The World Cup didn't need entertainment
I spent 3 years working in soccer in the USA. And the World Cup makes sense once you've been on the inside.
The Americanisation of the Worlds Game made a mockery of the game we all know and love.
I spent the last 3 years working in soccer. This World Cup was meant to be everything I wanted. But it was the opposite. I didn’t even watch the final.
But once you’ve been on the inside, it all makes sense. I didn’t work for a US soccer club, I worked for ‘an entertainment company that happened to have a professional soccer team.’ That was our memo.
Our match days were a family experience, that in theory, you didn’t need to like the sport to enjoy. The Savannah Bananas are the gold standard for lower division sports clubs in the USA because of the tickets sold for their novelty experiences. Maybe you’ve seen their videos. Whilst this is entertaining, it is hard to feel like a ‘real’ sport club. It feels like FIFA adopted this mindset for this tournament.
The writing was on the wall as soon as the tournaments draw event started. An event, I would never watch (or watch again) but every employee had to watch. So I sat through the two hour shitshow. Mind you, I was working remotely from Mexico City at the time, so it could have been worse.
The event was embarrassing.
It took 90 minutes to even draw a team. There was the infamous Peace prize for somebody who’s bombed 7 countries in the last 12 months. It was so bad that even the presenters on air were saying ‘can we just get on with it and stop the nonsense?’. The event was capped off by a performance by the Village People. A great example of the contradiction we have come to expect from this country. This was a preview of what was to come for the tournament. The America-maxxxing of the World Cup.
If you’ve been to an NBA game, you will know. There is not a moment of silence or a minute that isn’t a sensory overload. The sport itself is rarely enough for any of their major leagues except maybe for the NFL. There has to be constant entertainment. This is how everything is viewed.
The above, is my wife (and editor, you should thank her), a former basketball player herself being overwhelmed at a Clippers game.
The irony for the sports like the NBA losing fan interest & live viewers, is that they have impacted the game for commercial benefits. The worse thing about the NBA, apart from flopping, is time outs. Usually a team is on a flow and it’s exciting, so the other team calls a time out to kill the momentum of the game. It’s boring for the fans. So what does the NBA do? They mandate extra two TV time outs per quarter, to get more revenue from the ad breaks. The opposite of what the fans want.
Hello enshittification.
And this is ignoring all the off-pitch related headlines that negatively impacted the tournament. Omar Artan, the Somali referee who wasn’t granted a visa. The disgraceful treatment of the Iran national team. Who had to fly in and out on game day as they weren’t granted permission to stay in the USA. Nine people injured during a mass shooting near England’s training facility in Kansas. And the political interference. There could be another two articles on that.
The beautiful game wasn’t enough, even for the final. Keep in mind that the 2022 World Cup final had over 1 billion viewers. The storylines that were already there between Spain and Argentine including the speculation of Messi’s last game for Argentina. Two nations playing off for the ultimate sports prize. Why do we need to create a Super Bowl like half time show, extending it to be 27 minutes long? Breaking the actual laws of the game of 15 minutes.
The entertainment, should never impact the actual game. It can happen around it, but the line should be drawn here. Again, look at the NBA TV timeouts. Argentina vs Spain, did not need Bieber, Madonna, Shakira, BTS, Burna Boy and whoever else was there to make fans tune in. If it does, then the game is truly fucked. How will regular teams replicate this each week? The strange carnival folk you often see at half time for regional teams, simply won’t cut it.
We will see the numbers come in about the revenue raised and how profitable it’s been, which will be incredibly tone deaf & somewhat the point of my argument, profits shouldn’t be the measurement of success. The World Cup didn’t need to dumbed down for the American audience. It’s global audience loves the game and the tournament for what it is. Football didn’t need saving. It needed to be held sacred instead of being chopped into quarter sized pieces for bigger ad spend.
And with that, I am glad I don’t need to talk about the World Cup again.
Back to regular programming.
As always, thanks for reading.
Hayden
What a great read, and I couldn't agree more.