Orbán on the football World Cup: There's hardly a more purely Christian story than this

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán gave an interview to the online edition of Nemzeti Sport (National Sports) at the venue of the World Cup finals in Doha, Qatar.

"Lionel Messi is the biggest ever, he was literally the smallest boy and became the biggest hero. As it is written: the smallest shall become the greatest. The last shall become first. There is hardly a more purely Christian story than that."

– this was Orbán's summary of the main lesson of the World Cup, somewhat echoing Fidesz PM Szilárd Németh's quick evaluation after the final: “A white, Christian country with European values has become the world champion.”

The Prime Minister also praised Qatar's hosting of the World Cup. "Many people criticize the wealthy Qataris, partly out of envy of course, when it comes to the cost of the World Cup, but I look at it from a different angle: they could have spent this money on anything else, let's be glad they spent it on football.

They could have set up another investment fund or built another sixteen skyscrapers. Instead, they decided to spend all that money on hosting the world, which is a generous act and the football world should be grateful for it," he said, although he did not mention that a rather significant part of that money had disappeared into the various black holes of corruption.

He also praised the Moroccan team and the work of Sándor Csányi (president of the Hungarian Football Association) as FIFA vice-president, and said of Hungarian football: "It is not enough to be good. You have to win. You have to know how to win. The reason we were not here this time is because we were not able to win when we should have. What I have seen here shows that we could have performed well." He also set a goal for the Hungarian football team: they should qualify for the next European Championship and then the World Cup.

Orbán said that Hungarian football had been in decline for 20 years and that it would take 20 years to recover from this situation, but "Hungarian football can shine in its old glory by 2030".

Perhaps the most interesting train of thought in the interview is when the Hungarian Prime Minister talks about how money can do a lot for sport, but if there is too much of it, it can also ruin it. It soon becomes clear that he is not referring to the 3,500 billion forints poured into Hungarian top-level sport, which is hardly reflected in the results, but to the top football clubs of the world: 'Club football is spectacular, but the last resort against the destructive effect of money are the national teams.'