KEIR RADNEDGE in DOHA: Sports officials always insist that politics and sport are not connected, an illusionary philosophy which Arsene Wenger forgot when presenting a technical study group assessment of football in the World Cup’s group stage.

Since November 2019 the former Arsenal manager has been world federation FIFA’s chief of global football development, a role in which he campaigned fervently in favour of the doomed concept of a World Cup every two years.

In Qatar Wenger heads a team of six experienced coaches and 78 data analysts who analyse technical and tactical trends.

The suitability of the World Cup for such an assessment rather than high-level club competition is another issue entirely; just that the World Cup is the best laboratory to which FIFA has exclusive analytical access.

A headline issue has been the group stage failures of four-times Germany and former European champions Denmark. Both, coincidentally or not, had been among the seven European nations forced by FIFA to back down on plans for their captains to wear a rainbow armband in support of LGPTQ+ rights.

Germany’s players placed their hands across their mouths in a censorship protest gesture when they gathered for a standard team photograph before their opening shock defeat by Japan.

Wenger, asked at a media briefing about team preparation and focus, noted: “France, England started well . . . teams who had the mindset for the first game and not political demonstration.”

Learning curve

Yet England – under the unrelenting focus of their mostly anti-Qatar and anti-FIFA media – had been more openly exercised over the armband issue than almost any of the other six countries.

As Wenger said: “England are one of the countries who have learned a lot from the last World Cup and the Euro and look to be the team now at the peak to deliver because they have both learned and still have a young team.

“[Manager Gareth] Southgate is an intelligent man who can analyse well matches. He has learned from the 2018 World Cup and from the last European Championship and is now in a situation to deliver.”

Just for the sporting record, Wenger’s pre-tournament favourites were England and France.

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