Drug Use. Corruption. Scandal. There’s an Ugly Side to the Beautiful Game.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/06/opinion/drug-use-corruption-scandal-world-cup.html

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Musa Okwonga, a poet, activist and author of two books on football, answered questions on Reddit this week about the off-the-pitch issues around the World Cup and some of the most exciting matches. Mr. Okwonga is no novice. His ties to the beautiful game started generations before his birth in England, when his grandfather coached the Ugandan national team.

The Reddit conversation, ranging from doping to inequality, was punctuated by his friends’ inside jokes about frozen beans and wedding poetry. Mr. Okwonga, who lives in Germany, used the Reddit forum to expand upon the writing he has done for our newsletter, Offsides.

The following conversations have been condensed and lightly edited. Read the full Reddit AMA here.

Q. What’s the most interesting development you’ve observed off the field? Are there countries that are more emotionally devastated by a loss than others?

I think the lack of public protest by local activists has been really interesting. At the last World Cup you saw a lot more people on the streets, but several groups have taken the view not to use the World Cup as a platform for their campaigns. I gather they’ve largely done that for reasons of personal safety.

As for devastation, I think this will hit Argentina very hard, as football is such a source of prestige for them. There’s an excellent article by The Independent’s Ed Malyon (he’s on Twitter at @eaamalyon) that examines these issues at length.

Q. I saw your article on doping in football. How common do you think it actually is in big tournaments such as the World Cup? Any teams in particular that you think for sure are? Also, what’s been your favorite match so far?

I loved France versus Argentina for so many reasons: the ascendancy of Mbappé, the sheer guts of Argentina, the resilience of the French, the composed and understated excellence of Pogba. I don’t want to get myself in legal trouble in relation to doping. I don’t know what it’s like at this World Cup, but what I will say is that among my football-writing peers, it has been a persistent subject of conversation for years. One friend of mine was so disillusioned with his findings about doping in the elite levels of the game that he quit writing about football. I think that tells a little bit of its own story.

Q. What do you think it will take to make soccer great again in the U.S.?

You could argue it’s already great, and that one failure to qualify doesn’t change that. But my frank answer is that it will take substantial investment and recruitment in working-class areas of America, a lot of humility and a lot of luck. Look at Germany: Years before they won the World Cup in 2014, they made sure they scouted as widely as possible. I’m not sure the U.S. is finding and developing all the talent that it can.

Q. Hope Solo recently said that soccer in the U.S. is now a sport for rich white kids. Do you agree with this sentiment, and if so, do you think it’s unique to the U.S.?

I don’t think it’s unique to the U.S. at all, but I do wonder if the racial and economic inequalities there have made the problem especially severe.

Q. What’s your opinion on the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and what activism should/can be done to prevent countries with dubious human rights records from being allowed to host international tournaments?

I think the best activists try everything. Pressure on sponsors via internet campaigns and via public protest, blogs and investigative pieces about those suffering human rights abuses in the relevant countries. Everything helps. Every small effort.

Q. Do you think there’s any chance the 2022 World Cup will be moved? And in general, how do you feel about FIFA as an organization after the past few years of anti-corruption investigations?

I don’t think that the World Cup will be moved, sadly. There’s an excellent film about the Qatar World Cup, “The Workers’ Cup,” which I can’t recommend enough.

As for FIFA in general, I will say that I am very disappointed with some of the decisions it has taken of late. It is the guardian of the greatest sporting tournament on the planet, and I think that it should have been much more judicious in where it chose to host it.

Musa Okwonga is a poet and writer based in Berlin. He is the author of two books on football, “A Cultured Left Foot” and “Will You Manage?” @Okwonga