FIFA, short for the Fédération Internationale de Football Association,
was born in Paris on May 21st, 1904. It originally governed most of
the major leagues in world soccer except the English league who joined later.
It has now risen as the most powerful organization in the world of sports with
the biggest money maker, the FIFA World Cup. The first World Cup was held in
Uruguay on July 18th, 1930 and has now become the most popular event
in the world of sports, so popular that even Americans feel forced to watch it,
every once in a while. The two most recent World Cups exemplifies the
terrifying power that FIFA has over the host countries.
The
2014 World Cup was hosted in Brazil a country that produces the biggest soccer
fans and many of the best players in the world. Naturally they would be ecstatic
for the upcoming World Cup to be hosted in their home nation, right? Wrong,
Brazilians responded to the news of hosting the 2014 World Cup with mass
rioting across the nation. They also set a lot of things on fire and not just because
setting stuff on fire is fun, they actually had a good reason. The Brazilian
government was spending over eleven billion dollars on preparations for the
World Cup because they are held to a certain standard of excellence by FIFA. Eleven billion dollars is a whole lot of
money, but when you think about it that price is justified, the FIFA World Cup
is the biggest sports event in the world and something as big as that should
bring in just as much money in tourism, taxes, tickets, and a multitude of
other things but here’s the catch. Brazil does not make the money, FIFA does.
FIFA’s criteria for letting a nation host the World Cup is exemption from all
taxes at any level that means local, state, and national taxes (Oliver). This
is absolutely baffling and really gives a taste of what FIFA is like. Someone
really should not be allowed to compare a nonprofit organization to the mafia
and be very convincing, comparing FIFA to the mafia should be like comparing a
pineapple to a paper towel, it just should not make any sense. Because of this the
only reason to host the World Cup is the prestige of it. At least for a little
while that host country is brought on to the world stage. Going back to FIFA
the mafia like tendencies do not stop at tax exemption. FIFA actually forced
Brazil to make a new law for them. In 2003 Brazil banned alcohol from soccer
stadiums because of the enormously high death rate among fans, which in all
honesty seems like a pretty good idea (Oliver). This changed because of FIFA,
one of FIFA’s sponsors is Budweiser and to make more money FIFA wanted to be
able to sell beer. Brazil was then pressured into creating the Budweiser Bill,
which allowed stadiums to once again sell beer. FIFA’s secretary general had
this to say on the, “I’m sorry to say and maybe I look a bit arrogant, but … we
have a right to sell beer.” The implication of this law is potentially deadly,
but it is really all about money in the end so who cares? In the 2010 World Cup
in South Africa we can see another example of FIFA’s ridiculous power. FIFA forced
the creation of the World Cup Court, which first of all sounds completely ridiculous
but nonetheless they prosecuted with striking speed to the point where there
was barely a trial. After two Zimbabwean men were arrested for the robbery of
two journalists they were sentenced to fifteen years in penitentiary in less
than a day (Oliver). That is not enough time for a trial to a fifteen year jail
sentence and is very unsettling.
No comments:
Post a Comment