DRAMA IN THE DESERT: THE STORY OF THE QUATAR FOOTBALLRAMA
Now that the world cup is finally over, I believe it is fair to say that no single world cup tournament has divided opinions or come with as much controversy as the just concluded one. While some are convinced that this is the best world cup of all time, many others feel that the drama surrounding it killed the fun.
The drama started from the very beginning, when it was announced that the world cup would hold in November/December rather than mid-year as usual. That fell smack in the middle of the footballing season for many leagues and talks of fatigued players and scheduling issues were rampant.
Then came the drama of Quatar banning alcohol in stadiums. People thought was bad enough and complained incessantly, then there was also banning of LGBTQ related flags, dressing, armbands and the likes.
Many threatened to boycott the world cup while others tried multiple different ways to either sidestep the bans or wriggle out of it.
There was also the drama of it being the final world cup for many greats, most prominently Christiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. These two guys, having had the entire footballing world in a chokehold for over 15 years, with fans of the two engaging in non-stop debates about who is better, it looked like this tournament would be the one to finally determine who is better and settle the GOAT debate once and for all.
I think the biggest dream of literally every single football fan was an Argentina Vs Portugal final so we would watch them share a pitch one last time, on the biggest stage and the winner becomes the GOAT finally.
Another talking point was the outfits rocked my the former Miss Croatia, Ivana Knoll, to the world cup games. It was quite a sensation and caused waves, especially when she promised to go naked if Croatia win the world cup. Of course that didn't happen but she did provide her fair share of memorable moments.
Another talking point was the historical run by Morocco during which they became the first African team to make it to the semi finals of the world cup. The furthest an African team had gone prior to this run was a quarter-final but Morocco did one better and it was really impressive as they became the underdog story of the tournament.
And then when Drake placed a bet on Argentina to win the final, people thought the Drake curse would jinx it for Argentina since teams he supports always lose but the Messi magic was enough to overcome the Drake curse.
On so many levels, many football lovers agree that this definitely is right up there with the best world cup tournament of all time.
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