Fans rate 2022 World Cup as the best in history

Rishard Khan

rishard.khan@guardian.co.tt

Foot­ball en­thu­si­asts around the coun­try have joined the glob­al voic­es in dub­bing this year’s World Cup as the best in his­to­ry.

It came on the heels of the Ar­genti­na ver­sus France fi­nal yes­ter­day which had fans on the edge of their seats at view­ing venues in what was a game filled with sus­pense and dra­ma un­til the end.

Main­ly dressed in blue, foot­ball fans drowned bars across the coun­try with their cheers and tears as their eyes were glued to the screens.

There were ex­plo­sions of pas­sion and ex­cite­ment at All Out Sports Bar in the Queen’s Park Oval dur­ing the game, on­ly es­ca­lat­ing as the stakes grew high­er.

How­ev­er, when the dust set­tled in favour of Ar­genti­na, there was a unan­i­mous view among pa­trons, re­gard­less of their af­fil­i­a­tion, that this was a game and World Cup for the his­to­ry books.

“In­cred­i­ble. Un­be­liev­able. This is the best World Cup ever in the his­to­ry of World Cups,” long-time Ar­gen­tin­ian fan Keshore Williams told Guardian Me­dia.

“It was very good. Ar­genti­na, it’s we time!” Ju­dith Ed­wards added.

It was a great game and com­pe­ti­tion even for France fans who had fa­mil­ial ties to the coun­try who were at the bar.

“It was a great World Cup. It’s one of the best World Cups. En­ter­tain­ment. The teams from Africa and the teams from Asia over­per­formed the Eu­ro­pean teams. They got their noses blood­ied. It was a great World Cup,” Ori­on Ganase said.

His cousin, Stephan Ganese, who lived in France for four years shared a sim­i­lar sen­ti­ment.

Even those with­out a stake in yes­ter­day’s fi­nal like Sher­ry Per­sad said she thor­ough­ly en­joyed the game.

“It was a very good game. I liked both sides. I didn’t care who win,” she said.

Excited Argentina fans at Rouge Restaurant and Sport bar at the Buccoo Town Center, Shrivan Road, Tobago yesterday.

VINDRA GOPAUL-BOODAN

She added, “The best World Cup ever! No al­co­hol. It was fam­i­ly ori­ent­ed. When Mo­roc­co won their game, they run to meet and greet their fam­i­ly. There was no hooli­gan­ism. It was very nice, very good.”

So­cial me­dia was yes­ter­day alight with posts of peo­ple shar­ing their sat­is­fac­tion over the game and com­pe­ti­tion.

On CNC3’s Face­book page, user Tri­cia Si­mon said al­though she wasn’t hap­py with the re­sults she “re­al­ly en­joyed the game!!!”

Twit­ter user @_nec­cy_ said she is now in­spired to change her po­si­tion on an is­sue ex­pe­ri­enced by many oth­er women.

“I will nev­er ‘coase’ again when a man have no time for me cause he watch­ing foot­ball. As a mat­ter of fact, I want to learn every­thing about foot­ball. That fi­nal was the great­est ever!!!!”

Sev­er­al peo­ple on so­cial me­dia al­so used the op­por­tu­ni­ty to praise for­mer FI­FA vice pres­i­dent Jack Warn­er for the role he played in Qatar be­com­ing the venue of the World Cup, while he was a mem­ber of the FI­FA ex­ec­u­tive.

“Let’s just give Jack Warn­er a round of ap­plause for giv­ing in us one of the best world cups ever,” Twit­ter user @stephen­m­neil said.

Warn­er is cur­rent­ly fac­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ty of be­ing ex­tra­dit­ed on cor­rup­tion charges stem­ming from his in­volve­ment in se­lect­ing Qatar as the host of this year’s World Cup.

Warn­er ‘hum­bled’ by on­line sup­port

How­ev­er, in a brief state­ment to Guardian Me­dia, Warn­er said he was “hum­bled” by the fan­fare and be­lieved it jus­ti­fied the de­ci­sion to se­lect the lo­ca­tion.

“Ad­mit­ted­ly this has been the best-ever World Cup in FI­FA’s his­to­ry. My thanks go out to all the par­tic­i­pants, of­fi­cials and spec­ta­tors but even more im­por­tant­ly the Qatari gov­ern­ment and its peo­ple and all of these jus­ti­fy the grant­i­ng of the award of the World Cup to Qatar. My con­grat­u­la­tions to Ar­genti­na,” he said.

For­mer cap­tain of the T&T na­tion­al foot­ball team, Jan-Michael Williams said one of the great things about this year’s com­pe­ti­tion was the progress made by coun­tries that aren’t typ­i­cal­ly at the top of the charts.

Argentina football fan Sean Moona celebrates a France penalty kick as a France supporter holds her head in disbelief while watching the World CAUP final at Fiesta Plaza, MovieTowne yesterday.

ROBERTO CODALLO

“It’s im­por­tant to note that there have been on­ly eight coun­tries to win the World Cup and my ini­tial thoughts com­ing in­to the World Cup is that one of those eight teams would have won—sev­en be­ing Italy, didn’t qual­i­fy. What we saw dur­ing the tour­na­ment is an emer­gence of teams that had am­bi­tions to win the ti­tle. To not on­ly com­pete and to not on­ly come out of the group stage,” he told Guardian Me­dia.

“When you look at the likes of Croa­t­ia, Mo­roc­co, etcetera, they were ac­tu­al­ly try­ing to go all the way and that was some­thing that was in­trigu­ing to me and very in­spir­ing.”

He said this nar­row­ing of the gap be­tween heavy-weight coun­tries and oth­ers bodes well for the 2026 World Cup.

“In 2026, I hope to see, hope­ful­ly, one of those teams that have not yet won the World Cup get to that lev­el of rais­ing the tro­phy. It was al­so good to see an African team make it to the semi­fi­nals this time. Bar­ring some in­juries they had, I think they could have gone all the way and won the tour­na­ment but as well was some­thing good to see.”

Own­er of All Out Sports Bar Gary Grif­fith shared a sim­i­lar sen­ti­ment to Williams stat­ing the im­proved per­for­mance of the less dom­i­nant teams was part of what made this year’s World Cup great.

How­ev­er, he called for more in­volve­ment of the pri­vate sec­tor and the gov­ern­ment in T&T’s na­tion­al team to bring it up to a stan­dard that would see it in­clud­ed in the glob­al tour­na­ment.

“It is hoped that af­ter this World Cup, we could think about 2026. I lis­tened to Min­is­ter Amery Browne make a very fool­ish com­ment say­ing we’d be there in 2026. This is not a lot­to. For us to qual­i­fy, we need to have the pri­vate sec­tor and the gov­ern­ment de­cide to do what is re­quired and it is hoped that we could have that type of sup­port,” he said.

Football fans react during a moment in the FIFA World Cup final between Argenina and France from Fiesta Plaza MovieTowne yesterday. 12/18/22

ROBERTO CODALLO

France supporters celebrate an equalising goal against Argentina in the FIFA World Cup Final while viewing at Fiesta Plaza MovieTowne yesterday.

Roberto Codallo

Dorian Baird celebrates at Jade Monkey bar Crown Point, Tobago as Argentina wins the world cup match against France yesterday.

VINDRA GOPAUL-BOODAN

France supporters celebrate the team’s third equalizing goal against Argentina while viewing at All Out Sports Bar on Tragerate Road, Port-of-Spain yesterday.

ABRAHAM DIAZ

A dispondent France supporter at the Offside Restaurant and Bar at South Park, San Fernando yesterday.

INNIS FRANCIS

A large turn out of football supporters at the Nice Place Bar at Lime Head Road, Chase Village Chaguanas to view the FIFA World Cup final yesterday.

SHASTRI BOODAN

The reaction of a football fan at Club 63 on the Avenue, Woodbrook after Argentina , scored one of their goals durng the World Cup Final against Argentina yesterday.

KERWIN PIERRE

An Argentina football supporter is brought to tears at after Argentina defeated France in the World Cup final while viewing 519 Restaurant in C3 Mall, San Fernando yesterday.

RISHI RAGOONATH

Argentina fans react to one of the team goals at C3 Courtyard, San Fernando, during the viewing of the World Cup Final against France yesterday.

RISHI RAGOONATH

An Argentine and French supporter make a toast at the Offside Restaurant and Bar at South Park, San Fernando to view the World Cup final yesterday.

INNIS FRANCIS