That Was The Week That Was 21-25 November 2022
The World Cup of Soccer
I have been trying all week to draw relevant comparisons between aviation and soccer. Yes, soccer. Get over it. The world’s oldest organised football is Australian Rules football, and that is the real football, although, to be fair, we could just call it footy. Soccer is soccer.
So far, I have drawn a blank on analogies. There are some obvious parallels. Each team is nationality based, and there is a certain amount of leeway to allow wriggle room on nationality not unlike the substantial ownership and effective control wriggle room. Once, that was strictly enforced, now, maybe less so. Each team likes to have a national symbol on their uniform, a bit like airlines on their tail.
But there the obvious connections dry up. Some of the world’s great aviation powers, such as the UAE is not there. Some of the world’s great aviation stories, like Singapore are not. France is doing well, so there is no point of comparison there. The Germans, at time of writing, are struggling to come back. Team Lufthansa will proudly tell you that they have paid back all the state aid that was given to them.
Japan is struggling. Mexico is struggling. China is absent. Italy is absent, which may be ominous. Qatar is spending a lot of money, as if this was an IATA AGM, but whilst the airline is profitable, the team less so. England is as mid-table as its airline.
There must be something obvious that I am missing, so I turn to you, all of you, to help me out.