What does a European victory in the World Cup mean?

A European country will win the World Cup tonight and a European country is already in third place. What does this success for Europe mean, in particular for the future of football?

One interpretation is that it is a victory for globalisation and the homogenisation that goes with it. The strategies and styles on view at the World Cup have been very similar (and perhaps have taken something away from the excitement of the tournament). The world’s best players play in the wealthy European leagues, where coaches are synthesising common ideas about tactics. These ideas go back to the national teams, many of whose coaches managed European clubs or national teams.

That is not a story that pleases Michel Platini, the president of Uefa. He prefers to see the outcome as a victory for solidarity in football, an emphasis on technical education and good governance, of which Germany is perhaps the exemplar. Hence, England, the exemplar of the liberal model in football, exited early.

However, that argument does not stand up to much scrutiny. Spain has an even more imbalanced league than England because top clubs negotiate their own television rights separately. The level of debt in Spain’s La Liga has been estimated at €3.5bn.

Once the World Cup is over, Uefa hopes to pursue its model of financial stability through its new Financial Fair Play rules and its Club Financial Control Panel headed by former Belgian prime minister, Jean-Luc Dehaene. Uefa has struggled to keep Europe’s big clubs in check: at one time there looked as if there might be a breakaway league.

Uefa thinks that the tide has turned in its favour after the financial problems at Portsmouth and elsewhere in Europe. However, big club owners may find ways of outwardly conforming to the rules whilst spending all they can to secure success. The battle of alternative interpretations will continue.