By Anesu Chakanetsa
THE quadrennial World Cup finally kicked off on Sunday.
It has not been a smooth road for the hosts Qatar to finally get to this day where the Western media, like always, has been making noise over so-called abuse of ‘human rights’ in Qatar.
The World Cup in Qatar has been so dark-crayoned that many fans chose not to travel to enjoy the greatest soccer showpiece.
The fact that Qatari banned beer and prostitution in stadia really worked up the highly permissive West that will condone any act no matter how vile certain actions may be to the sensibilities of other people.
The Western media wrote and are frothing how this will be the worst World Cup ever.
To make matters worse, the then Federation de Internacional Futebol Associations (FIFA) president Sepp Blatter came out from the dungeons saying he made a mistake awarding the World Cup to Qatar.
“The choice of Qatar was a mistake. Football and the World Cup are too big for the country. I was responsible for it at the time as President of FIFA. After Russia, the World Cup would have gone to the USA,” he told the media, Western media to be precise.
The supposed awarding of the World Cup to the USA after Russia was ultimately a political move to pacify the vendetta between Russia and the United States. Yes, a political move.
But FIFA, as a federation, says it is apolitical!
But just the opening ceremony in the Al Bayt Stadium in Doha extinguished the thoughts in most fans’ minds about the picture that had been painted on Qatar by Blatter and others.
It was electrifying and points to an epic tournament.
And the stadia that has been built over the 12 years speaks volumes to the greatness of the Qatari organisation.
Only FIFA has to make its house proper.
It still reserves only five slots for Africa, whereas Africa has large veto powers in terms of decision making and voting.
Where is the unity of the land?
Why five slots for a continent with 50 plus FIFA members and a plethora of players dominating the international league?
How is Africa expected to excel in these circumstances? Yet, it has the largest fraction (more than 50 members) in terms of influencing FIFA politics.
Worse still, is the fact that the continent continues to be destabilised financially and geographically, where Africans, especially in the West, get brainwashed and choose to represent European countries.
The best, like during the slave trade era some 500 years ago, are chosen to represent France, Germany, England etc during the World Cup.
And there are some who thought they would make it into these European teams but were not chosen.
Even Jose Mourinho, on Social media had sentiments on people like Tammy Abraham, who would have saved Nigeria rather than England from the start.
“Gareth Southgate says Tammy Abraham hit a poor goal scoring form at the wrong time?… What a childish excuse… He must just come out straight and say Tammy is not his favorite color. Because Philips played only 56 minutes and he was selected. If I am Tammy, I am going straight to FIFA to file a complaint that my international career has been sabotaged by another country, therefore I need a clearance to go represent my rightful country which is Nigeria. That’s my suggestion to him. Hate me, you already do,” he said.
A lot more bi-citizen players suffered the same fate before, for example Willfried Zaha who now plays for Cote D’vore.
Inaki Williams, who spent years in Spain hoping to get a call up by the Spanish, has been included in the Ghana squad, lucky for him.
The European will only take the best, to get fame for their own countries.
They built their cities with mahogany and steel from Zimbabwe.
They are making money with sweat and power of Africans.
They steal patents from Africans.
They still take the best from Africa and under develop it through chicanery means and nefarious agendas like sanctions.
And they do not want Africa to win the World Cup.
Meanwhile, drama is already unfolding in the so-called low key World Cup, much to the disgust of Sepp Blatter and his cohorts.
The host, Qatar, became the first hosts to be defeated in the history of the tournament.
More history was made when Jubilant Saudi football fans celebrating deep into the night on Tuesday rested easy with a lie-in a day after, after authorities in Riydh declared a national holiday to mark a shock World Cup victory.
The Green Falcons’ 2-1 win over Argentina, one of the world’s top-ranked teams, is among the biggest shock results in the history of the tournament.
“This is football. Sometimes things are completely crazy,” Saudi Arabia coach Hervé Renard said. “All the stars aligned for us,” added Renard, who won the African Cup of Nations as coach of Zambia in 2012 and then repeated the feat with Ivory Coast in 2015.
In Saudi Arabia, King Salman announced a snap public holiday for workers in the public and private sectors, as well as students in the kingdom, in celebration of the win.
The announcement follows a similar move by Cameroon during the 1990 World Cup in Italy, when the unfancied African team beat Argentina and also declared a public holiday the following day.
Senegal played a solid game against the Netherlands only to lose focus in the last 10 minutes of the game.
Tunisia salvaged a point against the high fancies dark horses Denmark.
And more drama is to be expected during the World Cup..
Watch out …..
Qatar is not small as the Western media preached.