Why does FIFA support Messi?

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The writer is a political analyst. Email: imran.jan@gmail.com Twitter @Imran_Jan

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Social media is abuzz with the obvious behavior from FIFA and Fox One favouring Messi and criticising Ronaldo. The experts on their panels are cherry-picked ensuring they have the people whose opinions are famously anti-Ronaldo. Many are making the case that that is because FIFA is sponsored by a famous sports brand and Messi is hired by that brand for promotion, so it only works better if FIFA is biased in favour of Messi over Ronaldo. While that may have doubts, what is without any doubt is that FIFA behaves like Messi is capable of doing nothing wrong. His red card deserving fouls are ignored and commentators add to the fury of the people by being ridiculously biased in favor of Messi.

I thought a lot about it and realised that there is a sad truth to deal with. Sports is said to cut through politics and unite the otherwise warring people. However, the opposite is the truth in the world we inhabit. Politics, power and money cut through any meaning of sports. Some of the disturbing facts make a picture that one can start to make sense of.

One, when Ronaldo did not score a goal in his first match in this world cup, suddenly all the commentators started making the case that he must retire and how he was actually a hindrance in the Portugal team. And how he is no longer the player he used to be. His age suddenly became a big liability for his team as far as the Fox commentators were concerned.

Two, Messi is from Argentina. And that country has been expressing some deep love for Israel. And Ronaldo has expressed and provided material support for the Palestinians.

Three, Ronaldo in that famous Q and A session, removed bottles of a popular American beverage from the view of the camera and advised to consume water instead. That caused the beverage company a staggering $4 billion loss in market value. I don't believe the company forgot that.

Now, we know very well that inside America there are some strong lobbies representing powerful and rich corporations as well as foreign countries. And those lobbies' existence is to basically compel elected politicians to ignore the wishes of the voters who voted them into the public office and work toward the interests of the corporations instead, which most of the time means working against the interests of the citizens of the country.

I am just wondering if those powerful entities and Israel might be working in the shadows to try to weaken and frustrate Ronaldo by pushing Messi to the front in every aspect of this world cup. Every time I go outside to different stores here in America, I only see Messi T-shirts. I have not seen one Ronaldo T-shirt. These two are the top names in today's football. Yet, only one player's T-shirts are always on display and on sale while nothing with Ronaldo's name can only make sense from the standpoint that this is actually by design.

And there is another important nuance to it. I do not claim to have an eye for detecting this or some intelligence to decipher why the commentators are biased. It is actually quite very obvious and I strongly believe this is also by design. They want people to know that they are using their power to make the top football star almost disappear from the mainstream. They want to discourage the kind of uncontrolled and maverick behaviour that makes Ronaldo who he is.

All of this sounds like the stuff of conspiracy theory. But I will say this; almost all, if not all, of the conspiracy theories that I had heard since childhood have turned out to be true. As graduate students, stuff that we laughed off and dismissed as conspiracy theories actually proved not to be conspiracy theories at all, those were facts. They were just too bizarre to be taken seriously.

Truth is under no obligation to make sense to us.