Infantino’s extra-large World Cup continues to punish… merit. The Europeans (perhaps also Italy) in the fourth pot in the draw with the amateurs while Ronaldo was forgiven the disqualification
It will be an extra-large World Cup in everything: number of national teams admitted, matches played, champions present – even those like Cristiano Ronaldo who was forgiven a disqualification that should have been automatic (from 3 days to 1 plus probation) – and interpretations of meritocracy bordering on the grotesque. Extralarge in everything except in the defense of merit, which in sport should be the guiding star that should never be lost sight of and which Infantino’s FIFA seems to forget at almost every step.
The question of the admission criteria by continent has been classified as an argument for Rosiconi despite being a topic that ignores Italy’s problems, given that in any case it penalizes Europe outside of any logic of competitiveness: 26 national teams in the top 48 of the FIFA ranking and only 12 directly admitted to the final phase against the 8 Asians, half of which are above fiftieth position.
Now FIFA has dealt yet another blow, inserting the European national teams from the playoffs in March, therefore potentially also Gattuso’s Italy, in the fourth pot of the draw to be held in Washington on December 5th. They will keep company with New Zealand (86th), Haiti (84th), Curaçao (82nd), Ghana (72nd), Cape Verde (68th) and Jordan (66th) and will be penalized compared to the very strong Saudi Arabia (60th), Qatar (51st) and Uzbekistan (50th).
The result will be to protect some and disadvantage others. To understand, there is none of the 12 Europeans who will have to fight each other in March for the last four tickets who has a higher ranking than number 47. None. To clear the field of self-pity, it’s not that Infantino is mad at Italy as one might suspect: it’s that the 48-man World Cup is his creation in which the rolling ball seems to be the least of the issues. And with this forward, hoping to transcribe the name of Gattuso’s national team to one of those ‘X’s that ended up in the ballot box together with the amateurs.
