The FIFA World Cup: Controversies and moments, Part 5

Jong Tae-Se and An Yong-Hak flew to Japan, where they were born and played football. According to a report in Radio Free Asia, the rest of the squad was summoned to an auditorium. They were called on stage and subjected to an excruciating six-hour session of verbal barrage in front of hundreds of “athletes, officials, and students”.

The ordeal did not end there. The players were then forced to criticise their coach, Kim Jong-hun, in public. Kim Jong-hun was sacked, removed from the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, and sent to work in a construction site without pay. There has been virtually no update on his whereabouts since then.

2014: A bite of disgrace

The 2014 edition in Brazil had its share of controversies, but nothing matched Uruguayan Luis Suárez’s assault on Italian Giorgio Chiellini in a Group D match that both sides needed to win to qualify. If Zinedine Zidane’s headbutt of the 2006 final was disgraceful, Suárez’s attack was nothing less than macabre.

In the 79th minute, while waiting for a cross, Suárez launched into Chiellini and fell on the ground, holding his face. Marco Rodríguez, the Mexican referee, did not signal a foul. As the Italians protested, Uruguay earned a corner, Diego Godín scored the only goal of the match, and Uruguay qualified at Italy’s expense.

The result remained unaltered, but FIFA launched an inquiry on the day after the match. Video footage from 34 cameras revealed that Suárez had bitten Chiellini on the left shoulder. A repeat offender, Suárez had bitten Otman Bakkal and Branislav Ivanović before, earning a combined ban of 17 matches.

Suárez’s justification made the entire thing more ridiculous: “I lost my balance, making my body unstable and falling on top of my opponent. At that moment I hit my face against him, leaving a small bruise on my cheek and a strong pain in my teeth.”

FIFA banned him for nine international matches (the longest in World Cup history) and four months from all football, and fined him CHF 100,000 (around Rs 83 lakh now). He received support back home, but tweeted an apology to Chiellini six days after the incident.

2018: Unfair fair play

Ahead of the final matches in Group H of the 2018 edition, in Russia, Japan and Senegal led the points table with four points apiece. They had also scored and conceded three goals each. A point behind them was Colombia, on three points, but with a goal difference of 4-2. With no point, two goals for, and four against, Poland were virtually out of the race.

The last two matches — Japan versus Poland at Volgograd, Senegal versus Colombia at Samara — began simultaneously. Jan Bednarek put Poland ahead in the 59th minute, but when Yerry Mina scored for Colombia, Japan and Senegal were on a par again.

At this point, Colombia seemed likely to qualify, and the probability of Japan and Senegal finishing with the same points as well as goal difference seemed realistic. According to the playing conditions, in case of such ties, the team with a superior fair play record in the tournament would qualify.

Senegal had five yellow cards against them until the final match, two more than Japan’s count. In the last round, M’Baye Niang of Senegal and Tomoaki Makino of Japan had been booked. This meant that if no more goals were scored, all Japan needed to avoid were one red or two yellow cards.

Japan switched to defensive mode. They substituted centre-forward Yoshinori Muto, not with another forward but with midfielder Makoto Hasebe. Over the last 10 minutes, they kept the ball in their own half, passing among themselves amid boos and jeers. Poland did not complain, for they were winning their only match of the tournament, and had no stake otherwise.

Of course, this involved risk, for a Senegal goal would have eliminated Japan. But that did not happen. While Japan’s qualification was perfectly legal, FIFA’s decision to implement fair play as qualification criterion fell flat on its face.

2022: Sportswash

There was outrage soon after Qatar was awarded the hosting rights for the 2022 World Cup. The workers employed to build the stadia and other infrastructure were subjected to — to quote a CNN report from 2013 — slavery.

In a report later that year, Amnesty International reported that 90 per cent migrant workers in Qatar had their passports temporarily confiscated by their employees, while 56 per cent did not hold government health cards, “essential to access public hospitals”. Many had their salaries denied and worker ID permits withheld.

The Qatari government promised to reform the system, but in 2019, another Amnesty report mentioned recurrence of abuse. In 2021, The Guardian reported the possible death of 6,500 migrant workers — all from the Indian subcontinent — since FIFA announced Qatar as hosts.

On 28 September 2022, Denmark revealed their now-famous kit for the World Cup. They deliberately toned down the logo and design.

Despite everything, the World Cup is likely to go ahead as scheduled. Qatar has been accused of ‘sportswashing’ — using sport to improve their image — before, even in football. Qatar Airways sponsor, among other clubs, FC Barcelona, AS Roma, Boca Juniors, Paris Saint-Germain, and Bayern Munch, but all that pales in front of them hosting the FIFA World Cup.