The World Cup in football kicks off on American soil in two weeks. But behind the headlines about Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar and the squad selection of Tuhel and Pochettino, a number of scandals are simmering.
Here’s the full horrific list:
The football news this week constitutes one of the quietest, most catastrophic stories in modern sports history.
The World Cup in the USA (Canada and Mexico) starts in a couple of weeks. And it is a slow-moving train accident.
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1. No TV deal with India or China
A few weeks before kick-off, FIFA still lacks broadcasting agreements with India and China – two of the world’s largest media markets.
India alone has 85 million football fans. FIFA is demanding $100 million. Reliance bid 20 million. Now FIFA has flown leaders to New Delhi to ask the Indians to meet in the middle. – They define the middle at $60 million.
2. Ticket prices – “so expensive that Trump himself resigns”
The cheapest seat in the final at MetLife Stadium costs over 6000 dollars. Demand has fallen dramatically. Resale prices are plummeting.
FIFA has introduced Ticketmaster’s so-called “surge pricing” model – but it collapses in real time. No one in the United States wants to pay the equivalent of a mortgage to watch a football game. Even President Trump himself told the New York Post last month that he would not pay $1000 to watch the opening game of the United States.
His own hand-picked World Cup boss, Andrew Giuliani – Rudy’s son, himself a failed gubernatorial candidate and failed professional golfer – had to publicly contradict his boss.
Giuliani said, “If I’m the story of the World Cup, the World Cup hasn’t gone well.”
You’re the story, buddy. It has not gone well.
3. The hotels – tens of thousands of rooms cancelled
FIFA has canceled tens of thousands of hotel rooms across the United States in its host cities. Hotel operators say that anti-American sentiment – sparked by Trump’s immigration policies and his war against Iran – is keeping international fans at home.
The tourists don’t come.
The cities were promised a generational boost. They get empty rooms and angry concierges.
Nevertheless, Trump is walking around in his second term saying that he will fill the seats. But the fans don’t come.
Even the head of German football, Bern Neuendorf, has expressed concern that the tournament will not be a success.
4. The Pride fight – Iran says no
- June in Seattle: Iran vs. Egypt.
The match was designated as a pride match by Seattle’s organizing committee. Rainbow art. Marking the Stonewall anniversary. It was going to be a moving game.
Iran’s football association responded with ten demands to FIFA.
Requirement number one: Only officially recognized national flags in the stadium. In other words: No pride flags in Seattle. No celebration of Stonewall.
Remember: Iran punishes homosexuality with death.
FIFA bows.
At the same time, FIFA bans the pre-revolutionary Iranian flag – the lion and the sun – the symbol of Iranian dissidents who have fled the regime.
In other words: FIFA allows Iran to dictate who gets to fly the flag – while at the same time banning the symbol of the people who fled Iran.
Global unity, right?
5. Ebola – and a CDC in ruins (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
The Democratic Republic of Congo has qualified for the World Cup. The team will be based in Houston. Opening match on June 17 against Portugal.
In the DRC and Uganda, there is an outbreak of Ebola. 80 died so far. An American doctor in the DRC tested positive last weekend.
The CDC has imposed a 30-day travel restriction on non-US passport holders from the DRC, Uganda and South Sudan. The restriction expires the day before the DRC opening match.
But the biggest problem: The Trump administration has drained the CDC of resources. The United States is not at all prepared for an outbreak.
And yet Ebola is coming to the United States. With a team that will play in the World Cup.
6. The Whales – Paint War in Dallas
Dallas (or technically Arlington, because the games aren’t even played in Dallas) has had FIFA paint over an iconic whale painting by Weiland – one of the country’s most beloved naval artists.
The mural, one of his “Walls of Grievance”, was painted in 1999 as a gift. The message: conservation, ocean awareness, that we all live downstream from each other.
Weiland says he was never asked. He calls the city’s claim that they contacted him “lies with a capital L”.
Now he is threatening a federal lawsuit.
The city of Dallas defends itself by saying that the new mural will at least not be an advertisement. Right now, there is a giant, blue rectangle where beautiful whales used to be. And a press release that says, “Hey, don’t worry about that.”
Summary:
- Empty hotels.
- No TV deals in the largest markets.
- A battle of pride without pride.
- An Ebola outbreak with an eradicated CDC.
- And a blue rectangle where the whales used to be.
This World Cup will be remembered as the moment when FIFA’s “growth at all costs” met the Trump administration’s “lost at all levels, but call it a victory.”
If you wrote this as a script, no one would believe you.
One more thing: The FIFA Peace Prize was awarded in the same building as the “war room” is located.
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