Mexico-South Africa: this is the poster for the first match of the Football World Cup which begins this Thursday. It sums up the universality of this sport which brings children running and arouses fervor on all continents. Forty-eight national teams are thus brought together at the start of the competition. During the coming weeks, France, in particular, will live partly to the rhythm of the group led by the successful coach Didier Deschamps. The opportunity to share powerful sequences of collective emotion. Football indeed has a strong unifying power – except when it generates acts of violence. It can act as a comforting balm. We will not refuse it.
However, euphoria does not prevent us from worrying about the conditions for organizing the event. This will largely take place in the United States, a country whose president, Donald Trump, is obsessed with the fight against migrants. Players, supporters and even a Somali referee, considered one of the best in Africa, have suffered entry bans or humiliating reception conditions.
In the land of king money, the International Football Federation (Fifa) has, for its part, allowed itself to be won over by a shameless commercialization of the competition it organizes. Damage. Like any sport, football carries an ideal of fraternity that must not be overused.
