The 2022 World Cup has been as bad as advertised. On the pitch, off the pitch and in the stands, it is hard to find one positive thing to say about the tournament. Hell, are we sure this is actually the World Cup? It has the same feel of a FIFA Confederations Cup.
And by that, I mean the 2022 World Cup doesn’t feel like the single most important soccer event. Not even close. There are, of course, several reasons for that. For starters, no amount of marketing has changed the reality this is an awful time of year to be playing it. There is so much competition that games continue to get lost in the shuffle.
What’s worse is the fact teams were clearly unprepared heading into November. Instead of having a month to get ready, sides had to cobble together some friendlies around the club calendar before getting a few training sessions in before games kicked off. Sloppy doesn’t even begin to describe the play.
This takes away from those so-called upsets which FIFA loves to promote. No country throughout the tournament has looked to be remotely at their best. Most games are seemingly determined by a random bit of luck more than anything else.
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The action on the pitch has been greeted by indifference in the stands as nearly every matchup has numerous visible empty seats. Even the most passionate fanbases seem to be forcing themselves to care about the 2022 World Cup. A lot of people are still salty about European leagues being interrupted.
And then there is Qatar being a crappy host country. The human rights abuse. The anti-LGBTQ antics. The beer sales controversy. This entire thing has felt like a joke. You keep waiting for Ashton Kutcher to come out and reveal this is actually an episode of Punk’d.
Instead, the 2022 World Cup will be the one we all forget. A blip in soccer history that no one cares to recall. Only FIFA is incompetent enough to ruin something everyone across the globe loves.
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