The business of hosting the World Cup

The corruption allegations aimed at FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) are hurting Switzerland. A renowned lawyer based in Geneva even said the World football governing body should no longer be based in the country.

FIFA is being accused of corruption linked to the awarding of the 2022 Football World Cup Final tournament to Qatar. Media found out that Mohamed bin Hamman, former FIFA vice-president from Qatar offered in excess of 3 million euros to football officials to gain support for the Qatar bid.

The small country without solid existing sports infrastructure managed to overbid Japan, Korea, USA and Australia in what appeared to be a very odd decision. A few major FIFA sponsors immediately expressed their concerns after these informations were made public.

“In recent time FIFA shown a level of corruption such that it no longer has any place in out country. The world governing body is doing considerable harm to the image of Switzerland, all the more so because its head (Sepp Blatter) is Swiss,” Charles Poncet, a Geneva lawyer said to La Premiere.

FIFA's ethics committee is investigating the corruption allegations. These corruption acts took place between 2009 and 2010 and large amounts of money are involved. Hosting the World Cup became a business starting about a decade ago. FIFA and local authorities are pumping crazy amount of money in infrastructure and stadiums no matter the place. But the host does not receive the income because FIFA takes most of the money. When the World Cup is over, the country hosting the tournament is left with infrastructure and stadiums.

The best case of wasting large amounts of money in unnecessary places is the stadium of Manaus. The construction costs were 270 million dollars and it will only host 4 World Cup Games. The city of Manaus is so remote in the Amazonian forest you can only get there by boat or plane. The strange thing about it is that after the World Cup, the stadium will not be used after the tournament because there is not team that could rent it.

FIFA heavyweight sponsors such as Sony, Coca-Cola, Adidas, Budweiser, Visa, Hyundai and Kia have already expressed their concerns over the corruption allegation.