Thanks, Paul, for your thoughts. That concludes the matchday live blog for today. Back tomorrow for more more more.
Paul MacInnes writes: “As I think I mentioned in my intro post, I didn’t make much of the ceremony. For something that was clearly positioning itself as of the same grandeur and import as the Oscars or Grammy awards, it was all quite leaden, simply in terms of entertainment, and consistently wince-inducing. The many awkward attempts at call and response, largely led by Gianni Infantino, were regularly met with quiet in the room. Not great. The only good improv, meanwhile, came when Rio Ferdinand offered his co-presenters out after the ceremony.
“Anyway, that’s taking it on its own terms. Of much more important concern was the politicisation of the event, the obsequiousness with which it treated Donald Trump, whose administration has killed more than 80 people in the waters off Venezuela this year to pick one statistic at random, and the wilful inversion of meaning, especially relating to the word ‘peace’. Most egregious moment of all, for me, however, was when Infantino claimed that the Fifa Peace Prize (subtitle: Football Unites the World) was being awarded to Trump on behalf of “the billions of people who love this game”. No, it wasn’t, and if anything actually showed the hubris of this current Fifa leadership it was the claim that it can speak for a world it largely ignores. This may yet return to haunt them.”
Updated
