: Jerrad Peters Posted: 7:00 PM CST Friday, Dec. 16, 2022 Last Modified: 10:10 PM CST Friday, Dec. 16, 2022 Updates

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This article was published 15/12/2022 (643 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One way or another, the 2022 World Cup Final will be about Lionel Messi.

Given the Argentine’s astonishing, record-breaking career — he’s already the greatest footballer in history, with or without the sport’s biggest prize — that was always going to be the case. Is it fair to France? Not really. The role of spoiler is an odd one for the reigning champions to have to play. But here we are.

Albiceleste goalkeeper Emi Martinez may insist that, minus the 47 million people cheering them on back home, the entire world hopes his country loses in Lusail on Sunday. And perhaps it’s a narrative that works inside the dressing room. After all, the cantankerous, often spiteful, us-against-everyone mentality was the default disposition of a decade of the Maradona teams. But this time around, there’s simply no truth to it.

Even FIFA, its reputation shredded by the Qatar tournament and everything leading up to it, is surely backing Argentina. They badly need Messi to lift the trophy. It’s an image, they calculate, that would consign all else to his shadow.

Unfortunately, they’re probably right.

Should it happen, this will always be the World Cup at which Messi was crowned, where a runt from Rosario achieved immortality.

That will be the image that sticks, quite literally in the highlight reels and on Monday’s front pages. It will be the story repeated in our memories until it takes up all the space allotted to a single autumn month. More officially, the countless documentaries no doubt already in production will showcase little else.

There’s a lot more to recall, an awful lot, so much of which is actually awful. And it needs to be chronicled.

This is also the World Cup, as a Guardian column wasn’t shy to point out, that “has taken place in a crime scene.” We’ll never know exactly how many thousands of migrant workers, most of them nameless outside their families, died or were seriously injured while building its infrastructure.

We do know at least two more perished during the competition itself — tragedies that provoked Nasser Al Khater, head of the organizing committee, to declare that “death is a natural part of life.” Certainly a part of this event.

The harrowing stench of it has wafted over Qatar these last few weeks. In addition to the pair of workers — and it feels so rotten to say — we’ve also lost three journalists: a writer, a photographer and a broadcast director.

Even the players have wrestled with illness. France defenders Raphael Varane and Ibrahima Konate, both of whom started the semi-final against Morocco, are the latest to fall sick and didn’t train Friday. Team doctors attribute their conditions to the powerful air conditioning required to cool stadiums in extreme heat.

This also a World Cup, described by The Athletic as being played “under a dark shadow,” at which Persian flags were seized, rainbow bucket hats confiscated and support for Iranian women and girls suppressed.

Quite pitifully, FIFA president Gianni Infantino dropped in on the G20 summit just prior to the tournament and urged Ukraine and Russia to observe a ceasefire for its duration. Then, on Friday, the organization rejected Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s offer to share a video message of peace ahead of the final.

As if it were even possible, FIFA has performed yet another heel turn and dug it firmly into the blood-soaked ground that hosted “the best World Cup ever.”

But they require a Messi win to cap it off.

Should France do the unthinkable and deny the Argentina captain his moment of ultimate glory, the final will be yet another thing that, for FIFA, went horribly wrong.

World Cup Final Notebook

• Because of illness, the France backline has been forced to adopt a “next man up” approach in Qatar. Dayot Upamecano is available for selection again, but Les Bleus need at least one of Konate and Varane to recover in time for Sunday and prevent a full-scale shuffle that would likely draw two of William Saliba, Axel Disasi and Benjamin Pavard into the line-up.
• Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni has been busily devising plans to deal with France phenom Kylian Mbappe. He’s been experimenting with a back five in training — the set-up he deployed against the Netherlands in the quarterfinals. The thing is, he should really be thinking about how to contain Antoine Griezmann.
• Griezmann, at 31, is playing the best football of his life at this World Cup. From spreading passes to making tackles and finding spaces no one else seems to see, the converted all-‘round midfielder is involved in everything France endeavour on the pitch. Mbappe may be the dynamite, but Griezmann is the detonator.
• Argentina was criticized, rightfully, for its conduct during and after their victory over the Netherlands, which saw Albiceleste players taunt the Dutch and Messi confront opposing manager Louis van Gaal. That said, the two-time World Cup winners thrive when things are heated. Their first triumph, don’t forget, had the military dictatorship as a backdrop, and Maradona galvanized the country over the Malvinas War ahead of their second. When Argentina play with fire, they win.
• Projected France XI for World Cup Final: Lloris; Kounde, Varane, Upamecano, T. Hernandez; Tchouameni, Rabiot; Griezmann; Dembele, Giroud, Mbappe.
• Projected Argentina XI for World Cup Final: E. Martinez; Molina, Romero, Otamendi, L. Martinez, Acuna; Mac Allister, Fernandez, De Paul; Alvarez, Messi.

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