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Lex: World Cup effect
Football generates extreme emotions. In 1970 Britain’s Labour government blamed electoral defeat partly on England’s exit from the World Cup a few days earlier.
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Cannavaro makes his mark again
The cherub carved from stone should also have been named player of the tournament, because he wasn’t just the image of Italy, but of the World Cup, writes Simon Kuper.
Drama falls foul of the tactical game
If there was an air of disappointment at the end, it was more because of what the tournament had promised than anything objective. As the group stages set up a last eight rammed with the game’s grandees, this had the potential to be a great World Cup, but it never quite delivered.
A heavy burden for the hero of the banlieues
In a country where football has been seen as a force for unity, Zinedine Zidane’s tortured departure for France is seen as a bitter blow.
Zidane headbutt leaves losers to nurse some lame ‘if onlys’
It provided the greatest water-cooler talking-point in history. No single event can have previously been seen by so many and provoked so much discussion, writes Matthew Engel.
Azzurri find redemption from the penalty spot
As Fabio Cannavaro, on the occasion of his 100th appearance for the Azzurri, lifted the gold trophy amid a blizzard of sliver confetti, there could at least be hope of a new age.
Zidane bows out, pursued by demons
He is usually the most withdrawn of men. But demons lurk inside that shaven head. We knew this before last night; he missed part of the 1998 World Cup, which ended in great personal triumph, after a red card against Saudi Arabia.
European clubs are the winners in global competition
Club football has become so internationalised that squads can be drawn from 10 or more countries.
Chance to lay demons to rest and seize glory
World Cups tend to mark the end of football eras. Played only every fourth year, they are the natural place for the greats to call time on their international careers. This is clearly the case with one of the teams in Sunday’s Berlin showpiece, France, for whom the match will bring down the curtain on a footballing golden age.
FT guide to the World Cup final
Latest World Cup reports
Final is only the beginning for Berlin
All through the World Cup, the word Berlin has had a special symbolic resonance. “Berlin! Berlin! Wir fahren nach Berlin!” chanted the German fans constantly. Well, the ultimate truth – “We’re on our way to the third-place match in Stuttgart!” – wouldn’t hit the spot as a rallying cry, would it? Matthew Engel reports.
Domenech relies on the stars
The morning after France reached the final, L’Equipe, the sports newspaper that functions as the palace gazette of French football, ran a celebratory photograph of the coach Raymond Domenech. The caption was: “He foresaw it all.” The astrologer on the bench is no longer reviled.
Latest World Cup reports
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MORE WORLD CUP COMMENT
Zonal mixing
Usually windowless, always jam-packed and sometimes harder to access than certain small countries, it is a strange parallel universe, part cat-walk, part reptile house. David Owen’s World Cup diary gets in the zone.
A tournament deprived of vigour
In theory, the World Cup is where you see the best teams in the world. In practice they have adopted a sort of Kyoto protocol for energy conservation, writes Simon Kuper.
Time to say the unsayable about England
Should England win the World Cup, it would glorify everything that is atrocious about football, writes Matthew Engel.
