Eleven years ago I published a piece on the LRB blogsite, bemoaning the capture of the ‘People’s Game’ by capitalism, and its consequent decline as a sport which in the past had used to truly represent communities, rather than the power of money. Here it is.

https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2014/december/like-the-ancient-romans

Things have obviously got worse since then, with foreign and often corrupt capitalists buying up major clubs for millions of money, players paid fortunes, teams very rarely coming from their local areas – or even their own countries; and ‘my’ team, West Ham United, now in the control of a rich pornographer. (I’m thinking of shifting my allegiance to Leyton Orient, just up the road: https://www.leytonorient.com/club/history. The ‘O’s’ presently stand three divisions below the ‘Hammers’; but I’m hoping that this puts it beyond the grasp of the plutocrats.)

Donald Trump is currently the King of the Capitalists; and yesterday’s World Cup draw ceremony at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC featured him receiving recognition of this in the form of the newly minted – and extravagantly gilded – ‘FIFA Peace Prize’, awarded to him personally by FIFA President Gianni Infantino, in recognition of his efforts for peace – and obviously to make up for his failure to secure the Nobel Peace Prize, which we know he coveted. It was quite toe-turning, almost as ridiculous as a Nobel Goal of the Month award would be; but then Trump cuts a more ridiculous figure in genuinely soccer-playing countries than he obviously does in his own estimation.

The matches are to be played in Canada, Mexico and the USA. That might be awkward for the US-based matches, if Trump brings his toughest immigration measures into play.