AS retirement beckons, I’m determined to do the things I’ve always wanted to but never got the chance. Things like watching Scotland play in the World Cup.
So, here I am in Boston, the Tartan Army’s newest recruit. I have twinges of imposter syndrome. My friends – who are veterans of the cause – reassure me that you don’t have to be a full member of the official Scotland Supporters Club to be included in the Tartan Army. Just put on the shirt, join in, and you’ll be welcome.
The Scottish support is in good heart and high spirits in the days before the opening game with Haiti. Boisterous and gregarious, but in a kind way that engages and endears.
Within 24 hours of arrival, we are already filling the bars of Boston, and by Friday we are everywhere, bedecked in a huge variety of football shirts, each representing campaigns of yore.
The first question in every conversation is: have you got a ticket, and how much did you pay? There are lucky ones, hardened supporters who qualified for the cheaper tickets provided by Fifa to the Scottish FA.
But they are few and far between. Most who are leaving the fan zones to go to the stadium have paid more than any human being has ever paid before to watch a football match.
Fifa must have had a team of psychologists working on their marketing. They claim to operate dynamic pricing, where the cost varies according to demand.
But everyone thinks that’s nonsense – in reality the strategy seems to be to restrict the supply to create the impression there are very few available and you’d best grab one if you can.
Six months ago, when Scotland v Haiti tickets went on sale at $600, to a man and woman we said, "let’s wait and the price will fall". Five months later as tickets soared above $1000, that first price began to look reasonable.
In the end, most of my group shelled out around £400-£500. Which, as so many have already commented, makes this the most expensive World Cup in history – by some measure.
Fifa is deliberately excluding football fans on low incomes from watching the game. Some will have got themselves into debt and danger to be at this World Cup; most have only made it because of their good fortune to have saved the £10,000 necessary over the years. All of this is wrong. It ought to present serious challenges to the Fifa leadership and stimulate national associations to look for an alternative.
And so, to the game. Scotland won, and you can read the match report elsewhere. But if the football wasn’t pretty on the field, neither was the event created around it. Not only does Fifa rip people off, but it also clearly doesn’t spend that money on organisation. At every stage it was woeful.
We stood for hours in badly managed queues to get trains there and back, shuffling along aisles of crash barriers to reach too few trains which then took an hour to run the 22 miles to the stadium.
At the ground we queued for an hour to get in. Pitiful levels of staffing created bottlenecks of frustrated and anxious people at every check point.
Too few scanners to read the mobile tickets meant it took an age to get through the gates. The good humour and patience of fans was stretched to the max.
Inside, the exploitation continued. A pint of mediocre beer in an aluminium cup cost $20 – twice the price of the swankiest pubs in town. And service was slow due to the idiocy of asking every bearded pensioner for ID.
Large public events don’t have to be run this way. It doesn’t happen at Hampden or Murrayfield – and the Americans in the queue told us it doesn’t happen when they come to the same stadium to watch the New England Patriots American football team. All of this is down to Fifa. I knew, of course, that many were critical of Fifa, but I did not fully appreciate the near universal contempt in which the organisation is held by the fans.
Spontaneous booing erupted every time images of boss Gianni Infantino appeared on the big screen. Boos too when the whistle went for the so-called “hydration breaks”, a measure masquerading as welfare for the players, but used by Fifa to cram sponsors’ adverts into broadcast coverage.
Football is now run by an organisation determined to exploit without limits the passion of its supporters – the fans who love the game are a cash cow to be bled dry.
An old friend, a life-long socialist, asked if I felt guilty making the trip, and by implication endorsing the politics of the current US leadership and the vicious commercialism of Fifa. No-one feels they are endorsing this. On the contrary, they are livid at being ripped off.
The visa difficulties, outrageous ticket prices, inflated costs of accommodation, atrocious event management – are all barriers placed in front of fans wanting to support their team.
Which brings us back the qualities of the Tartan Army. Groups of people finding camaraderie in a common pursuit, welcoming and inclusive with it. Respectful of their opponents (mostly), the winning important but the taking part in the World Cup more so.
In many ways they are a living exemplar of the capacity of humanity to find solidarity with each other, and no better way to show two fingers to the despicable exploitative attitudes which seem to infest the authorities who have brought us here. There’s a paradox for you.
