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Russia’s 2018 World Cup Runneth Over

Be careful what you wish for.

Russia is celebrating. And, being English, our first thought should be to congratulate them.

Our second should be to wonder whether they have succeeded in shafting themselves.

Ditto the Qataris.

Because football, like life, is full of unforeseen consequences.

Russia had every right to win the right to host the 2018 World Cup finals.

Its presentation fell as flat as the Ural Steppe.

As Family Affairs noted yesterday, the English presentation was, by contrast, a master class in pitching for business.

It was neatly summed up in the faces of the rival bids. Where England had the beatific David Beckham, the Russian bid relied on the aqualine Andre Arshavin; all pinched mouth and o’erhanging brow.

But the Russians were armed with one killer statistic. Ten world cups have been won in western Europe and none have been played for in the East.

Fair play demands that Sepp Blatter should go east old man.

Similarly, Mr Blatter, whose conversion to the Orient extends to his shocking conclusion that football was “invented by the Chinese”, is right to drive the game past new frontiers.

Many naysayers debunked his zeal for a world cup in Africa. And yet the South African bid turned into a triumph. It may yet prove to be a major milestone in the development of the entire continent.

And so Russia must deliver. The English – many of whom are indulging in the (healthy) pastime of whingeing even as others are indulging in conspiracy theorising (unhealthy) – doubt whether the Russian bidding process was transparent.

Well, now the Russians must submit themselves to some serious scrutiny. Putin and Co have invited the world’s news spotlight into their backyard. The global media will train their eyes on the 2018 finals like a laser beam; and wo-betide the Russians if they cannot show they abide by the rule of law.

If their police start treating fans to some Bolshevik-era hospitality; if their ticket touts start treating fans like mafia cash cows: then Russia’s ambitions to be seen as a freedom-loving society will be trashed.

Likewise, Qatar faces the same looming attention. And, in a sense, it represents the more important destination for the world’s greatest tournament.

Russia is a dwindling power. The Arab gulf is an emerging power, but one facing serious questions about the kind of society it wants.

At a cultural level it is repressed. Whenever I’ve driven in Arab countries, it has struck me that there must an inverse relationship between the repression of the state and the desire of its people to find any outlet for vice. It often manifests itself in some of the world’s worst driving. Perhaps the world cup, with its influx of fun-loving, drum-beating fans, will help make the Gulf a less sclerotic place.

Anyway, I digress.

Qatar will, like Russia, have to submit herself to a level of scrutiny hitherto thought unthinkable.

If either country denies access to camera crews from Panorama they will have failed the test.