World Cup Final

Whatever else was going on, in football terms the Qatar World Cup went out with a bang. Despite the French barely turning up for the first seventy minutes, this ended up as totally gripping roller coaster ride, with Messi and Mbappe living up to the billing by managing five goals between them. But there was subtler stuff going on as well. Remember Jude Bellingham, how he was dominant against Senegal, then struggled against the French? And here was Griezemann, many viewers’ player of the tournament, majestic against England but hardly visible here. Was that because of the virus, or did the Argentinians take Karen Carney’s advice to physically bully him out the game?

We may never know, but we certainly didn’t get any answers from Guy Mowbray, who for someone at the BBC is the person best placed to provide comentary on the most important game of the year. Before the game, he talked about compiling a dossier of information, so he has handy little snippets to hand out when nothing’s going on. But he insists he doesn’t polish special lines in advance - he has to be free to respond to the situation, to read what’s on the pitch. And what do we get as a result? One of the best team goals of the tournament is characterised as “engineered by a bloke from Brighton” (Argentina’s Alexis MacAllister). A camera shot of Argentinian veterans weeping with joy gets “Do cry for me, Argentina.” It’s the poetry of tabloid headlines. Is this really the best we can do?