World Cup During Sports Overload, Holiday Season Awful Idea

Much has been written and said about why this World Cup, the first ever to be played in the Middle East and during the fall/winter, being staged in Qatar was a terrible idea.

There are so many reasons for that, which work on numerous levels. You’ve heard about the unforgiving climate, the logistical issues, the human rights abuses, the worker deaths, the upheaval of the club seasons and more.

However, I have yet to see or hear anyone mention this specific reason for why this idea was beyond stupid.

CANNIBALIZATION

Yes, the sports overlap or overload season. Which coincides with the holiday season. This is why having the World Cup this time of year is a TERRIBLE idea. (beyond all the other reasons it’s a terrible idea to have in Qatar/during Nov-Dec. which everyone else has already covered)

There is only so much a given person can care about or pay attention to, and when you have too much competing for your interest, well you’re cannibalizing yourself.

Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas parties, Christmas lights, Christmas movies, Christmas cookie bakeoffs, the NFL, NBA, NHL, college football and college basketball.

Not enough for ya?

Let’s take the World Cup and shove it down your casing like a summer sausage, or better yet a Christmas goose.

Because people who cover sports on site at the venue or write about sports for a living from their couch, are already being stretched too thin.

Again there is only so much you can care about, or talk about at one time, so FIFA only made things infinitely worse by shoving more stuffing in our mouths.

Although I have to give a lot of credit to FOX for the ad embedded above. It’s very clever the way they handled the first mashup between Santa Claus, Xmas and the World Cup.

College Overlap Season on Steroids

There is so much sports to choose from watching right now that we’re literally in the midst of something ESPN has branded Feast Week. An obvious reference to Thanksgiving, it is a period in November, of about 10 days or so, in which you have college basketball on at all hours of the day.

All day, all night, and that sounds cool in theory.

However, I agree with what one of the faces of ESPN, legendary college hoops broadcaster Dick Vitale said last Tuesday during the Champions Classic: “college basketball does itself no favors by starting the season so early. College hoops shouldn’t start until after Thanksgiving.”

That’s a good take, but I would say push it back further, conference championship weekend in football?

Naw, how about the weekend with the Heisman/Army-Navy game?

College hoops should never start until after that weekend.

It’s really dumb what college sports/the NCAA, or whatever you want to call it, is doing to itself because the same people who cover and care about football also cover and care about men’s basketball, and vice versa.

You’re directly competing against yourself, i.e. cannibalizing as the would say in business school, and it’s this concept that now applies across all the sports and all the leagues, this time of year, traditionally.

Adding in the World Cup just makes it unprecedented. By the way, and I know this falls on deaf ears, but I don’t care, I’ll say it again anyway- next to nobody cares about college basketball in November, and they never will.

Love all the new games and tournaments where the blue bloods play each other, but it’s still not going to change anything.

World Cup Belongs in the Summer Dead Zone Time

What makes the overlap/overload period so bizarre is that it’s totally inverted during the summer lull. There is pretty much nothing but baseball June-late August, and you have no college sports (at least none that anybody cares about), April-Sept.

There has got to be a better way to stagger it all, because in the summer, it can easily get sooooooooooooooooo dull, as you have the polar opposite problem.

Other than in 2022, the World Cup is always played during this time of year, as it should be.

It’s All About Money, Hypocrisy Abounds Everywhere

Bribery, graft, corruption- that’s what a Qatar World Cup is all about. The tiny petrol state, with a population equal to the city of Chicago, bought this tournament, plain and simple. They have zero soccer history. None. Even Sepp Blatter, yes Sepp Blatter admitted this was a mistake.

That’s like the chief architect of a building saying the house is a shambles.

And what about all those other issues, pertaining to this World Cup that are more serious and go beyond what we’re detailing here?

Watch this clip below:

This is how BBC opened coverage of World Cup 2022. Stark contrast to Fox Coverage in United States. Please take a minute to watch. This is how this World Cup should be contextualized ? pic.twitter.com/36HtKOX26w

— roger bennett (@rogbennett) November 20, 2022

Yes, human rights abuses, thousands of migrant workers who lost their lives in the construction of the stadiums, subjugation of women, discrimination against homosexuals- the video below covers that and more:

Not to mention how stuffing a World Cup inside the middle of the club seasons in Europe has wreaked havoc on the schedules, and thus, created a rash of injuries. It’s a rather callous view of the players, treating them as dispensable, basically, by the Qatar World Cup committee.

Jurgen Klopp pretty much nailed it, over at this link.

Oh and there is outright, blatant hypocrisy from the Qatar World Cup committee too.

? You can get alcohol inside a stadium at the World Cup in Qatar if you have a corporate hospitality ticket, where prices start at £19,000.

[via @SkyKaveh] pic.twitter.com/73e33jzgBL

— Football Daily (@footballdaily) November 18, 2022

Yes, alcohol is haram in Islamic law, and therefore forbidden in Qatar, unless you are lucky enough to have access to a corporate hospitality sweet, and the prices for those start, yes, that’s right START at £19,000 (or about $22,500) to get in, and then, magically, drinking is okay and perfectly fine!

Funny how that works.

When all is said and done, everybody who made this Qatar World Cup actually happen, this quote below The Great Gatsby sums them up perfectly:

“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”