The soccer World Cups are an economic ruin: since the one in England in 1966, the tournaments accumulate losses of almost 17,000 million dollars, assumed in their vast majority by the organizing countries

In a subtle way, it could be said that soccer World Cups are not economically viable events. The reality, however, places them rather at the level of ruinous businesses, with a structural deficit that, edition after edition, leaves millions in losses that would be unaffordable for an organization like the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA, for its acronym in English). ).

The data comes from an update published this year of a study that analyzed the sustainability of the Olympic Games in the scientific journal Nature (“An Evaluation of the Sustainability of the Olympic Games”, Müller et al., 2021). The sixties is the starting decade because it coincides with an expansion in the size of these events, with the development of live broadcasting by satellite and urban interventions, and because the availability of data related to previous editions is more limited.

In this sense, it should be noted that the study only includes direct costs and income, that is, clearly attributable to the celebration of the World Cup, so items such as the construction of general infrastructures -transport, accommodation, etc.- or the profits from the hospitality, much more difficult to delimit and quantify, have been excluded.

The data comes from an update published this year of a study that analyzed the sustainability of the Olympic Games in the scientific journal Nature (“An Evaluation of the Sustainability of the Olympic Games”, Müller et al., 2021). The sixties is the starting decade because it coincides with an expansion in the size of these events, with the development of live broadcasting by satellite and urban interventions, and because the availability of data related to previous editions is more limited.

In this sense, it should be noted that the study only includes direct costs and income, that is, clearly attributable to the celebration of the World Cup, so items such as the construction of general infrastructures -transport, accommodation, etc.- or the profits from the hospitality, much more difficult to delimit and quantify, have been excluded.

To date, the only World Cup that has turned a profit since the 1960s is Russia in 2018, but in Qatar, which is already the second most expensive edition in history if we take inflation into account, the most likely Let the red numbers return.

The Qatari authorities, without going any further, estimate that the investment surrounding the organization of the 2022 World Cup has required more than 200,000 million dollars, although only 6,500 have been allocated to the construction of stadiums - FIFA will disburse 1,696 million to the organization for this ―. Along the way, the dictatorship of the Persian Gulf has taken the opportunity to expand its hotel and leisure offer, remodel its entire road network and build a new railway, projects that are part of the Qatar 2030 strategy, a development plan that aims to to make the Arab country "an advanced society capable of achieving sustainable development" by that date.

But if Qatar, an authoritarian petromonarchy with hardly any soccer tradition, has dedicated so many resources and efforts to holding the World Cup - its election uncovered a corruption and bribery plot that affected the FIFA leadership - it is because the impact of the World Cup event goes beyond economic figures. And this is where another of the reasons that keeps the most important sports tournament in the world alive lies: its organization is also a form of soft power, a small adulterated window into the reality of a country that usually translates into the arrival of new investors. and tourists, but also juicy political benefits for the circles of power. And that visibility ―or image laundering― is a unique opportunity for an autocratic monarchy that ignores the rights of women or sexual minorities but that aspires to gain influence at the international level.

It is not, after all, anything new. The World Cup held in Argentina in 1978 already served to wash the international image of the military dictatorship suffered by the Latin American country. That of Russia in 2018, also under suspicion for the bribery and corruption plot surrounding the awarding of venues in 2010, to establish the image and power of the Vladimir Putin regime.

Source.