End of the adventure: The wages of World Cup defeat

Of all the many global celebrations that accompanied the progress of a nation into the final 16 of the World Cup, the most exuberant was the Algerians who, on a shaky YouTube video dissolved into a pulsating cloud of magnesium flares, fireworks  and euphoria. But defeat can produce euphoria too. Iran scored just a single goal and Australia failed to get a single point, but in both countries there was  widespread pleasure in not simply being at the World Cup, but in giving it a real go. Australia’s game with the Netherlands was amongst the best of the opening round, and was embellished by a Tim Cahill volley of rare beauty. Iranians rightly celebrated 89 minutes of defiance against Argentina that required a goal of rare precision from Messi to break the deadlock.   As ever in Iran, football continues to be a place where the limits of theocratic rule can be tested. People have defied the strictures on mixed-gender viewing of the games, while post-match public celebrations have visibly included women.

In the short unpredictable scramble that is a four team round-robin, a good team can easily misfire, minnows can hit a streak of form and a single moment of madness or bad luck can sink you. Some have accepted this good grace. One was Ecuador’s coach Reinaldo Rueda, who pinpointed conceding the late goal against Switzerland rather than the red card received in the game against Cote D’ivoire as the key moment in their exit.  Cote d’Ivoire’s players have blamed themselves for their naivety and indiscipline in the final moments of their game with Greece, conceding a last minute penalty that turned them from qualifiers to also-rans. 

In Japan, where open criticism of others is frowned upon and self-abnegation and solidarity are prized , everyone  from the squad  to the FA  to the their Italian coach Alberto Zacharonni has been blaming themselves. The Spanish, despite arriving as reigning champions,  also appear to have accepted their early departure with little rancor. In the same month that King Juan Carlos abdicated in favor of his son Philippe, the Spanish experience has been framed as the end of a dynasty, a generation of greats whose course had been run.

Two of the African teams knocked out of the tournament are once again dealing with problems of dysfunctional institutions.  A perennial problem for African squads has been their relationship with the national football association; in particular the considerable payments that FIFA dole out to the FA’s to pay the squad have been known to go missing. This time around, the Cameroon players went on strike beforehand, refusing to board a plane in the far east which resulted in four lost days of preparation, and left a sour mood in its wake.

Ghana’s players insisted that the money be made available, in cash and in Brazil. The money arrived and appears to have been accompanied by a shouting match between Kevin-Prince Boateng  and coach Kwesi Appiah, while Sulley Muntari came to blows with an official of the Ghanaian FA.

These events should not be thought of as acts of petulance or greed.  Rather, they are based on a very accurate assessment by the players of their chances of getting paid by any other route, and are the act of men who are now too experienced, too powerful  and too accustomed to European standards of  payment  that they rightly will not stand for being short-changed.  

A more rancorous response can detected in Russia where the prospect of hosting the tournament with such a dismal team has given additional urgency to the search for foreign scapegoats. The list includes the Algerian fans who shone a green laser light in the eyes of goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev moments before Algeria’s equalizer, and the Turkish referee who failed to notice it. Coach Fabio Capello ranted that “All referees are against Russia”. This didn’t save the Italian from the wrath of much of the Russian press, who have squarely put the blame on him.

Of course, there are deeper roots to the debacle. Like England, Russia’s squad is entirely domestically based, held at home by monstrously good wages and an aversion to adventure. Similarly, both leagues have very large number of foreign players who many deem to be squeezing out or arresting the development of locals. While the press has been angry, the populace had responded, as it often does to the country’s pathologies, with apathy and disinterest; President Putin, who is only ever found on the winning side, claimed to have not even bothered to watch the game with Belgium.

The Italians have shown a depressingly similar xenophobia and racism, focused as usual on Mario Balotelli who must not only lead the line for a lackluster team, but also stand  as the most public representative of the nearly 5 million immigrants who have come to Italy in the last two decades.

England, at least, have not sought scapegoats, even Wayne Rooney has escaped extensive post tournament censure. There is a consensus that the team was simply not good enough. The reason why is another matter. The Premier League is endlessly lauded as an exemplar of globalized, deregulated and successful capitalism, but  its enormous rewards are sequestered by a tiny minority.   There couldn’t be a better example of John Kenneth Galbraith’s famous couplet than the private opulence of the Premier league and the public squalor of English grassroots football culture where playing fields are disappearing.  Just as the political leaderhsip have no intention of regulating and controlling the private opulence of the City of London however much it distorts and impoverishes the rest of the economy, there’s no real appetite for regulating the Premier League.  Like the wider economy, English football will continue to excel at its peak as a globally orientated commercial venture,  but for the world of the lower leagues and youth and grassroots football, out of which a successful national  football culture is built, there is more penury to come. For England, defeat has not brought euphoria;  one wonders if it will ever bring wisdom.