Rattling through sunny Fife on the train towards Tynecastle yesterday, the carriage was abuzz with chat from a splendid group of young Inverness Caley Thistle supporters on the way to their side’s tussle with Kelty Hearts.
Over the mid-morning lagers, they’d struck up a conversation with some Newcastle fans across the aisle. Each around 20 or so, they’d saved up their dough and booked their travel to follow Scotland at the World Cup in the summer.
The air was electrified by talk of hotels in New York, four-hour trips to the Gillette Stadium in Foxborough for the games with Haiti and Morocco, flights to Miami for Brazil. ‘You never know if this is going to come round again,’ said one of the boys, ‘so you’ve got to make the most of it.’
God knows how much it must have cost them, but, by Jove, their lust for life fairly lifted the soul of this middle-aged eavesdropper who can still enter a transcendental state when recalling the rite of passage that was putting himself through the wringer physically and mentally while following the national team round their last World Cup in France 28 years ago.
What japes await these young blades. What adventures. What cavalcades of human interaction. What a disgrace it is, then, that, just three months out from the trip of these guys’ lives, the whole tournament remains badly clouded by security concerns, shameless profiteering and real doubts over whether those games in Foxborough are going to go ahead there at all.
Reports of hotels ramping up prices in host venues are rife. FIFA’s official ticket resale site allows sellers to demand way over face value — with football’s governing body taking a percentage cut and their ghastly president Gianni Infantino arguing there’s nothing he can do about it.
Scotland fans will make the most of this year’s World Cup but are sure to face frustrations
Every week seems to bring another problem. Not so long ago, the town hall in Foxborough refused to grant a licence for games to go ahead until they have received their share of special funding currently stuck in a bank account somewhere because of a partial federal government shutdown.
Then, earlier this week, Ray Martinez, chief operating officer of the Miami Host Committee, warned that, unless his team get $70m by the end of March, it could have ‘catastrophic’ knock-on effects for planning and coordination.
He says the Brazil game will definitely go ahead, but has warned that fan festivals and other special events are in danger of being scrapped. Over in Kansas City, the deputy chief of police has insisted he doesn’t have the staff to cover local security needs.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security, put together a grant programme for host cities worth $900m to protect attendees, venues and infrastructure and, as they put it, strengthen them ‘against potential terrorist attacks’. Worryingly, that hasn’t come through as yet.
Sure, you’d bet your bottom dollar on those boys on that train yesterday having a ball no matter what happens. That’s not the point, though.
Gianni Infantino is laughing all the way to the bank while world football fans suffer under him
Fans from all over the globe are paying top-dollar to follow their sides round North America. Those heading for Guadalajara have had news bulletins all week about drug cartel violence. Elsewhere, concerns over security remain top of the agenda. That’s before we even get into spiralling ticket costs and fixtures not even guaranteed to go ahead in venues which fans have already booked expensive transport to.
Going to a World Cup should be a glorious experience. It shouldn’t involve people spending thousands still unsure of what awaits them, what hoops they’ll have to jump through, which obstacles they will have to negotiate when they get there.
Right now, this tournament is in danger of becoming a bad joke and, given the costs incumbent in supporting it along with everything it means to those committed to going, that’s completely unacceptable.
