Infantino fetes ‘the best ever’ edition
Fifa president says preconceived notions of the country had been changed by positive experiences
>> MOSCOW: Fifa president Gianni Infantino celebrated what he described as the “best World Cup” ever yesterday, thanks to the quality of football and organisation in Russia.
“I was saying this would be the best World Cup ever, today I can say it with more conviction... it is the best World Cup,” Infantino told reporters in Moscow ahead of tomorrow’s final between France and Croatia.
Infantino told Russian President Vladimir Putin in a meeting at the Kremlin last week that the world “fell in love with Russia,” over the past four weeks.
And Infantino said preconceived notions of the country had been changed by the positive experiences of more than one million fans who had visited.
“A lot of preconceived ideas have changed thanks to this World Cup,” said Infantino.
“Everyone has discovered a beautiful country, a welcoming country, full of people keen to show to the world what maybe sometimes is said is not what happens here.”
Fifa has reported no doping cases from almost 4,000 samples taken since January in a testing programme for the World Cup finals.
The last World Cup doping case involved Argentina great Diego Maradona at the 1994 tournament in the United States.
The 2018 testing programme includes 626 samples taken during the competition, including two players from each squad drawn to give samples after games. A total of 108 of the samples were collected on nonmatch days.
Some players from the four teams still playing in Russia have been tested eight times this year, football’s world body said.
Peru captain Paolo Guerrero almost missed the World Cup because of a doping suspension imposed in November after he failed a test during South American qualifying. He blamed his doping test failure on a tainted cup of tea at a Lima hotel. Helped by the captains of France, Australia and Denmark, Peru’s group rivals in Russia, Guerrero campaigned to have the suspension lifted for the tournament.
Results included one positive test explained by the player having an approved medical exemption, Fifa says. Three more tests were “atypical findings’’ judged not to be positive tests.
World Cup-related doping tests since January have been analysed at the World Anti-Doping Agencyaccredited laboratory in Lausanne, Switzerland. Russia is still not authorised by Wada since a state-backed doping programme was exposed after the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
Fifa also barred Russian staff from working in the collection and testing process.
Meanwhile, Brazilian women’s football superstar Marta Vieira da Silva has been appointed a goodwill ambassador by UN Women, which said she would use her fame to promote gender equality and tackle stereotypes, especially in sport, amid World Cup mania.
Sport can be a key and often untapped way to empower girls and women, although they are underrepresented and underpaid compared with men, the UN agency said in its announcement.
The appointment of the player — known widely as Marta — comes amid worldwide fervor for football, with the final of the World Cup to be played tomorrow between France and Croatia.
Known in Brazil as “Pele in a skirt” in a reference to the soccer icon, Marta is the all-time top scorer of the Fifa Women’s World Cup, and was a member of the Brazilian teams that won silver medals at the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympic Games.
Now 32, she plays for The Orlando Pride in the National Women’s Soccer League in the United States.
“Sport is a universal language; it inspires and unites us as it stretches our limits,” UN Women executive director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said in a statement.
“We look forward to working closely with Marta to bring the transforming power of sport to more women and girls, and to rapidly building equality.”