We can only hope beautiful game triumphs

THE Fifa World Cup started yesterday and honestly, nobody knows what the outcome will be. That is true of both on-field action and off-the-pitch concerns.

Brazil are the favourites to win the trophy, with great South American rivals Argentina also considered a good bet.

Defending champions France and former champions Spain, Germany, and surprisingly England, are also on the list of the bookies’ favourites.

Though the numbers insist on these nations, in black and white it is arguably not so clear cut.

Several of these nations have injury and form concerns as they begin their quest for glory, and it makes this World Cup one of the most open championships in living memory.

Off the pitch, meanwhile, concerns are far more complex.

Team protests are expected, and the highlighting of various human rights violations anticipated.

Australia has already sent a list of demands; Denmark, Germany and England are planning to express their beliefs with subtle demonstrations, while France is boycotting showing any matches in public spaces in that country.

The weekend of the World Cup – a string of days that should be a celebration before the biggest sporting event in the world – started on a tempestuous note with Fifa president Gianni Infantino going on a bit of a rant on Friday.

He accused Qatar’s critics of hypocrisy, decreeing that before Europe and the rest of the world cast a stone, they should account for “3 000 years” of their own failings. To a certain extent, Infantino is correct.

No nation that has ever hosted the World Cup can say that they do not have blood on their hands, or that in the past they have not wronged another nation, society, culture, religion or language.

But then, as the old saying goes, two wrongs don’t make a right and his argument is a false equivalency that has no bearing on the present narrative and reality of the world.

In any event, this World Cup is set to bring much fractured discourse, and whether it has any meaningful outcome remains to be seen.

We can only hope that football speaks for itself.