...and the final whistle is here!

 The final whistle of the FIFA 2022 is just less than 8 hours and with the end of another year in 12 days, I thought It would be best to end my rather inconsistent blogging year with my views on the World cup and the bon-homie around it, as I had the fortune of living in the host country and be part of the festivities first hand.

From the time, the State of Qatar won the rights to win the World Cup on 2^nd December 2010, I have been fortunate to have played a small part in the related infrastructure works starting from the City that is hosting the finals, the Stadiums and the Drainage networks around the country, it gives me a sense of joy and pride to have been part of this history.

Though not an ardent football fan, I tend to follow only the World cups and the earliest in memory is the 1986 World Cup in Mexico which was famous for the wrong reasons with Diego Maradona’s Hand of God becoming more famous than God gifted feet of his. I was 14 when that happened and here I am 36 years later watching it with my daughter all of 14, as World Cup unfolds in front of her. I followed a world cup on paper while she was fortunate to actually watch it live. Football or for that matter any sport has evolved greatly over this period of 3.5 decades and had there been a VAR then, Argentina might not have qualified and gone on to win the world cup. That was a period when God played a hand and technology was not around, but in my opinion, technology brought in that unwanted perfection to sports.

My knowledge of football continues to be pathetic so much so that if they call an offside now, I am immediately reminded of how brilliant Vishwanath & Ganguly were on their offsides while it is scorned upon in Football. Its not that I love football less but I love cricket more.

As someone who witnessed this from close quarters I can say this was a seamlessly organized World Cup with close to 25K volunteers of diverse nationalities putting in their heart and soul with a smile to welcome the world to Qatar. I am no FIFA guru to compare it with the rest of the World Cups but from a resident, and an unbiased spectator point of view I can say the organizers did not leave a stone unturned.

As in any GCC country the Indian population which is a predominant one, found itself in the thick of things and this was the first time a World Cup happened closest to the Indian Subcontinent, the time difference being a mere 2.5 hours.  The majority of the Indian diaspora come from Kerala which unlike the rest of India love their football. Can’t blame them as the state’s only notable contribution to Indian cricket has been the fiery Sreesanth and the constantly fired but always fired up Sanju Samson. Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar and even some of the un-pronounceable Croatian & Polish players were worshipped as Gods in Kerala, some went under water with a hoarding of Messi, some prayed for him in institutions cutting across the sensitive religious divisions. The Keralite fans sporting the favourite team jerseys outnumbered and out voiced the native Brazilians and Argentinians and luckily their jerseys were not the ‘Besharam Rang’ (thankfully Netherlands were ousted in the Semis!). Though there was an entourage of Bollywood and Mollywood Celebrities including Deepika Padukone who will unveil the World Cup later today, I am hopeful someday a country of 1.3 billion people produce 11 Mbappés to pose an Indian challenge in the World of Football, and graduate from being just super fans to players to watch out for. Waiting for the 1983 moment in Indian Football!

As the curtains come down on the month long festivities in my adopted city, I can vouch that this has been a truly inclusive and the most diverse world cup, but at the same time one which glaringly highlighted a deepening East-West divide.

No country or region can claim the right to a sport. Cricket is a testimony to that. A sport has no boundaries, only rules. Anyone who is skillful enough and can play by the rules can claim the sport to be his/her/their own too. As the FIFA Qatar 2022 tagline goes Now is all...I certainly believe Now is just the beginning to all. Mexico / America / Canada are all set to host the next World Cup in 2026, from the diversity point of view I believe you will see Tacos, McDonalds and I don’t know much about Canada, just like the visitors knowledge was limited to Shawarmas in Qatar. No offense to any one from those three countries, my excuse is that I am as ignorant as you folks there in the west when it comes to the knowledge of Geography and culture on the other side of the world.