“Spooper.” Even though it is an endangered sport, making newspaper headlines and magazine covers means being aware of collective feelings. The title of the German “Der Spiegel”, from last week, goes straight to the point when talking about the World Cup: more than ruining a global pleasure, Donald Trump “is taking advantage” of the most popular event on the planet.
Openly, the European bad mood with the tournament began to fade since Thursday (11), when the duel Mexico 2 x 0 South Africa opened the tournament. Rolling balls, after all, are a trigger for alienation, history shows. Until the competition picks up, however, criticism will pile up on the continent that shares power over world football with South America.
There was everything the day before the show and not just in the press. Regarding England’s debut, against Croatia, the biggest problem promises to be the glass of beer, priced at US$17 (R$98) in American stadiums. Author of the complaint, the British tabloid The Sun also found that the American pint (473 ml) is 17% smaller than the English pint (568 ml).
The American refusal to grant a visa to a Somali arbitrator gained strong political repercussions, with protests from parliamentarians at the Bundestag in Berlin. “A dangerous precedent”, “a vassalage of FIFA to an aggressor state in the context of an international sport”, said a historian in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde.
The absurd amount of carbon that will be emitted by fans and delegations between the 16 host cities, an unprecedented size for the competition, has been used for days to demoralize the “Green Cup” announced by the entity that governs world football.
Trump, obviously, causes much of the acidity in the comments. In a survey released this Wednesday (10), the European Council on Foreign Relations shows that only 11% of respondents, in 15 nations on the continent, consider the USA as an ally, a negative record for the survey — it was 16% last year and 22% in November 2024.
For 25% of the almost 20,000 people interviewed in the survey, carried out in May, Trump’s America can now be considered an adversary.
Two other numbers show the level of disgust: for 63% of French people, the American president has damaged relations between the USA and Europe, but everything will return to normal when he leaves the White House; for 32% of Germans, the damage is already irreversible.
Trump’s European record includes the threats to invade Greenland, the lack of commitment to a solution to the war in Ukraine, the NATO disembarkation, and the tariffs.
In the mundane world of the World Cup, the big themes only highlight more practical issues, such as the exorbitant cost of tickets, tourist packages and travel. Signs of discontent emerge. Players from the German national team raised funds to pay for bus transportation for around 600 fans, trapped by the incredible train fare of US$150 (R$816), previously US$12.90, between New Jersey and New York.
The news in Europe goes to great lengths to describe the “climate of fear” in the USA, cultivated since the beginning of Trump’s second term: the violent repression of immigrants and visitors, new visa requirements and the demand to open up digital life at customs.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino is charged with all these issues. Already a candidate for a third term, the Swiss lawyer is also accused of flattering Trump before preserving the game and the spectacle. Again, it shows the story, a relationship without any major news.
Analysts remember João Havelange and Jorge Rafael Videla, the general who visited the Peru team in the dressing room moments before the crucial game against Argentina in 1978. They remember FIFA rubbing shoulders with Vladimir Putin, in 2018, shortly after Russia annexed Crimea. And of the many human rights violations that preceded the World Cup in Qatar, four years ago, when some of the players did not shy away from protesting.
“As an entity, it would be prudent not to automatically comment on every political event and every statement in these troubled times”, wrote in an article published this week Bernd Neuendorf, president of the German Football Federation, setting the tone, so far, for this edition.
Spiegel’s cover shows Trump’s face embedded in the FIFA Cup. In a newsletter to subscribers, the magazine’s editor-in-chief said that another cover was produced, but neglected: the American president kicking the globe as if it were a ball.
By July 19, the date of the final, the USA may answer which image was more accurate.
