FIFA World Cup: Sports writer Grant Wahl dies, as insiders ask crucial questions
Medics were quickly on the scene to try and save Grant Wahl. But in a billion dollar state-of-the-art stadium, why was there no defibrillator on hand?
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Every once in a while, you hear the keen edge of panic in someone’s voice and know that death and his friends are nearby. Whatever mundanity you were enjoying at that moment is instantly forgotten.
So it was during extra time of the Netherlands vs Argentina match, at Lusail Stadium in Doha on Friday night.
It had been the game of the tournament, riveting, feisty, full of surprises and featuring a stunning Dutch comeback. But then a panicked voice rang out from the press box: we need a medic. We all turned around to see a man in terrifying distress just behind us, clearly suffering some form of attack or seizure. We bellowed for a medic.
The man in distress was Grant Wahl, probably the best known football writer in America. He was 48 and a much-loved fixture on the world soccer scene.
The medics came quickly. I felt momentarily reassured. Perhaps it was a seizure. Maybe he needed an epipen. But they quickly started administering CPR and the entire press box was gripped with anxiety. CPR is a terrible sign. His heart must have stopped.
An even worse sign was that they kept going and going. A journalist with first aid training and two medics, taking turns to pump his chest. This went on for many minutes. In the background, the melodrama of the penalty shootout, the triumphant roars of the Argentina fans, became an irritating distraction. The contrast was bizarre.
The medics kept pumping. Wahl’s many friends gathered round from different parts of the press box. One of them, the football journalist Guillem Balague, sat down next to me. They were rooming together for the tournament. “This isn’t real,” he muttered to himself, lost in shock. Speechless, I just put a hand on his shoulder.
I didn’t know Wahl, but he carried a huge reputation. As a champion of American soccer, fighting an at times uphill battle to promote the sport in the US. As a much-admired writer for Sports Illustrated, a broadcaster for CBS, and someone who wrote about what football means to the world and how it has been used and abused for political ends. Wahl was detained by Qatari police earlier in this World Cup, for wearing a rainbow T-shirt to the USA vs Wales game. His brother is gay.
His wife, Celine Gounder, is a well-known doctor in America. She became a prominent voice during the pandemic, an adviser to the Biden administration, someone I used to call up for quotes. “I’m in complete shock,” she tweeted.
Wahl’s brother, Eric, said: “Grant was my biggest champion. He was the best of us. He was a testament to our parents’ devotion to human rights and standing up for the marginalised. My heart is broken.”
Why wasn’t there a defibrillator? That was the question we kept asking each other, as the medics pumped and pumped to no avail.
At this billion dollar state-of-the-art stadium, which has a VIP suite so lavish it includes a bedroom, which will host the World Cup final, why was there no defibrillator to hand?
Many minutes passed and we kept expecting it to come. But it never did.
Someone brought a saline drip, to what end I can’t imagine. The medics kept on pumping.
Eventually a stretcher came to take Wahl away. His face was covered.
We all knew. It was reportedly a heart attack. Just minutes earlier, he’d been tweeting excitedly about the game.
On the pitch, the penalty shoot-out concluded. Argentina won. The Netherlands lost. Who cared?
The gloating of the Argentine victors seemed unbearably pathetic.
The distress of the defeated Dutch, stricken in the centre circle, somehow trivial and banal in the face of a widow about to receive the worst phone call imaginable.
The magic spell of football had been broken.
The only important thing was that a good man had inexplicably lost his life.
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