Mundial Magic in Qatar
Mastercard used to have a popular ad campaign about comparing materialistic acquisitions with life experiences, with the former being quantifiable while the latter were deemed “priceless”. A cute campaign, but one which doesn’t resonate unless one goes through one’s own priceless experience; something which I recently did when I took my just-turned-teenager son to watch a few matches at the Fifa World Cup in Qatar. Not only was it the Boys’ week out, but we stayed with my childhood friend in his bachelor pad, which indeed was priceless due to the significant savings in exorbitant hotel costs, the hosts probably forgetting that the rest of the world doesn’t have the same purchasing power as those with the world’s largest natural gas reserves. So what is it about the football World Cup (yes, Football and not “soccer”, a blasphemous word that should be banned) that makes teens and 50-year-olds behave similarly? While the real teen had innocent excitement oozing from all...
