World Cup final summed up the mix of good and bad at a memorable tournament
MAYBE it was fitting that a World Cup of such contrasts ended with a final to match.
It has been a tournament to make you veer between loving and hating football with such speed you should probably take medication for it.
It ended with a pop concert to celebrate Donald Trump but most people were there for the underwhelming support act as Spain tried desperately to perform beautiful football whilst sometimes forgetting the idea is to score, and Argentina resorted to every dark act they could to stop them.
Thankfully, good won out, as hopefully it did throughout the tournament.
For so often over the past six weeks, it felt like the good guys were the footballers, the bad guys those supposed to be guarding the game, but who only seemed interested in prostituting it.
The competition was too long, so of course FIFA were talking before it finished about making the next one even longer.
Fortunately, some of the world's best players came to the party in the best golden boot race the World Cup has ever known.
But to put it politely, Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Erling Haaland have perfected the art of conserving energy in club football. Jude Bellingham, England's star player, only started one game before mid-October due to shoulder surgery, and none from early February to mid-April when Real Madrid's schedule was at its most hectic.
Even so, he and Harry Kane were looking tired by the end; Declan Rice was running on fumes from the start. Yamine Lamal, his 19-year-old body being pushed through far too much by not just FIFA but UEFA in a money grab disguised as a political war where footballers are collateral damage, never showed his quality.
The World Cup did mean new faces, and Cape Verde were the only side Spain and Argentina were unable to beat before the final. With 40-year-old goalkeeper Vozinha winning global fame, they made it to the knockouts, albeit without winning a game. Uruguay were the only heavyweights not in the last 32. The group stage was much ado about nothing.
Still, there was some wonderful knockout games – France versus Spain really was the final before the final it was dubbed as and Messi's minimalist virtuosity was a joy to witness. Argentina and England played some thrillers won by worker bees doing their utmost to allow the stars to twinkle.
England's all-nighter against Mexico was one of the great shared experiences. We certainly had some fun along the way.
But it was hard to get away from FIFA consistently dragging this tournament down, cravenly selling out to placate an American president who only deigned to turn up for one game, and even then tried to hog the limelight at the trophy presentation.
The secretive ticket prices were disgusting, and FIFA appointing themselves ticket touts in chief – scalping 15 per cent off the buyer, 15 per cent off the seller – left a taste of vomit in the mouth.
Their protestations that the $9bn they are expected to make will be spread amongst the footballing family missed the point – $8bn and a tournament accessible to proper fans not the celebrities television directors seemed obsessed with showing us would surely have been better.
That FIFA could not even get the concession of a visa for one of their best referees, never mind the way the Iran squad was abused, reflected badly on an organisation so rich yet so unwilling to use their power.
Instead they imposed advert breaks disguised as player welfare measures in air-conditioned stadia, and relegated and Americanised the football with a half-time that lasted over 27 minutes.
Excusing Cristiano Ronaldo two matches of a ban which would have kept him out of the first two matches (and ironically helped Portugal) opened the door to conspiracy theories galore. Letting Trump, who admitted he did not know what a red card was, effectively veto Folarin Bologun's ban – but not his dismissal – stank.
So when Argentina reached the final with the most fouls and fewest cards, when only four minutes were added to the second half of the final they wanted over as quickly as possible despite a three-minute hydration break, three batches of substitutions and a stop-start game; then five were added to second-half extra-time as they searched for an equaliser, you could not help but wonder.
When an entirely Argentinian officiating team was appointed for France's quarter-final, it felt like FIFA were goading us.
As Argentina fouled their way through the final, threw punches at the final whistle and turned their backs on the trophy presentation it showed they were as utterly devoid of class as Gianni Infantino.
So there was much to despise, much to rake over when FIFA's delegates reflect on the tournament. They will only remember the good things. At least we had them.