Davies Injury Illustrates Insanity Of November World Cup In Desert

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Update: Former FIFA boss Sepp Blatter tells the soccer media that the selection of Qatar as host for 2022 Men’s World Cup “was a mistake”.

Canada’s hopes in the 2022 FIFA World Cup were always modest, at best. So imagine the collective throw-up-in-the-mouth for Canadian fans of the sport, high on their first WC since 1986, when the news came that their star Alphonso Davies has injured his hamstring playing for Bayern Munich. 

It's still early days in the diagnosis/ rehab for Davies as the tournament kicks off on the twentieth of this month. But anyone who knows this type of injury will tell you that, while he’s reportedly ready when Canada meets powerful Belgium on Nov. 23, he’ll be restricted. In a sport that demands powerful acceleration and sudden stops, a torn hammy is the worst possible injury. 

With Davies, Canada’s chances of escaping its Group were tenuous. Without a healthy Davies Canada’s chances of progressing are slim and none. And Slim just rode out of Qatar on a camel.

Which is a shame. The sudden elevation of Canada in FIFA has been nothing short of remarkable. Back in 2018, Canada’s men were ranked 122nd out of 207 teams. That put them in the strata of Niger and Liberia. Now they face the world’s No, 2 (Belgium) , No. 16 (Croatia) and No. 24 (Morocco) in the Group of Debt. But this injury imperils that optimism. 

Davies was in an unwinnable bind. His loyalty to might Bayern required that he not coast into the tournament. But his passion for wearing the maple leaf also demanded he do nothing that might jeopardize his performance as Canada gets back into the big time. 

He’s not alone. Players around the globe are in the same bind. With just one more week of league play no one wants to do anything to risk his performance on the biggest stage in sport. With Champions League and regular Premiership or Bundesliga games allowing no let-up even if it means missing a trip to Qatar.

Speaking of Qatar, let us be the umpteen millionth person to ask FIFA, WTF? A tournament in the desert in the midst of the regular season for almost all the major leagues from the Premiership to La Liga? Is there some unanswered market demand from the 2.6 million subjects of Taman bin Hamas Al Thani? Are there not other regions that deserve the honour more? 

You know the answer. It’s so the suits at FIFA HQ in Zurich can say there has been a World Cup in an Arab nation. If you wanted to advertise your complete corruption and adherence to the gods of ESG management, you could not have done a better job than wrenching your prime product from its exclusive summer slot to late November in exchange for a boatload of sand and petro dollars. 

While creating a timeframe that threatens the health of the game’s mega-stars with no down time before clubs play in Doha. If unavailable Davies will join Paul Pogba and N’Golo Kante (France), Georginio Wijnaldum (Holland), Timo Werner (Germany), Paulo Dybala (Argentina) and others as out for the tournament with injuries.

But, in a media culture that genuflects to the one-world fantasies of Klaus Schwab, organizations such as FIFA and the IOC feel obliged to put ESG points ahead of the health of their brand. And they’re not shy about charging for the honour of staging their soccer shindig in the home of Al Jazeera and there third-largest reserve off natural gas in the world.

If Qatar doesn’t tarnish the brand too much. Canada, Mexico and the U.S. will be the next hosts in 2026— in the regular summer slot.  As we wrote in April : Just how expensive will it be for a Canadian city to host some of the 10 preliminary-round games assigned by FIFA? 

Chris Selley of The National Post has a few numbers. “Toronto Mayor John Tory’s Executive Committee adopted a staff proposal to forge ahead with the city’s bid to host a maximum of five preliminary-round games. The projected cost? Ahem: $290 million, with the city picking up around $90 million and other levels of government the rest. For five soccer games.”

Among the costs of doing FIFA business: “– $64 million for upgrades to BMO Field that it would not otherwise need, notably an expansion to 45,000 seats.

– $41 million for training sites of a calibre that the city does not otherwise need.

– $32 million to run the stadium for the five games. FIFA keeps the ticket revenues.

– $40 million for safety and security.

– $17 million to operate the FIFA-mandated “FanFest,” in a city that turns itself into a World Cup FanFest all on its own every four years.

– $42 million booked under “contingency, inflation, tax.”

Hands up everyone in Edmonton and Vancouver who think their cities can afford this kind of chump change for the glory of having the world’s attention for a couple of hours? The sentiment about hosting these mega-projects in Canadian cities was summed up when Calgarians soundly rejected a bid to host the 2026 Winter Olympic Games.”

Will others follow the example and tell FIFA where to put it it? As long as there are plutocrats like Putin and ba-jillionaire oil sheiks don’t count on it. And don’t expect endangering the careers of superstars to lower the asking price for future World Cups.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster (http://www.notthepublicbroadcaster.com). A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, he’s a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft YearsIn NHL History, , his new book with his son Evan, was voted the eighth best professional hockey book of by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted seventh best, and is available via http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx