The Chaos of the World Cup

This week the FIFA World Cup is coming back to North America and it's hard to imagine a more "American" homecoming. There are reports of soaring ticket prices due to the rampant and unfair greed of FIFA in a pricing model that economists describe as "rigged by design." 

The contradictions in human rights, chaos between teams, travel bans + visa issues and geopolitical tensions led The Atlantic to describe this as the "absurd World Cup." and international media are accurately describing the event as "riddled with controversy." Estimates of the lost income from businesses both in productivity and direct costs will be millions of dollars. And FIFA is actively under investigation for price fixing, monopoly practices and unethical ticketing practices. It's hard to name one aspect of this chaos and controversy of this that doesn't feel unrecognizably American.

It is also bigger (super-sized?) ... no other World Cup has been spread over three countries or included an expanded roster of 48 teams and 104 matches. This World Cup is also the first where a host country has been at war with a participating nation and where "fans from more than a quarter of the 48 countries taking part in the World Cup are facing travel bans, tighter restrictions or high visa rejection rates."

Given the rampant allegations of bribery when FIFA awarded the World Cup to Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022, the combined choice of the US, Canada and Mexico for 2026 was supposed to represent a safe, non-controversial choice. It hasn't really worked out that way. And so today, just hours away from the opening matches, we are left with an unavoidably stained and corrupt World Cup, showcasing an estimated 180,000 empty seats, that no soccer fan can be happy about.