“The soccer haters are at it again. You can count on them every four years in the weeks before the World Cup, telling us how terrible the tournament is going to be, how bad the American team is and how awfully the people who run FIFA, soccer’s ruling body, have behaved. I wrote that last one, too. This year, there’s even more to complain about, beginning with FIFA’s extortionate effort to sell tickets to matches such as Cape Verde versus Saudi Arabia or Jordan versus Algeria as if they were Brazil versus Spain. About how hotel rooms are going unsold. And how the expanded tournament has allowed too many minnows into the tournament that will get chopped up. All this will soon be beside the point. …”
NY Times