2010-19:
football’s last
golden decade
The past decade may be viewed, in
time, as the game’s last golden era.
From 2010 to 2019 it scaled the
highest peaks of worldwide popularity.
No other sport approached even the
foothills. No other TV competition, not
even the Olympic Games, administered
such global hypnosis.
The reverse face of the coin was
the tarnishing of that gold by criminal
skulduggery in the corridors of power.
However, the greed which scarred the
game would not have been possible
without the zillion-dollar temptations
generated by the game’s acceleration
into financial overdrive.
Out on the pitch the dominant
force was Spanish. The national team
launched the decade by triumphing
in both the World Cup in 2010 and the
European Championship in 2012, while
Real Madrid and Barcelona claimed six
Club World Cups between them.
In individual terms, the decade was
lorded over by the record-obliterating
combat between Lionel Messi and
Cristiano Ronaldo, with their almost
grotesque catalogue of records,
trophies and personal awards.
All this despite the multiple assaults
delivered by doping, match-fixing,
state-approved sport-washing andthe game’s betrayal at the hands of
powerful but greedy men who should
have known better.
The World Cup is the pinnacle
whose flag is the game’s progression.
In 2010 it was staged in Africa for
the first time, but it was hard work.
FIFA had to throw all manner of
monies and expertise at South Africa
to bring it off and the World Cup will
not be going back to Africa any time
in the next couple of decades.
Every major sports event comes
under fire locally as a wasteful misuseKeir
RADNEDGE
THE INSIDERof the host’s financial resources and that
was the case in South Africa and again
in Brazil four years later. And while FIFA
cannot be blamed for the incompetence
of domestic politicians, it can take the
blame for its own failings as exposed by
the bidding process for the 2018 and
2022 World Cups.
Teasing clarification is still awaited
over the breadth of the influence of
then-UEFA supremo Michel Platini –
with his last-minute switch to Qatar –
as well as the source of bribes offered
to South America’s delegates as regaledunder oath in a New York court.
By happy contrast, the positive aspect
of football was presented by the stars
on the pitch. Spain won the 2010 World
Cup with a last-gasp goal from Andres
Iniesta after Holland tried to kick them
off both their triangulated tika-taka
game and the pitch itself. Iniesta was
a core member of the Barcelona group
whose possession tactic sparked an
evolution in style around the world,
albeit accompanied by a jibe that
opponents were bored to defeat.
Spain, whose coach Vicente delBosque owed almost everything to
the innovative work at Barca of Pep
Guardiola, had won the European
crown in 2008 and repeated that
success in 2012.
The 2012 staging in Poland and
Ukraine marked out a pattern for
the future with the acceptance of
co-hosting, which aims to spread
the staging largesse while easing
the financial pain and opening up the
dream of performing on the biggest
stages to an increasing number of
nations clamouring for a greater
share of both visibility and TV cash.
Other host nations had their own
motives, notably the big political
winners in 2010: Russia and Qatar.
International promotion was the
theme. For Qatar it was soft power;
for Russian president Vladimir Putin it
was the bread-and-circuses distraction
of a “decade of sport”.
No World Cup has ever been
organised more efficiently than by
the Russians in 2018, who set a
devastating standard for Qatar to
match in 2022. Then co-hosting will
become the norm in 2026 (US,
Canada and Mexico) and probably
2030 (in Europe or South America).
UEFA reverted to a lone host for the
Euro in 2016, when hosts France were
overturned in “their” Final by Ronaldo’sRecord breakers..
Cristiano Ronaldo
(left) and Lionel
MessiIn individual terms, the decade was
lorded over by the record-obliterating combat
between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo
THE WORLD THIS MONTH