Being There: Watching The FIFA 2018 World Cup Final In Moscow

Few things in life can match the experience of watching a World Cup final live at the stadium.

- Alshaar Khan

A disastrous own goal; a controversial penalty decided by the video assistant referee (VAR); six goals, including three clinical strikes by three truly world-class footballers; cross-dressed Pussy Riot members invading the field; Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović’s magnanimity; Vladimir Putin’s umbrella; and the victory of football over racism. As much as the 2018 FIFA World Cup final between France and Croatia at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium inspired euphoric celebrations in Paris, it was an once-in-a-lifetime spectacle even for the neutral fan in the stadium.

My invitation to Russia came from Budweiser, the official sponsor of the biggest sports event in the world. The other invitees included a handful of global social media influencers, but a thumping majority comprised contest winners from over 50 countries across the planet’s six inhabitable continents. As a part of its ‘Light Up The FIFA World Cup’ campaign, Budweiser’s parent company Anheuser- Busch InBev provided tickets, accommodation, round-trip flights, pre and post-game entertainment and transport to/from the stadium for the final game for all guests.

I was put up in the same room as the lone contest winner from India. The recently-graduated 23-year old computer engineer Sachin Gowda had scratched coupons that came with the purchase of more than 1,000 bottles of Budweiser, to top his country’s leaderboard. “Around 40 of my hostel mates selflessly kept passing on scratch cards from their beer purchases for around two months. You had to input each scratch code on the Bud website and answer as many questions for more points.” As the only one out of 1.3 billion Indians to win the contest, Gowda later came to be known as ‘the luckiest man in the world’ in one part of Moscow.