A lot of people think it is a privilege to host the FIFA World Cup and they're right. Or at least they should be. Most countries are starting to back off of wanting to host. The big question is Why? Well there are multiple reasons. FIFA's corruption and greed have a large part of it (see Qatar being awarded the 2022 World Cup) and countries have better places to spend their resources and money. There was a huge amount of money spent by Brazil and a lot of countries aren't willing to spend that much.
Most people know the FIFA World Cup for being the world's biggest sporting event on an international stage. They know it as the massive soccer tournament that hundreds of millions of people take in world wide. However, what they don't know is the organization that hosts this tournament. They just know FIFA as the international governing body for soccer, however, a lot of people are unaware of it's corruption. Before you continue reading do me a favour. Go to Google and in the search bar type in "FIFA scandals." I get 1,270,000 results. Granted, a lot of them will be repeats and/or irrelevant, but just scan the headlines on the first page or two. A lot of them are different headlines and a lot of them are lists of scams and problems FIFA has had. The fact that there can be multiple lists with different scandals on each list says something about what has gone wrong in FIFA. Over the last few years FIFA has had many top officials in various capacities step down for various reasons. Almost none of those reasons good. You might ask why FIFA has had so many corruption problems. The answer is simple, in fact it's one word. Money.
Take a guess at how much of the money Brazil got out of the World Cup? Nothing. Sure they got money from hotel revenue, and having all those tourists in general, but from the actual tournament? FIFA took it all. This is just one of the many reasons more and more countries are backing out of hosting this tournament. FIFA makes lots of money for that country while they're in it. However, once the tournament is over and FIFA leaves they take all the tournament money with them. As if taking all the money the tournament made isn't enough for them the top officials frequently accept bribes and other forms of shady business to make even more money.
As many of us know, Money leads to corruption. That is exactly what has happened in FIFA. They are so greedy that the top officials hardly even care about getting caught. By the time they step down and/or get relieved from their duties it doesn't matter because they made their money.. The person leaving has already been paid off by someone. Another sign of FIFA's greed leading to corruption? Prior to the World Cup, the African nation Ghana had been playing rigged matches. The ref was paid to swing the game into one team's favour and to help them win it. This is just one example among many as to what too much money has done to FIFA.
The other very glaring example of FIFA's corruption is the location of the 2022 World Cup. Qatar. How on earth in a fair system would Qatar be awarded a World Cup? The day Qatar should be able to host a World Cup is the day the Oakland Raiders win their division (sorry Raiders fans). If you don't know much about Qatar or why this is a problem allow me to enlighten you. Historically the World Cup is given to a country with a soccer rich history, teams that have won before, or at the very least are competitive on the international stage. When was the last time you heard about Qatar's team that went all the way? That's right, you haven't. Qatar has never before even qualified for the World Cup, let alone had success there. This is just one of the issues of Qatar hosting the world. Qatar also has brutal weather in the summer. If the World Cup does stay there, it will likely be moved to January. This is due to the fact that it gets to +50 in the summer. However, probably the biggest reason people have a problem is due to their slave labour.
Basically in Qatar how I understand it is your employer is allowed to keep your passport so you can't leave. Since you can't leave your employer has no reason to pay you. Reports out of Qatar has found people who haven't been payed in weeks or months. Not only is this a social injustice that people frown upon, people are also scared that the World Cup facilities will be built with slave labour. Oh yeah, did I mention that one of these facilities will include an entire city? The city that is set to host opening matches and the finals doesn't even exist yet! Whatever will be built there is again, likely to be built via slave labour.
How much all that building will cost Qatar? Who knows. However, we do have numbers from what Brazil spent on the World Cup. Estimates on what Brazil spent on the World Cup range from anywhere between $11-14 billion. This includes not quite a billion dollars spent on security, and a stadium that cost a couple hundred million that was only used for four games and has since been abandoned. How would you feel if you were the average Brazilian and saw how many different needs your country had? Then how would you feel if you saw how much your country spent on this tournament? Even for the Brazilians that did still go to the games and cheer on their country, this would have to be in the back of their minds. They get no profits from FIFA and yet the government is still willing to spend crazy amounts of money on a tournament. This, and all the other stated reasons are why countries are starting to back away from bidding to host the tournament.
I really wouldn't be surprised at all if one year FIFA ran out of participants willing to host their tournament. Sure, it's a good, competitive, fun to watch tournament. However, those people who protest it have legitimate reasons in plenty of areas, just look at FIFA's greed and corruption, what the government has to spend to host it, etc. FIFA either has to clean up its act and start splitting the profits with countries, and maybe even chip in on the expenses to set up the tournament. They can't expect countries to spend like they have forever. They can't expect to be as greedy and corrupt as they are forever either. If they don't get their act together they might one day find they have no one to host a tournament. No World Cup would have the world up in arms, but would anyone really be surprised? It's becoming more and more common knowledge what FIFA is doing and this is just the tip of the iceberg. To me, the question isn't if FIFA eventually struggles to find a host it's when. The storm is coming, and when it does FIFA will be blind sided. They are ignorant and are blinded by their own ignorance, corruption, and greed.
Take a guess at how much of the money Brazil got out of the World Cup? Nothing. Sure they got money from hotel revenue, and having all those tourists in general, but from the actual tournament? FIFA took it all. This is just one of the many reasons more and more countries are backing out of hosting this tournament. FIFA makes lots of money for that country while they're in it. However, once the tournament is over and FIFA leaves they take all the tournament money with them. As if taking all the money the tournament made isn't enough for them the top officials frequently accept bribes and other forms of shady business to make even more money.
As many of us know, Money leads to corruption. That is exactly what has happened in FIFA. They are so greedy that the top officials hardly even care about getting caught. By the time they step down and/or get relieved from their duties it doesn't matter because they made their money.. The person leaving has already been paid off by someone. Another sign of FIFA's greed leading to corruption? Prior to the World Cup, the African nation Ghana had been playing rigged matches. The ref was paid to swing the game into one team's favour and to help them win it. This is just one example among many as to what too much money has done to FIFA.
The other very glaring example of FIFA's corruption is the location of the 2022 World Cup. Qatar. How on earth in a fair system would Qatar be awarded a World Cup? The day Qatar should be able to host a World Cup is the day the Oakland Raiders win their division (sorry Raiders fans). If you don't know much about Qatar or why this is a problem allow me to enlighten you. Historically the World Cup is given to a country with a soccer rich history, teams that have won before, or at the very least are competitive on the international stage. When was the last time you heard about Qatar's team that went all the way? That's right, you haven't. Qatar has never before even qualified for the World Cup, let alone had success there. This is just one of the issues of Qatar hosting the world. Qatar also has brutal weather in the summer. If the World Cup does stay there, it will likely be moved to January. This is due to the fact that it gets to +50 in the summer. However, probably the biggest reason people have a problem is due to their slave labour.
Basically in Qatar how I understand it is your employer is allowed to keep your passport so you can't leave. Since you can't leave your employer has no reason to pay you. Reports out of Qatar has found people who haven't been payed in weeks or months. Not only is this a social injustice that people frown upon, people are also scared that the World Cup facilities will be built with slave labour. Oh yeah, did I mention that one of these facilities will include an entire city? The city that is set to host opening matches and the finals doesn't even exist yet! Whatever will be built there is again, likely to be built via slave labour.
How much all that building will cost Qatar? Who knows. However, we do have numbers from what Brazil spent on the World Cup. Estimates on what Brazil spent on the World Cup range from anywhere between $11-14 billion. This includes not quite a billion dollars spent on security, and a stadium that cost a couple hundred million that was only used for four games and has since been abandoned. How would you feel if you were the average Brazilian and saw how many different needs your country had? Then how would you feel if you saw how much your country spent on this tournament? Even for the Brazilians that did still go to the games and cheer on their country, this would have to be in the back of their minds. They get no profits from FIFA and yet the government is still willing to spend crazy amounts of money on a tournament. This, and all the other stated reasons are why countries are starting to back away from bidding to host the tournament.
I really wouldn't be surprised at all if one year FIFA ran out of participants willing to host their tournament. Sure, it's a good, competitive, fun to watch tournament. However, those people who protest it have legitimate reasons in plenty of areas, just look at FIFA's greed and corruption, what the government has to spend to host it, etc. FIFA either has to clean up its act and start splitting the profits with countries, and maybe even chip in on the expenses to set up the tournament. They can't expect countries to spend like they have forever. They can't expect to be as greedy and corrupt as they are forever either. If they don't get their act together they might one day find they have no one to host a tournament. No World Cup would have the world up in arms, but would anyone really be surprised? It's becoming more and more common knowledge what FIFA is doing and this is just the tip of the iceberg. To me, the question isn't if FIFA eventually struggles to find a host it's when. The storm is coming, and when it does FIFA will be blind sided. They are ignorant and are blinded by their own ignorance, corruption, and greed.
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