Is this the best FIFA World Cup ever? This may sound like a very exaggerated compliment, but this world cup has shown plenty of drama, magic, and sporting brilliance in its first week. It has featured a lavish opening ceremony, a number of closely contested matches, a few jaw-dropping upsets, and interesting group stages’ scenarios; all of this in less than a week’s time.
Let’s look at several factors that contribute to the greatness and significance of this iconic football world cup.
First World Cup in the Middle East:
Football has never been an Asian Sport. The major competitions are held in Europe, while African, American, and European countries have dominated the sport. The 22nd edition of the FIFA World Cup is the first one to be held in the Middle East. Even though the middle eastern countries have not been as dominant in football as the European and South American teams, still the market potential in this part of the world is immense as the love for football has continued to grow over the years.
Lavish Spendings – Huge Costs:
Qatar has spent more than 300 billion US Dollars to make this world cup happen. They have built new stadiums, improved tourism facilities and treated the world with the most lavish FIFA World Cup opening ceremony of all time.
Qatar has spent somewhere between 15 to 20 times the money spent by Russia at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Global Criticism:
Qatar received a lot of criticism from different parts of the world for banning alcohol and imposing other restrictions on the basis of the country’s cultural and moral codes. Qatar has argued that Alcohol and other immoral activities are strictly banned in the country as per religious guidelines. Therefore, the country has refused to make any such exceptions for the FIFA World Cup.
Competitive Nature of the Competition:
All the teams have turned out to be pretty competitive in this year’s FIFA World Cup. The lowest-ranked team in the world cup, Ecuador, had Netherlands’ back against the wall. Saudi Arabia stunned Argentina, Germany lost to Japan in an embarrassing fashion, and Ghana competed pretty well against Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal.
Iran has proved to be a very competitive side in this year’s world cup as it has comprehensively beaten Wales.
The general trend suggests a huge improvement in the gameplay of the Asian sides. It seems like the Asian Football federations have improved significantly over the past decade and are now ready to challenge the top sides. It won’t be a surprise if we see more upsets in this year’s FIFA World Cup.
Upsets and Surprises:
Who would have thought the finalists from 2014’s FIFA World Cup would end up losing against teams like Japan and Saudi Arabia in two days’ time!
Saudi Arabia neutralized the Messi effect and won against Argentina with a margin of 2-1. The same story repeated in Japan’s fixture against Germany. Germans took the early lead, but Japan came back clinically to win the match by 2 – 1. Iran beating Wales by 2 – 0 is seen as another surprise.
It would be interesting to see who makes it to the knockout stages of this FIFA World Cup and who misses out.
It has been an exciting first week at the FIFA World Cup. And this probably is the greatest FIFA World Cup of all time.
