Since 1930, fans from all over the planet have gathered every four years to watch the most widely viewed spectacle in history – the world cup. Hosted by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), we’ve witnessed twenty tournaments across sixteen different nations, exposing the world’s most popular sport to billions of people. Peacefully bringing the world together through soccer (and perhaps the video game series) can be seen as good deeds to most, but FIFA may not be the great institution we’re eluded to believe. With light being shed on various scandals over the past couple of years, FIFA appears to be in hot water, and may be in for serious reforms in the near future.
Beginning in 2011 with two FIFA executive committee members attempting to ‘sell their votes’ for the location of the next world cup, a can of worms has been opened up exposing the harsh shortcomings of the organization. Following this incident, an attempt to improve FIFA’s governance was made, but little has actually been done. In fact, FIFA stirred immense controversy when the destinations of both the 2018 and 2022 world cups were decided in light of these corruption allegations. Russia and Qatar have been awarded as the hosts for the respective tournaments, and much disapproval has been vocalized by players and fans alike. With Russia’s aggressive foreign policy of late (annexation of Crimea), and Qatar’s summer temperatures reaching up to 120° fahrenheit, it quite obviously that these are the worst possible places to hold such an event.
To further cloud the air, it was uncovered earlier this year that the family of a former FIFA executive committee member received $2 million from a Qatari owned sports company, months before the official decision was made. If things couldn’t get any worse, FIFA’s reputation took a big hit from controversial moves made during the world cup in Brazil this past summer. Although the sale of alcohol at sporting stadiums is banned in Brazil (due to previous violent occurrences), FIFA pressured legislation to adopt a new bill, effectively allowing the sale of Budweiser during all world cup matches. In the end, the country of Brazil made zero profit from the world cup tournament, and is now stuck with the task of maintaining 12 new stadiums across the country (some in quite remote areas) with state of the art technology. Not only will these be impractical for use after the world cup, but they’ll prove to be pretty costly to keep around.
As I reminisce on my childhood playing soccer, I have memories of achievement, teamwork, and genuine fun. Playing the FIFA video games growing up, I would memorize the players names, and look up to some of the superstars as role models. Now, although I still am interested in the sport and play the game from time to time, there’s no doubt that the FIFA organization has had a negative impact and has tainted my view towards soccer. With outright corruption happening on a large scale, FIFA is causing harm to the world’s most popular game, and it seems to only be getting worse.
darealdreamteam 