A Messi legacy

IT WAS A reminder that football is a beautiful game. Yet, it also confirmed ugly realities.

Sunday’s FIFA World Cup final in Qatar between Argentina and France was always going to be a memorable match. Looking at both teams on paper, pundits were justified in their hopes for fireworks.

In the end we got the greatest World Cup final in a generation.

Qatar is to be congratulated for hosting, without major incident, a successful event.

It was a good thing, too, to have a tournament in the Middle East, away from Europe and the “global north” which are the traditional centres of much global sporting action.

It is fitting that the way things played out on the field out-mirrored this narrative of the triumph of the underdog.

Morocco became the first Arab and African country to reach the semi-finals. Asian teams like Japan also proved themselves forces to be reckoned with.

But the success of the tournament, the excitement generated by its matches, the classic goals scored, the comebacks and thrilling roller coaster rides were not due to the actions of administrators or politicians or sponsors.

The people who have most contributed to this outcome are the footballers.

Lionel Messi finally reached the summit of world football, in his fifth attempt, and can now rest assured of his place in football history.

In a match that largely looked to be a one-sided affair, it was the heroic effort of Kylian Mbappe that kept France’s hopes alive for so long, right until the bitter end.

Mr Messi is arguably football’s past, and Mr Mbappe its future.

The comments of local politician and former FIFA official Jack Warner, however, prove the dangers of how the industry of sportsmen can play into a "sportswashing" narrative in which all that matters is sensation and not substance.

Mr Warner sees the tournament in Qatar as something of a vindication given its glittering surface. He does not appear to have shared the concerns of so many about hundreds of deaths of workers tied to tournament projects, or Qatar’s poor record on human rights or its draconian anti-gay laws.

The decades-old cloud that has been hanging over FIFA has, from this kind of vantage point, evaporated.

But that cloud, and questions about procurement practices, remain.

Indeed, it should not be for any single official to design where they would wish the tournament to be held. It should be for the organisation as a whole, regulated by transparent and fair rules.

The story told by Mr Mbappe’s father, who once wanted his son to play for Cameroon, of being asked for a “payment” is a reminder that despite its glorious moments, there is still a need to clean up the sport.