{"id":2505864,"date":"2026-07-17T10:29:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T10:29:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2505864"},"modified":"2026-07-17T10:29:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T10:29:56","slug":"davis-despite-fifas-antics-world-cup-is-mesmerizing-entertainment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/davis-despite-fifas-antics-world-cup-is-mesmerizing-entertainment\/","title":{"rendered":"Davis: Despite FIFA’s antics, World Cup is mesmerizing entertainment"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n

Some thoughts from around the world of sports..<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

ONE: <\/strong>FIFA. Mafia.<\/p>\n

They sound a bit alike, so it can be a tad confusing.<\/p>\n

Which one is the criminal organization? And which one is \u201cThe Sopranos\u201d about?<\/p>\n

After nearly a month of World Cup games being played throughout North America under the auspices of the F\u00e9d\u00e9ration International de Football Association, <\/a>which set up dynamic pricing that cost fans as much as $10,000 for a single ticket, the sports organization got what it was after:<\/p>\n

Money.<\/p>\n

Also, reigning champion Argentina will play Spain on Sunday for a trophy symbolic of soccer\u2019s world crown.<\/p>\n

Seeing how Argentina beat Egypt in a disputed playoff game, it\u2019s hard to not believe FIFA manipulated the 2022 victors back into the 2026 final.<\/p>\n

After expanding this year\u2019s tournament to 48 teams from 32, FIFA president Gianni Infantino wants 64 countries in future events. That sounds like something the money-hungry NCAA has done to the ever-expanding March Madness.<\/p>\n

Maybe it will help Infantino get Italy into the 2030 World Cup.<\/p>\n

This is an organization that kowtowed to the American president by presenting him with a phoney peace prize before heeding his pleas to disregard a red-card suspension issued to U.S. striker Folarin Balogun.<\/p>\n

It was such a despicable act that the International Olympic Committee is investigating FIFA\u2019s ruling, which is like getting Donald Trump to investigate Jared Kushner.<\/p>\n

Despite the politics, gouging and self-aggrandizement, the tournament has been truly mesmerizing. Even a buffoon like Infantino can\u2019t besmirch the on-field genius of Messi, Mbappe, Kane, Haaland and Yamal. Go Spain!<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

TWO:<\/strong> Watching the Hamilton Tiger-Cats without veteran quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell is frighteningly like imagining the Saskatchewan Roughriders without Trevor Harris.<\/p>\n

The Tiger-Cats were truly awful without Mitchell during their 38-7 road loss <\/a>to Saskatchewan. Sidelined with a fractured ankle, Mitchell has evidently been replaced during the long-term injury by journeyman Jake Dolegala, who started his CFL career with Saskatchewan.<\/p>\n

The Roughriders defence completely neutralized Dolegala, plus his top receivers dropped numerous passes during the drubbing. The Ticats offence looked nothing like the explosive unit Mitchell led through this season\u2019s early stages.<\/p>\n

Hamilton also has Tre Ford as its third-string quarterback. A tremendous runner, Ford twice beat Saskatchewan when he played for the Edmonton Elks. Ticats head coach Scott Milanovich didn\u2019t even put Ford into the contest<\/a> until there were less than three minutes remaining, long after Dolegala\u2019s ineffectiveness had determined the outcome.<\/p>\n

Dolegala and Ford have started numerous CFL games. Saskatchewan doesn\u2019t even have that luxury, with third-year backup Jack Coan only starting meaningless, end-of-the-season games for the Roughriders.<\/p>\n

Although Harris started this season with a flourish \u2014 passing for 417, 349 and 409 yards \u2014 his last two performances haven\u2019t been as stellar (243 and 202 yards). But the Riders won the last two games, he\u2019s healthy, they have a 4-1 record and not having him would likely look worse than the Mitchell-less Tiger-Cats.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

THREE:<\/strong> Goodbye, Steve Yzerman. Why couldn\u2019t you bring your magical touch from the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Detroit Red Wings?<\/p>\n

Owners of the NHL\u2019s longest, current non-playoff streak of 10 seasons, the Red Wings finally pushed Yzerman out of their general manager\u2019s chair and into an advisor\u2019s office. He had spent seven seasons as Detroit\u2019s GM.<\/p>\n

Yzerman had a Hall of Fame playing career with the Red Wings, becoming their captain and winning three Stanley Cups during 22 seasons. He worked for the Red Wings before spending 2010-18 as Tampa Bay\u2019s GM, never winning a Stanley Cup but being credited with building a roster that won back-to-back NHL championships in 2020 and 2021.<\/p>\n

Detroit\u2019s current roster includes tremendous players like Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond,<\/a> but captain Dylan Larkin recently requested a trade, Yzerman\u2019s late-round draft choices have been horrible and the team collapsed down the stretch to lose playoff berths in each of the last three seasons. No more magic.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

FOUR: <\/strong>How about those Milwaukee Brewers? They had MLB\u2019s second-best record (59-37) at the all-star break, behind only the World Series-champion Los Angeles Dodgers (61-36). According to sportrac.com, the Dodgers\u2019 annual payroll is $302 million, second to the New York Mets\u2019 $329 million. Milwaukee is 19th at $137 million.<\/p>\n

The Brewers have some of baseball\u2019s best, young players, led by right-handed starter Jacob Misiorowski, outfielder Jackson Chourio and infielder Cooper Pratt. They also started trading for pitching depth this week. Their real strength is manager Pat Murphy, who has led the Brewers for two seasons and twice been named the National League\u2019s top manager. At 67, he\u2019s nine years older than the Brewers as they chase the franchise\u2019s first World Series title.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source leaderpost.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some thoughts from around the world of sports… ONE: FIFA. Mafia. They sound a bit alike, so it can be a tad confusing. Which one is the criminal organization? And which one is \u201cThe Sopranos\u201d about? After nearly a month of World Cup games being played throughout North America under the auspices of the F\u00e9d\u00e9ration […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2505865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[493973,493975,493974],"class_list":["post-2505864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-493973","tag-category-sports","tag-leader-post"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Davis-Despite-FIFAs-antics-World-Cup-is-mesmerizing-entertainment.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2505864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2505864"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2505864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2505866,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2505864\/revisions\/2505866"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2505865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2505864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2505864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2505864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}