## 26 Football

Or should I say Soccer ? Certainly not, because it's in the USA, the land of ICE fascist police, of Trump,... I could only watch the matches played in Canada (so few...) and Mexico. I'm not looking at many of them, anyway. Because of the times, late in the night, especially of south american teams...and for African too !! Algerian could watch the matches at 5AM !! Iran couldn't have its full staff there due to US border restrictions. Even a Somali referee was unable to officiate. But of course, that mobster Infantino—a friend of Trump—turns a blind eye to all of this, just as he did with the World Cup in Putin's Russia, or the one in Qatar following construction projects that cost thousands of people their lives. Modern Soccer !

Even in 1978, we had a world cup in the Argentina of Dictatorship ! Many says that the only countries able to host big events will be Dictatorships ... The USA didn't leave much for its co-hosts. and many of the official sponsors are from USA...or China. It's very sad to see USA as a kind of light dictatorship, now. And it's sad to see Football/Soccer run by a mafia-like organization—much like the Olympic Games several years ago, for that matter. But this time, I didn't hear some scandal about refereeing. It was nice to see small countries like Curaçao and especially Cape Verde in that world cup. Many observers forgot Cape Verde's recent run in the Africa Cup of Nations. Of course, there's lot of racism and condescension in Football about African and Asian teams. So I'm not looking at as many matches as I did before. And of course, Trump did some "Trump" with Infantino, pardoning an American player who received a red card. I see so few reports on the areas around the stadiums, the role of the ICE, the sec
urity checks, etc... How was it in Russia or Quatar, last times? I don't remember but at least, there were calls to boycott.

Japan played quite well against Brasil but it wasn't enough. India or China are not playing football a lot. And if football audiences are very successful in Vietnam, the national championship and the national team are weak. I have memories during a travel, about that... In France, it's now forbidden to show too much joy when you are in a poor neighborhood, forbidden to move to the center of a big city to show joy after a victory of the National Football team. I don't know if France will win, but it won't be like 1998 or even 2018. Now everything must be confined in a fan zone, ... COVID style ? And perhaps am I jaded by that game, the cooling breaks (ad breaks) or that stereotypes like holding onto the ball to draw the opponent out of their zone, etc... It's like many sports now, Professionalism has killed freshness and improvisation. Scores are low, with goals often in the last minutes, when players are so tired that they are less focused. And I'm less focused too...Even the side referees are now accessorie
s to show a flag when an AI is telling them a offside.

The final is in more than 1 week. I don't know if I will look at it.

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