#fifa corruption

Keep talking Leah… hopefully the people we need to will listen.

April 11,2022

Normally, WoW confines its opinions strictly to issues having to do with politics. But today finds us venturing into the world of sport. Recently, the US men's soccer team qualified for the World Cup, the quadrennial tournament that is the most-watched sporting event on the planet. And while we applaud their accomplishment, it must also be noted that the sponsor of this competition is a brazenly corrupt organization and the host country a horribly barbaric society.

Founded in 1904, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is the governing body of the world's most popular sport. But for years that organization has been a hotbed of unbridled corruption. In 2015, for example, fourteen of its directors were indicted in the US over alleged bribery, fraud and money laundering in connection with an estimated $150 million worth of media and marketing rights for FIFA games in the Americas. At the same time, ousted FIFA president Sepp Blatter and board member Michel Platini were charged with fraud by Swiss authorities over a bribe to ensure Blatter's reelection.

In 2010, FIFA announced that the 2018 World Cup would be played in Russia (a brutal dictatorship) and the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar (a brutal monarchy) would host it in 2022. But, as The New York Times reported, US Department of Justice investigators determined that money was paid (we don't know how much) "to five members of FIFA’s top board ahead of the 2010 vote to choose Russia and Qatar as hosts."

Beyond the bribery, Qatar was a problematic choice for several reasons. For one, its intense summer heat meant FIFA had to move the tournament to November. Further, the tiny nation (about twice the size of Delaware) had almost no existing infrastructure to support the games. Which is why the oil-rich country doled out a staggering $200 billion to build seven new stadiums, an airport, hotels, roads and a public transport systems.  

But, as The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre testified, all that construction led to human rights abuses against as many as 24,000 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka who toiled on those projects. In addition to unpaid wages and withheld benefits, these workers endured squalid accomodations and working conditions so unsafe as to cause the deaths of 50 workers and injuries to some 38,000 in 2021 alone, according to the International Labour Organization.

KARMA!!

Me trying to negotiate my classroom while the kids have the World Cup on.

I’m stuck in such a dilemma. I work with SEN children between the ages of 7-10. I have got some real football fanatics and they will have no understanding of why this World Cup is such a disgrace. We have been told not to theme our work on the World Cup and I certainly will not. But I have to acknowledge the interests of these children due to their limited ability to comprehend what’s going on and why it’s so wrong. It simply means too much to them.