Philip Patrick

It is a measure of the unexpected success of the Qatar World Cup that it could be hailed as the best, by Fifa President Gianni Infantino, and the boast was not entirely laughable. This World Cup had its share of longueurs but had plenty of excitement and ended on such a high note that conspiracists might suspect the final moments were contrived. But the high drama of the final aside, what did we learn from this extraordinary sporting event? First, that we care about the exploited and the marginalised and disapprove of corruption but… not that much. No end of newsprint was devoted to the subject of the unknowable number of migrant workers who died building the glittering jewel-like stadiums in the sand, the bribery allegations, and alleged human rights abuses.

Spain crashed out of the World Cup on penalties last night, despite dominating possession against Morocco for two solid hours. Pretty much everyone bar Spaniards will be delighted by this giant-killing by Morocco, who are just the fourth African team to reach the quarter-finals in football history. But their penalty success is nothing to celebrate. Much as it would be great to see less-fancied nations do well at the World Cup, it would be better if this was achieved by scoring more goals, rather than parking the bus and running down the clock.  Spain were the better team last night. While it’s fun for footballing giants to lose now and again, penalty shoot-outs are not good for the game.

Before the start of their World Cup game with Japan, the German team chose to make a ‘protest’. Each player covered his mouth for the pre-match photo to indicate how the team had been silenced by Fifa's ban on ‘One Love’ armbands – and thus prevented from showing solidarity with Qatar’s gay community. A powerful gesture they no doubt hoped. But slightly less powerful than the images taken 90 minutes later, when the Germans had been truly silenced, or at least rendered temporarily dumbstruck, by their unfancied opponents, who stunned Hansi Flick’s side by coming from a goal down to claim a thrilling victory. The defeat has been compared to Saudi Arabia’s victory over tournament favourites Argentina on Wednesday.

Are there any redeeming features of the Qatar World Cup? Perhaps one: the tournament has a sane and logical format. Having 32 teams reduced to 16 after the group stage, followed by a straight knock out is easy to understand and should produce an exciting third round of games and plenty of thrills thereafter. But if you do have the stomach for Qatar 2022 savour this comforting crumb: it could be the last time a major tournament is organised in a way that makes sense from a footballing – rather than a revenue generating – standpoint. For let’s look ahead to USA 2026. There might not be human rights concerns here, but the tournament will certainly be controversial for other reasons.

Tokyo While not quite on the scale of Her Majesty’s service, Tuesday's state funeral of Japan’s longest serving PM Shinzo Abe, gunned down while campaigning on the streets of Nara in July, will be an extravagant affair. The ceremony will take place at the Nippon Budokan in central Tokyo with approximately 6,000 attendees including the US Vice President Kamala Harris, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, and Australian PM Anthony Albanese. Theresa May will represent the UK. It will cost 1.6 billion yen (10.5 million pounds). The event has become mired in controversy. Many in Japan are fiercely opposed to the decision, made by current PM Fumio Kishida, to grant a state funeral to Abe, allegedly to placate his party’s right-wing.

The Japanese government has launched an initiative to encourage young people to drink more alcohol. Yes, really. The national tax agency’s ‘Sake Viva’ campaign is an appeal for ideas to get youngsters boozing after taxes on alcohol products, which accounted for 5 per cent of total revenue back in the hard-drinking 1980s, fell to just 1.7 per cent in 2020. So, at a time of economic hardship, Japan’s youth are being asked to do their patriotic duty and get hammered. The falloff in social drinking is being attributed in part to the pandemic. Japan didn’t have a full-blown lockdown imposed from above, but the more subtle bottom-up lockdown that demonised anyone frequenting bars and restaurants worked pretty well.

Japan is reversing its avowedly anti-nuclear stance, restarting idled plants and looking to develop a new generation of reactors, announced Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday. This major policy shift from the world’s third biggest economic power underlines both the seriousness of the global energy crisis and points to the most likely way ahead. This announcement would have seemed unimaginable a decade ago in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, which saw the plant flooded and led to three separate hydrogen explosions. Then prime minister Naoto ordered those living within a 12-mile radius of the plant to be evacuated as the Fukushima area was designated a contaminated wasteland.