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背景故事

Losing the World Cup

輸?shù)羰澜绫?/p>

The tournament in Qatar is tarnished. Should fans enjoy it anyway?

在卡塔爾舉行的世界杯被玷污了，球迷們應(yīng)該繼續(xù)享受它嗎？

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1 IT IS, ONCE again, July 4th 1990. You are watching the semifinal of the World Cup on a friend’s sofa. At half-time, the score is still nil-nil; Paul Gascoigne, known as Gazza, a peerless but troubled English footballer, is in his magical pomp. The deathly penalty shoot-out that West Germany is fated to win is a distant prospect. Everything is still possible: for Gazza, for England, and for you.

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時(shí)間又回到1990年7月4日。你正在朋友的沙發(fā)上觀看世界杯的半決賽。半場結(jié)束時(shí)，比分仍然是零比零；保羅-加斯科因（Paul Gascoigne），被稱為加扎（Gazza），一位無以倫比但又麻煩不斷的英國足球運(yùn)動(dòng)員，正處于傳奇的巔峰期。聯(lián)邦德國命中注定要贏的點(diǎn)球大戰(zhàn)是一個(gè)遙遠(yuǎn)的前景。一切都是可能的：對加扎、對英格蘭、對你。

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2 The World Cup is a time machine. Each tournament evokes memories of previous ones, old pals and past selves, including, for this columnist, that bittersweet teenage evening 32 years ago. And even as it carries fans backwards, it draws them together from around the world. Collectively they follow the eclectic match-ups—such as, in the contest beginning in Qatar on November 20th, Ghana v Uruguay—or the piquant clashes between geopolitical foes, as in America v Iran. From distant bars, town squares and time-zones, millions of strangers gawk in unison at a wondrous overhead kick, or the wing-footed tyro who dribbles his name into history.

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世界杯是一臺時(shí)間機(jī)器。每屆比賽都會(huì)喚起人們對以往比賽、老伙伴和過去自己的回憶，包括對本專欄作者來說，32年前那個(gè)苦樂參半的少年之夜。即使世界杯帶著球迷回溯過去，它也把世界各地的球迷吸引到一起。他們共同關(guān)注著各種比賽--例如11月20日在卡塔爾開始的比賽中，加納對烏拉圭，或地緣政治仇敵之間的交鋒，美國對伊朗。在遙遠(yuǎn)的酒吧、城市廣場和不同的時(shí)區(qū)，數(shù)以百萬計(jì)的陌生人齊刷刷地注視著一個(gè)絕妙的倒掛金鉤，或?qū)⒆约旱拿直P帶進(jìn)足球歷史的速度型新人。

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3 With its personal liturgies and worldwide communion, the World Cup can seem a kind of secular religion, or a benign global conspiracy for quadrennial fun. As Kafka might have put it had he been a football fan, there is plenty of hope, infinite hope, even, every four years, for England. It is a precious and unique event. This year, alas, it is also a scandal and a disgrace.

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憑借其個(gè)人的禮拜和世界范圍的圣餐儀式，世界杯似乎成為了一種世俗宗教，或者是一個(gè)良性的全球陰謀，四年一度的樂趣。如果卡夫卡是個(gè)足球迷，他可能會(huì)這樣說，對英格蘭來說，每四年就有很多希望，甚至是無法衡量的希望。世界杯是一個(gè)珍貴而獨(dú)特的事件。今年，遺憾的是，它也是丑聞和恥辱。

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4 The authorities in Qatar, a tiny gas-rich Gulf kingdom, have always strongly denied that their bid to host the cup involved corruption of any kind. Yet cash seems to have sloshed around. An indictment in America alleged three decision-makers at FIFA, football’s governing body, took backhanders, but didn’t say from whom. Inquiries have unearthed possible conflicts of interest stretching from politics to private transactions, like the ￡2m ($3.2m) allegedly wired to a FIFA bigwig’s child. A prominent Qatari spread largesse, apparently on his own account. Somehow, FIFA officials overlooked Qatar’s blistering summer heat, which meant kick-off was shunted to November.

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卡塔爾是一個(gè)富含石油的海灣王國，該國當(dāng)局一直強(qiáng)烈否認(rèn)他們申辦世界杯的流程涉及任何形式的腐敗。然而，賄賂資金似乎已經(jīng)大量存在。美國的一份起訴書稱，國際足聯(lián)（足球管理機(jī)構(gòu)）的三名決策者收受了賄賂，但沒有具體說是誰收的。調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn)了可能的利益沖突，從政治到私人交易，據(jù)稱200萬英鎊（320萬美元）被匯給了國際足聯(lián)的一個(gè)大人物的孩子。一位知名的卡塔爾人顯然是用自己的賬戶來散布大筆款項(xiàng)。不知何故，國際足聯(lián)官員對卡塔爾炎熱的夏季視而不見，這意味著開球時(shí)間被推遲到11月。

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5 The footballers have thus been spared the venue’s most punishing temperatures. The legions of foreign construction workers who built the glitzy new stadiums and other infrastructure were not. Some have died (the toll is disputed). Many more were paid paltry wages and forced to stump up exploitative recruitment fees.

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因此，足球運(yùn)動(dòng)員們避免了場地最嚴(yán)酷的溫度，而那些建造華麗體育場和其他基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施的外國建筑工人則沒有。一些工人死亡（人數(shù)有爭議），更多的人領(lǐng)著微薄的工資，并被迫為剝削性的招聘費(fèi)用自掏腰包。

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6 True, in the glare of attention before the tournament, labour conditions in Qatar have improved, albeit not for everyone. Better, however, if respect for basic rights were a prerequisite for staging it, not a halting consequence. To dispel the fantasy that hosts become better global citizens, you need only recall another World Cup memory—of the one held in Russia in 2018. The images of Vladimir Putin palling around at the final with Emmanuel Macron were nauseating even then; now they are repulsive.

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誠然，在賽前的關(guān)注下，卡塔爾的勞工條件已經(jīng)得到了改善，盡管不是對所有人都是如此。然而，如果尊重基本人權(quán)是舉辦比賽的先決條件，而不是斷斷續(xù)續(xù)的結(jié)果就更好了。為了打消東道主成為更好的全球公民的幻想，你只需要回憶另一個(gè)世界杯--2018俄羅斯世界杯。弗拉基米爾-普京在決賽中與埃馬紐埃爾-馬克龍打成一片的畫面即使在當(dāng)時(shí)也令人作嘔；現(xiàn)在則令人厭惡。

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7 Meanwhile Qatar’s criminalisation of homosexuality may put gay supporters off going there. Some players plan to wear rainbow armbands in a stand against discrimination. Murky dealing, exploitation, prejudice: what ought to be a festival of harmony will instead be a showcase of international woes, not least the rise of petro-fuelled autocracy.

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同時(shí)，卡塔爾對同性戀的非法化可能會(huì)使同性戀的支持者不再愿意前去。一些球員計(jì)劃戴上彩虹臂章，以反對歧視。骯臟的交易、剝削、偏見：這本應(yīng)是一個(gè)和諧的節(jié)日，卻成了國際困境的展示，尤其石油專制國家崛起。

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8 Where does all that leave ordinary football fans—the middleaged nostalgics with their reveries of Gazza, Pele or Maradona, the initiates poised to fill in their tournament wall-charts? They cannot switch the TV channel to an alternative World Cup, one less entangled in the 21st-century nexus of power and money. Much as many may wish it otherwise, it is this version or nothing; these new memories or none.

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這一切讓普通球迷--那些懷念加扎、貝利或馬拉多納的中年人，以及準(zhǔn)備賽事掛圖的新球迷情何以堪？他們無法將電視頻道切換到另一個(gè)世界杯，一個(gè)不與21世紀(jì)權(quán)錢糾纏的世界杯。盡管許多人可能希望如此，但這只是一個(gè)版本，或者什么都不是；這是新的記憶，或者什么也不是。

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9 A few will tune out altogether. Others, this writer included, will be loth to give up the shoot-out agonies and extra-time miracles (missing the Qatari self-promotion in the opening ceremony will be easier). Like long-haul travel in the era of climate change, though, enjoying this tarnished World Cup may require an offset for your conscience, a donation to a humanrights group, say, or an anti-corruption charity. An event that punctuates and brightens millions of lives is set to feel grubby and shameful.

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少數(shù)人將完全不再理睬世界杯。其他人，包括本作者在內(nèi)，不愿放棄點(diǎn)球大戰(zhàn)的痛苦和加時(shí)賽的奇跡（錯(cuò)過開幕式上卡塔爾人的自我吹噓會(huì)更容易堅(jiān)持觀看世界杯）。不過，就像氣候變化時(shí)代的長途旅行一樣，享受這屆被玷污的世界杯可能需要對你的良心進(jìn)行補(bǔ)償，比如向人權(quán)組織或反腐慈善組織捐款。一個(gè)點(diǎn)綴和鼓舞數(shù)百萬人生活的事件，將注定讓人感到骯臟和可恥。

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10 A lot can happen in four years, to a football team, a family and the world. New faces can appear in your country’s midfield, or beside you on the sofa, while others recede, perhaps for ever. Pandemics can strike and wars erupt. And life can teach hard lessons, one of them being that fun is sometimes much less innocent than it had seemed.

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在四年里，一支足球隊(duì)、一個(gè)家庭和整個(gè)世界都可能發(fā)生很多事情。新的面孔可能出現(xiàn)在你的國家隊(duì)中場，或在你的沙發(fā)上出現(xiàn)，而其他的面孔則會(huì)消失，也許是永遠(yuǎn)消失。疫情會(huì)襲來，戰(zhàn)爭會(huì)爆發(fā)。生活會(huì)給人以深刻的教訓(xùn)，其中之一就是快樂有時(shí)并不像它看起來那么清白。