Isolated Russia hope football will help mainstream return
Moscow, June 6: An isolated Russia throws open its doors in a week for a World Cup full of glitz and glamour designed to bring in the hosts from the cold.
The month- long celebration of the world’s most popular sport has been haunted by fears over racism and violence as well as diplomatic spats.
But Vladimir Putin has left no stone unturned making sure the biggest — and most controversyladen — event Russia has seen since Moscow’s 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics seduces a sceptical world.
Twelve sparkling stadiums in 11 cities spanning the European portion of the world’s largest country are ready after getting their last licks of paint.
And superstars ranging from Brazil’s Neymar to Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo are all healed up and rearing to fight for the right to hoist the glittering Jules Rimet Trophy on July 15.
Almost every second person on Earth tuned into the last edition of the spectacular in Brazil in
2014.
That tournament saw the hosts suffer a traumatic 7- 1 beating by Germany in the semi- finals that left a nation obsessed by football in shock.
Eventual champions Germany and Brazil again top a list of favourites that also includes Spain and past winners Argentina and France.
Russia’s chances of doing something special are modest.
The hosts are the secondlowest ranked team of the 32 in the final and are riven by internal squabbles and injuries.
Putin counters that Russia will come out tops simply by pulling off the most expensive World Cup ever staged while struggling under the weight of international sanctions.
The West’s penalties are a response to an ever more aggressive foreign policy Putin has pushed in the eight years since securing the hosting rights over England in a vote tainted by bribery charges.
Russia’s problems do not end in the high- brow world of international relations.
The bloody beating English fans got at the hands of nearly 200 Russian thugs at Euro 2016 in France has plagued preparations as much as any dispute with the West.
Yet the world’s focus in the final week before kickoff will not be on politics or Russia’s underworld but things like Neymar’s right foot, Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer’s return from injury and Egypt’s emerging superstar Mohamed Salah recovery from a left shoulder injury. ■