Long before fans’ favourite Gordon Strachan stepped into the breach and took control of our national squad we knew in our heart of hearts that the dice were loaded against us.
We knew the lucky break we so desperately needed would fail to materialise and that any chance, however slim, we had of reaching our footballing Nirvana was going to remain well out of reach.
We would be left demented with frustration and jealous of those nations who had managed to book their place at the world’s greatest footballing occasion the 2014 FIFA Brazilian World Cup.
Brazil O pais do futebol (The country of football) the undisputed masters of the beautiful game, five times winners of the treasured trophy, the only
country to have qualified for every World Cup since the dawn of time, is next year’s host and again we failed to qualify.
But hold on to yer sporran perhaps that’s not such a bad thing.
Given the tumultuous and riotous events of the past week it may be just as well. In fact, I’m sure many of the finalists for this carnival of soccer will be digging out their insurance forms and wondering if they’ll get their deposits back in the event the situation on the ground worsens.
They may love their football but Brazilians, like the rest of us, prefer having a proper meal on the table, decent housing, a better living wage and improved education and health care.
The issue that seemingly tipped the balance this week, driving them on to the streets to demonstrate, was affordable public transport.
Here in Scotland we have most of these things at hand because we have a welfare system to look after us. But for more than 12 million deprived Brazilians who scrape by on less than £70 per month, home is a disease ridden shanty town rife with extreme poverty and unbelievable squalor.
So you can understand why they’ve taken to the streets to demonstrate, not only against the unjust increase applied to their public transport system, but the absurd £9bn of public money being spent on hosting the World Cup.
That’s money that would be better spent on health, welfare, education and housing. Money the government had insisted would come from private investment and not the public purse, which it turns out is exactly where it’s coming from.
It’s no wonder they’re going mental, protesting in ever increasing numbers, and it’s no wonder the government has brought in the army to try to quell the dissent if only to save their own necks from being strung up.
In contrast to Brazil’s World Cup, and indeed the 2012 London Olympics, spending for Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games has been carefully planned and accounted for and rigid controls are in place to monitor and stop any unnecessary overspend or so we hope. Mind you, given what is happening in Brazil right now, I’m sure there will be a few calculators on overdrive as blistered fingers check and double check the figures are all present and correct.
They’d be daft not to . . .
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