From offside until dawn

How difficult it is for Russians to watch the World Cup in America!

There is no day, although it is still the longest. The day is a break between the big North American football, which starts very late in the evening, continues into the night, and ends in the early morning. It is difficult and impossible to adapt, not only because of the incredible number of 104 matches. There is also another life besides football. Or not?

There was nowhere to run further than the children's park behind the school, the sun had not yet risen, the morning smelled of bitter grass, cold dew mixed with tears - my tears, and someone else's, and it was no consolation that on an early July morning there were many such unfortunate people in the country. A few minutes ago, Cubilla scratched half a meter behind the goal ball, the touch judge did not react, all of us froze with his hand raised, the awkward, big-nosed Esparaggo completed the cross without resistance, as in training, in front of him was a huge open space of the goal, Kavazashvili could not have jumped - a disaster, it was all over, everything - this is the quarterfinal of the first Mexican World Cup - 1970 USSR - Uruguay, the very end of the second extra time. Returning home, I quite calmly, as if some truth had been revealed to me in the morning park, said into space: “We will never become world champions in football.”

This “never” is 56 years old. Just fourteen world championships, but already a whole life, which has taught me a lot, but not everything. The century has changed, the idols have left, the country about which I spoke “we” is long gone, but the phrase works regularly and mercilessly, no matter what the reason for it is. Nowadays there is no one to worry to the point of tears, and I would give a lot to feel that bitter “living the experience” - just because of football. Nowadays, football love is residual, corresponding to the moment and the hybrid life that entered our flesh and blood more than four years ago, and even earlier, of course.

God be with her, with victory. The point is not in it, not entirely in it, and not even in it at all, which was manifested by some fantastically generous option in the Russian football year of 2018 - the created feeling had to be preserved like a jewel, but here we did not save it easily, completely and absolutely incompetently. Noticing the absurdities of the current planetary football forum, amazed at some of its not very hospitable Americanized manifestations, I just want to say:

“But here we have...”, but it’s better not to continue, because it’s not the world that forgot about the football fairy tale 2018 in Russia - here they themselves painted over the multi-colored picture in black, into which the best game in the world fit so nicely, which drives humanity crazy every four years.

Humanity rejoices at football while suffering, and while suffering, it rejoices. In the first week of the 23rd World Cup, it is still quite innocent throughout the entire space - from the Mexican Monterrey to the Canadian Vancouver, from Los Angeles to Boston, from the legendary Azteca to the not at all iconic in football, but also the legendary New York MetLife Stadium. Debutants from Cape Verde snatch points from the number one favorite Spain, and their 40-year-old goalkeeper nicknamed Granny for one day becomes the most famous person on Earth, Brazil is happy with a draw with Morocco and thanks for the saving goal perhaps the most expensive striker on the planet, Egypt wears out Belgium, which is saved by a leader who has not played for a year, super snipers Kilian famously enter the championship with doubles Mbappe, Erling Haaland and Marko Arnautovic, the great Lionel Messi starts with a hat-trick against Algeria, the Jordanian Aymen Hussein, who was checked for seven hours upon entering the United States, scores both at his own and against others, four matches in a row turn into one by the morning, I want a pause, but there won’t be one for a long time, because it’s too late to discuss the experiment with an unprecedented number of participants, It’s pointless to be indignant at the decline in quality, all that remains is to accept the World Cup as it is, just by entering this river - in more than a month you’ll get somewhere.

...We have always, with the exception of 2018, been a country of television fans (and even earlier, in the pre-television era, thanks to the legendary and inimitable Vadim Sinyavsky, a country of radio fans): the space is vast, there is not enough live big football for everyone. In modern times, there was enough of our people at world and European forums, which was not always pleasing, but now the living Mexican-Canadian-State stadium passions are accessible to a few Russians, now we are mostly quasi-TV fans - no team, no visas, no money, we are watching TV, and it’s good that it’s still like that.

And not a single deputy, not a single super-patriot, not a single veteran concerned with finding traitors even tried to oppose broadcasts from America, as was the case, for example, with the showing of the world hockey championships.

Nobody opened their mouth here, because I don’t want to spoil relations with the electorate, I need to appease the mass audience, which, like it or not, will be interested in what is happening, even if the Russian national team is not among the 48 lucky ones. At the genetic level, the absence of our team is not exactly a familiar thing, but it’s also not completely unfamiliar, so the controversy over whether or not to show the World Cup hasn’t even begun. The previous one in Qatar in November-December 2022 was broadcast by two main federal channels and, naturally, Match TV.

A similar option was envisioned long before the start of the current championship; there were discussions between the “masters of thought,” but the vector “everything will be in the best possible way!” did not change, and when it was announced that Match TV would become the exclusive broadcaster, no one was surprised. “Match” is “Match”, especially since it’s free and in full - both on the main third button and in applications. They have been saying this since December 2024; the Gazprom-Media holding announced the purchase of broadcasting rights in May, finally reassuring the Russian television audience - there is no need to look for any other button, everything is already included.

However, on the opening day - neither earlier nor later - it became clear that the world football forum would not be handed to us on a silver platter. At the last minute, the holding announced that it had shared the rights with the online cinema Kinopoisk, and in order to watch almost a third of the matches live, you will have to fork out the cash. The people digested the wonderful news for at least two or three days, trying to figure out what was what - the championship had already opened in all three countries, the first group leaders had already appeared, one match had already been missed by a significant part of the audience,

and Match TV continued to publish advertisements about “only on Match”, “only with us”, “in full” and “free”. It looked both funny and mocking, which our people, however, are not used to.

It is clear that the rights to broadcast the World Cup were expensive, the amount probably exceeded a certain limit, and it was necessary to recoup some money by selling part of the rights. Everything would be fine, in the end, neither the single broadcaster nor the audience is able to digest such a number of games, the laws of business cannot be avoided, the money for additional viewing is small - an explanation for the replay could be found with a preliminary apology. But neither the state nor the structures working under its auspices ever condescend to this, not without reason believing that the people, without any scraping before them, eat everything up anyway, at the level of notification. You never know what they promised - it was yesterday, but today it will be different. The fact that some part of the audience may have problems with switching to a paid streaming platform, and indeed with the Internet in general, did not bother the sellers at all.

At the same time, the “not free” category included not only matches without a catchy sign and the very night ones - in addition to 24 games of the preliminary stage, these are 11 playoff matches, including one of the semi-finals (!) and the match for third place!

I will not quote responses, risking getting a red card.

...More teams, matches and cities mean more different kinds of problems, but football still shakes off their burden, sometimes even relegating global conflicts to the background. This is the great strength of the game, and it is not his fault that humanity, represented by not its best representatives, still prefers to solve complex issues of relationships not on football fields, but on battlefields.

But football sometimes gives you the opportunity to forget about it for a while.