Definition of a scandal By Donald C Stewart

Date: 18th July 2026

Definition of a scandal

By Donald C Stewart

As we career towards the end of this summer’s World Cup, most of us who are sitting on the sidelines as I do, making comment upon what is happening in the world of football, are beginning to ask, this may be the biggest, but is it the best World Cup we have ever seen?

To answer that question as I refer to the Oxford English Dictionary which defines dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power as corruption, we wonder whether it is the most corrupt World Cup we have ever seen.

Scandals have focused minds.

Those of us of a certain age can remember Christine Keeler will hope that Gianni Infantino never ends up in a photograph, naked, sitting astride a chair, looking coquettishly into a camera as Keeler did. The poster for the film Scandal, is very vivid in the memory, please FIFA, don’t spoil it!

But on a serious note, this has been a World Cup unlike any other with politics at its heart, especially the disgraceful decision over The USA’s centre forward, Balogun. It has raised hackles and issues like never before.

Thank God for Belgium.

FIFA and its World Cup have always courted various degrees of controversy. It’s difficult to not be outraged over things like favourable bias but the World Cup does not appear every four years without something amiss. I wondered just exactly where this ranked, (or was it just rank?), with previous FIFA run tournaments.

Shall we go back to Diego Maradona’s drug ban and his battles with cocaine addiction? He was banned for 15 months and at the 1994 World Cup and if there had been a poster boy for drug us, there was Maradona staring into a camera for all the world to see that he was in a bad place.

Then there was the World Cup final four years later, where nobody really understands what happened to R9. Apparently he had suffered a convulsive seizure in his hotel room, where he was unconscious, but nobody knew what was going on with his absence and speculation was rife. As it turned out, the final was one of the best that had been seen.

Of course, you do not need to stroll far to find other controversies like the way in which Uruguay put us out of a World Cup in Mexico. There’s also the “Hand of God” controversy, which if you come north of Watford, it’s not a controversy whatsoever.

But if I go further back, the World Cup is mired in incredible controversy prior to the Second World War. In 1934. The World Cup was held in fascist Italy. There are plenty of claims of political interference by Benito Mussolini, (ironic as the Mango Mussolini this time round admitted he did get involved) but one of the most obvious political pieces of interference came in 1938 after a simple clash of colour schemes between holders Italy and host nation, France in the Quarter Final. The Italian played in an all-black strip. That’s right, black shirts took the pitch literally, just months after Nazi Germany had annexed Austria – who were eliminated from the competition because Germany had just swallowed up the country.

Not only did the Italian players give the fascist salute, play in all black, Mussolini claimed that this was a victory for fascism as Italy went on to retain the World Cup.

And so, the disgraceful intervention of Donald J. Trump has precedent, but look at his bedfellows. But it is FIFA’s fault. They have given Trump agency to believe that he can alter anything that happens on his soil during this World Cup.

This has included the disgraceful way in which the Iranians have been treated, the aspersions cast upon one referee’s integrity, denying a Somali referee entry into the World Cup prior to the tournament beginning and we hold our breath over what is likely to happen at the Final. FIFA have already broken their own rules by allowing a 30 minute half time break for their Super Bowl style “show”.

Put up against the joy, the beauty, the wonderment of the fans who have taken this World Cup to their hearts, be it the Norwegians, the Scots or whoever – all credit to them. Even the English seem to have really behaved themselves this time round and the only rioting and disruption what we have seen has been in home soil after a game that didn’t involve England. We need to give credit where it’s due to the supporters and wonder why it is once again that the people in charge of the game simply can’t keep to their own rules or run the game properly and realise that the smell, they smell, is of their own corrupt making.

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Tags: FIFA, oor Donald, World Cup