tariq panja Profile picture
Nov 22 4 tweets 2 min read
Pound for pound #Croatia has been one of the best teams in world football since independence. These two women have been on the journey since the beginning, from Boksic, Boban and Suker to Modric and Mandzukic, they’ve seen it all.

nytimes.com/2022/11/22/spo…
“Olivari explained later that her head had filled with a swirl of memories as she delivered her words. She has known Modric, 37, since he was a teenager, only a few years after he was forced out of his hometown and made a refugee by war.” nytimes.com/2022/11/22/spo…
She was there, in the tunnel, just before the players emerged for their first game against Turkey in Nottingham, England.
“When they entered the field, I had a feeling that my heart would jump out of my body,” said Sudac. nytimes.com/2022/11/22/spo…
In the early 2000s, executives from Nike proposed replacing Croatia’s famous checkered shirts with a different design. “We were so stubborn,” she said. No, she and the other officials told Nike, “‘It must be plain red-and-white checks to be recognizable.’” nytimes.com/2022/11/22/spo…

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More from @tariqpanja

Nov 23
Poor old bud driver has got lost. Luckily still an hour until the game starts. We’ve done a couple of loops now. And even driven past the stadium once. 🤞
Journalist in a Morocco shirt now has had to get off the bus to ask for directions. Quite a magical mystery tour. Photographers freaking out they won’t be able to shoot the warmup.
Now we are in some sort of dispute with a security guard. Wile ride. Deserves a match report of its own!
Read 4 tweets
Nov 23
#Croatia opens its World Cup. Here’s a story about the two women who’ve been an integral part of its remarkable footballing feats from the beginning, from the days of Boban and Suker to remembering Modric as a teenage refugee turn into a world star. nytimes.com/2022/11/22/spo…
And there’s Iva Olivari, team manager for #Croatia. She is in her fourth decade with Croatia, one of the first woman to sit on a national team bench. You can read her story here. 15 mins until Croatia-Morocco kicks off. nytimes.com/2022/11/22/spo… Image
Morocco fans making decent sound in Al Khor even though stadium is about half full/empty for this game. Perhaps organizers had tension between having enough accommodation and letting ticket-less fans enter country to buy on arrival? Small local pop. means games not full. Image
Read 5 tweets
Nov 18
🚨 Beer is out at the World Cup.

After all that (alcoholic) beer will now not be sold inside the perimeter at all eight of Qatar’s World Cup stadiums.

Big about-face means FIFA now faces contractual nightmare with Budweiser.
Official announcement expected shortly but Qatar has now decided there will be no (alcoholic) beer sold within the perimeter at all 8 World Cup stadiums:

nytimes.com/2022/11/18/spo…
Again this isn’t about beer being sold or not. It’s about saying and promising one thing, expect amazing and all that, and then suddenly changing tack at the last minute, and doing precisely the opposite. Last minute changes to an event 12 years in the making.
Read 6 tweets
Nov 18
Seems to be a complete media shutdown from FIFA and Qatar World Cup organizers on guidance on reports that there will now not be any beer sold around World Cup venues. Started as this crazy situation last week. nytimes.com/2022/11/14/spo…
Then yesterday @martynziegler and co at The Times produced this thetimes.co.uk/article/world-…
Efforts to get a response from anyone involved is now being met with a 🤷🏽‍♂️, which only fuels further speculation. With just two days until the first game and 12 years to plan, longer than any previous host in history, it’s quite ridiculous. 🤡
Read 6 tweets
Nov 16
“Sometimes, I feel very unlucky to be Nepali.”

Nepal sent more workers to Qatar than almost any nation, their people built the World Cup. More than 2,000 returned in coffins. I went to Nepal to see just how unfettered ambition collides with dire poverty

nytimes.com/2022/11/16/spo…
The raw facts:

At least 2,100 Nepalis have died in Qatar since 2010, the year it was awarded World Cup rights.

Thousands of Nepalis are shaken down forced to pay recruitment fees 30x more than is legal before they even leave.

Families pay 30% on money borrowed to pay fee
Capitalism at its rawest. Market dynamics commoditize these men. They are nickel and dimed at every stage of the journey so next link in the chain can profit, with ultimate beneficiary some of the richest countries on earth.

nytimes.com/2022/11/16/spo…
Read 16 tweets
Oct 2
Réal Madrid président Florentino Perez not giving up on Super League. Tells Real Madrid assembly football is sick and needs surgery which in his mind is more games between big clubs, compares how few they are with Nadal and Federer meetings. Will keep pushing new ideas, formats.
There are some thought provoking parts to the speech worthy of further debate but use of Forbes valuations to say this feels a little OTT:

« Football used to be the top sport; now it has been widely overtaken by American sport. »
Also takes aim at UEFA: « The diagnosis of football's disease is clear: we need professional, modern and transparent management, adapted to the global challenges of today's world, and not based on old structures designed in the last century »
Read 4 tweets

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