One of my other great passions besides travel is sport.  There’s no greater sporting spectacle this summer than the World Cup being hosted in the United States, Canada and Mexico. I was lucky enough to attend the 2006 World Cup and found host Germany to be welcoming and festive – an ongoing party for the two weeks I was there. 

When we arrived, it was rare to see a German flag flying from a window. During the two weeks we were there, the German people became more open to showing national pride in a positive manner which was fantastic to see develop. They were warm and welcoming. 

The United States of the past year and a half has been anything but warm and welcoming from a governmental policy and a news headline standpoint. FIFA, the World Cup organizer, has become an even more distasteful organization under the leadership of Gianni Infantino. Whereas the corruption and greed under his predecessor was “behind the curtain,” the corruption and greed under Gianni is out front and celebrated. 

FIFA has embraced “dynamic pricing” of tickets, the scourge that Ticketmaster inflicted upon the US. This is a cute term for price gouging, and representative of capitalism’s worst unchecked impulses. FIFA, as an organizer, has refused to share their largesse with the local organizing committees resulting in the $98 train rides in NJ and an otherwise lack of convenient methods of getting to the stadium. Even parking is dynamically-priced, anywhere from $75 to $250 in parking lots that are usually $50 or under.  FIFA even enacted an NFT-style scheme to entice fans to gain priority access to tickets. Anything to extract a dollar from fans who love the sport. Truly “late-stage” capitalism at its worst. 

I wasn’t as excited going into this World Cup as I ordinarily should have been. Especially after the jingoism of the Milan Olympic ice hockey, I was kind of dreading this tournament.

Thankfully, the people have made this a memorable World Cup a little over one week in. Visitors arriving in the United States are finding that the Americans they meet in person are far different from the ones they see in the political headlines. From the “Scottish takeover” of Boston to the people of Lawrence, Kansas embracing the Algerian team which chose to base themselves in the town, the stories show from a “people-to-people” basis, we’re all here to learn about each other and enjoy our time together. I’ve added a couple videos of positive fan interactions below, and I’ll add to this post as I find more.

I’ll be going to two games here at home in Miami over the next week.  Unlike my expectation even a month ago and despite FIFA’s worst efforts, I’m truly excited for the experience ⚽️🏟️