Qatar 2022 ended with the coronation of Argentina, a team that did not start the competition as big favourites. But we were not unaware that his experience and the individual genius of his pawns, in particular that of his playing master Lionel Messi, could make the difference at any time. The difference has been made. Well-deserved coronation!
France was even less of a favorite than Argentina. We did not expect it at all at this level of the World Cup. Already under the influence of what we ended up admitting as a curse - for a few years the holder of the trophy has been eliminated in the first round at the following World Cup - the French team did not have a top squad either, but it had the right to dream. It dreamed big. Its journey - despite the absence of some executives from the workforce, some of whom were part of the Russian epic four years ago - has presented us with a young generation ready to impress us in the years to come. You have to water it and make it grow.
All in all, Qatar 2022 was a great success. The Emirate has kept its bet. The competition offered us big surprises, breathtaking twists. We vibrated almost a full month. The final was a magnificent apotheosis with a Lionel Messi-Kylian Mbappé duel at the top that looked like a handover between a luminary and a future luminary. May their club partnership be strengthened!
I will not say like Gianni Infantino, the President of FIFA, that it is the best world ever organized. It is, nevertheless, one of the most beautiful in my eyes, without wishing to pass a line on the enormous human and environmental cost that it generated, and in spite of the incidents relating to politico-cultural incompatibilities for the damn of the world having stayed on Qatari soil during the last four weeks.
We will no longer dwell on the period of the competition - November-December, in the middle of the sports season - and the harmful consequences of various kinds that this unusual programming has induced for the players. May FIFA deign not to reproduce the exception for us! And that it works, moreover, to solve the anomalies around the VAR. If, despite the refereeing by video assistance introduced in football to help men make fair decisions, injustice persists or even reigns supreme, it will seem wise to return to our old habits. I force myself to write it because the VAR is not in itself a bad inspiration. But then, it is imperative to review its operationalization and to clean up its operation for a truly fair arbitration by the next World Cup.
In 2026, the global football party will set up its headquarters in the Americas, in Canada, the United States and Mexico. The challenge for the African continent will be to go further than fourth place in the tournament. All our representatives must aim to do more than Morocco, including Morocco itself. We will have to score goals and every goal we score will have to be protected with all our strength so that it is what it should be: the decisive element in our ascent to the crowning glory. This is how we will stop celebrating our goals by crudely imitating Messi or Ronaldo, for totally anecdotal victories. We are better.
At the next World Cup, in three and a half years, forty-eight nations will be in the running, nine of which will come from Africa, four more than our current quota. This does not mean that we automatically have more chances of achieving this. We must start the major works today. Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock...
By Deo Gratias Kindoho
