LOCALS JUST LIKE FOOTBALL

DID Qatar recruit paid fans to welcome England to their World Cup HQ? Probably not. The supporters present were small in number and mainly from India where Premier League football is popular and its stars idolised. It is quite possible that genuine fans of the game in England will be attracted to Gareth Southgate’s team and similar shows of affection have been displayed towards Argentina and Brazil by supporters who are plainly not from South America. It happened in Japan 20 years ago when England — and David Beckham (above) in particular — were very popular with the locals. Back then, Japanese fans who bought tickets for the matches were also told what part of the stadium they would be in, and were encouraged to become fans of that team for the day. It was not uncommon to see Japanese fans travelling to the match in the colours of, say, Sweden or Argentina, because it was thought the polite thing to do. It was the same for the Rugby World Cup there — and the Japanese absolutely love the All Blacks almost as much as their own Brave Blossoms. In countries without a history of partisanship around what are basically western sports and competitions, there really is no harm in adoption.

The complication is that so much around this World Cup is viewed with suspicion that a few lads from Kerala who like Harry Kane become the subject of conspiracy theories, rather than the happy embodiment of football’s global appeal.