As the World Cup kicked off in Mexico City, the BBC launched a no-spoiler page at bbc.co.uk/nospoilers, allowing fans to watch highlights on iPlayer without knowing the result. The page provides a direct link to World Cup highlights for every match, promising to withhold the winner or final score — though a seven-goal thriller might give the game away.
But behind the kaleidoscopic opening ceremony, the tournament was already mired in tensions. Kevin Garside, the i’s chief sports correspondent, watched the spectacle with “not a straight face”, dismissing the MC’s claim that football unites all as “tosh”. He noted that FIFA president Gianni Infantino had described Donald Trump as “the man who made this tournament possible”, though Trump was mercifully absent from Mexico City.
“BBC launches no-spoiler World Cup page as political tensions overshadow the opening ceremony.”
The week before kick-off, Ian Wright cut through the froth from Brooklyn. “Spirit of the game? They have no idea about that here,” Wright said. “Keep politics out of sport? Do me a favour.”
Garside reported that Omar Artan, Somalia’s African referee of the year, was denied entry to the United States. Iraq’s Ayman Hussein was detained for seven hours before being allowed in, while the team’s official photographer, Talal Salah, was searched, interrogated and “sent packing”. The Iranian footballers, subject to a military campaign by the hosts, were allowed into the US only on match days. Senegal’s team was processed by officials on the tarmac in North Carolina.
“It appears this overbearing scrutiny of teams and officials from remote places will be a defining feature of Trumpland,” Garside wrote. FIFA, he added, has projected a $9bn (£7m) windfall from a tournament “racked with tensions and distrust, overly policed, overtly politicised, eco hostile, brazenly monetized”.
The opening ceremony, featuring Shakira floating across the pitch singing of love and peace, offered no respite. “The very idea of participation must feel grotesque,” Garside said of the Iranian players watching on.