‘Fans like Scotland’s have provided a welcome counterpoint to FIFA machinations’
In Boston, the Tartan Army demonstrated the very best of the World Cup
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Of all the things to bring people together at the World Cup, a traffic cone would not have featured highly on many lists. Of all the items to embarrass the governing body of world football, a Boston traffic cone borrowed by Scotland fans wasn’t the most obvious object to shame FIFA.
What has happened in Boston over the past few days shows up even further how morally wrong and shamefully misguided was FIFA’s approach to ticketing. Fans, especially the Tartan Army in Boston, bring pure joy to a special event tainted by the greed of the organisers.
Faced with invasion by the Tartan Army, the deafening of their ears and the draining of their breweries, Bostonians embraced the Scots, firstly marvelling at them and then drinking with them. It’s sad to think how many fans were priced out of games because of FIFA’s ticketing strategy and the iniquities of dynamic pricing. They still turned up to be part of the party, to be part of history. Off the field, World Cups are about people mixing, making friends and understanding cultures.
And cones.
Americans are certainly curious about the Tartan Army’s predilection of placing cones on their statues. It started in the 1980s as a battle in Glasgow between local students and the council. The battle-field was the Duke of Wellington Statue outside the gallery of Modern Art. Students climbed up and placed a cone on Wellington’s head. Council spoilsports scrambled workers to de-cone the Duke, at a reported £100 a call-out.
Resourceful students promptly put another cone on the Duke. It went on and on, tit for tat, symbolising Glaswegian humour and defiance. These are also classic traits of the Tartan Army, which has taken to placing cones on statues in Boston like former mayor Raymond Flynn. Once the tradition was explained, Bostonians loved it and loved their kilted visitors even more.
FIFA forgot this. It forgot that people love football and national football so much that they will traipse through qualifying campaigns, going to places all over, and then will break the bank to travel to a tournament. Fans like Scotland’s with their bagpipes, the great orange army of the Dutch support jumping from left to right, and the massed yellow-and-blue waves of Swedish fans have provided a welcome counterpoint to FIFA machinations.
Fans make many sacrifices and their journey doesn’t always go smoothly, let alone what happens on the pitch. At least, Argentina are world champions and have special memories from Qatar. Their fans are gathering here in Kansas City for their opening game against Algeria on Tuesday. They first had to deal with three tornado warnings going off over an hour period, and being advised to stay away from windows and hunker down in basements. I was trapped in a sports bar – no hardship – and urged to stay away from the windows.
Then, for those Argentinians heading into a celebrated Kansas City rib shack, including a number in Messi shirts, they were greeted with the notice on the door which began promisingly: “Welcome. World Cup Fans”. It then took a dark turn: “A 20% gratuity will be automatically added to all checks for a limited time to provide a smooth and convenient dining experience during this exciting time in Kansas City.” It then left space on the bill for the privileged diner to leave an additional tip on top. It truly is a tournament of tariffs and traffic cones.
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One of the joys of a World Cup is watching stars being born and lighting up the tournament. Teenage kickers have graced World Cups from a 17-year-old Pele in 1958 via Michael Owen, 18, at France 98 to Kylian Mbappe, 19, in Moscow 2018. This tournament has already brought us the 20-year-old Scot Ben Gannon-Doak flying down the right against Haiti. He was fearless, providing an antidote to some nerves in the Scottish side. The tall Moroccan midfielder, Ayyoub Bouaddi, is already creating waves of excitement and interest. Lille will do well to keep the 18-year-old judging by reaction to his performance against Brazil where he comprehensively eclipsed Casemiro. Bouaddi had 88 touches, won 11 duels, and 93 per cent of his passes found their intended target. Arsenal, Paris St-Germain and Bayern Munich have already been linked to him. The World Cup is already a platform for these youthful talents. And we still have to see Pau Cubarsi, Lamine Yamal and Nico O’Reilly.
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England’s media centre in Kansas City is basically in the cellar of the parks and rec department near the training ground. It’s useful if there’s another tornado warning although we all have to crowd in the corridor as the main room has windows that may blow in. The FA, as always, has done the building up well, adding some homely flourishes such as images of the grass-roots clubs of the players on media duty.
These are the fields of dreams for John Stones at Penistone Church FC – “one club, one community” – west of Barnsley; Jude Bellingham at Stourbridge Juniors; Jordan Pickford at Washington Envelopes; Tino Livramento at Roundshaw in Croydon; and Jordan Henderson at Fulwell Juniors in Sunderland.
Henderson was delighted to see a Fulwell shirt, modelled on the black-and-blue Internazionale top, hanging in the media bunker. He was also delighted to win the first darts match in the traditional tournament competition with the media. The players lead from the last Euros. England have lost one of their best arrows men, Phil Foden, who’s been omitted from the squad, but have gained James Trafford, who is a demon at darts, and Jason Steele, who Brighton team-mates report is also seriously strong on the oche. England are taking flight.
Catch up on the rest of Henry Winter’s World Cup Diary here