EDITORIALS

june 21, 2014 vol xlix no 25 EPW Economic & Political Weekly
8
Beautiful Game, Ugly Administration
The administration of football does not measure up to the standards set by its best practitioners on the eld.
P
rotests at major sporting events, especially in the deve-
loping world, are not unusual. Mega-sporting events
have always been used by regimes to cleanse their
cities of the poor while the governments engage in extravagant
spending. This was true of China where the 2012 Beijing Olympics
were held and India where the much smaller 2010 Common-
wealth Games were conducted in Delhi. But the ongoing pro-
tests that have lasted nearly a year against the preparations for
the 2014 football World Cup in Brazil have been somewhat
unprecedented.
EDITORIALS
Economic & Political Weekly EPW june 21, 2014 vol xlix no 25
9
Football is the beautiful game for the sports connoisseur,
especially when it is played by the Lionel Messis, Neymars,
Xavis, Philipp Lahms and other such skilled practitioners. It is
also the game that attracts the most widespread support
across the world. Every four years, the excitement surround-
ing the sport rises to a pitch when the World Cup tournament
is held featuring 32 national teams which have qualied for
the nals. The host, Brazil, is the presumptive favourite in
2014 because of the abundant natural talent in its squad and
because it enjoys the home advantage. Yet, protestors in
football-crazy Brazil have hit the streets to express their
unhappiness about the conduct of the World Cup. They have
questioned the unnecessary expenditure on fancy stadia, the
simultaneous hikes in fees for public services, displacement
of the poor and the widespread corruption beneting ofcials
close to or part of the Workers Party that runs the national
government.
Brazil is said to have spent around $11 billion on the 2014
tournament, making it the most expensive World Cup ever
held. The intensity of the protests has drawn support even from
the games icons, such as the 1994 World Cup winner-turned-
politician Romario and his captain Rai. Even the apolitical Pele,
arguably the best footballer ever, has said a few things criticis-
ing the huge spending by the government. A number of political
forces from the centre-right and the left have ranged against
the government over its conduct of the World Cup. After all,
this is also the year when presidential elections are due and
Brazils president, Dilma Rousseff, has pledged to seek a
renewal of her mandate.
But it is not only the Government of Brazil that is being
pushed into a corner. For all the sporting excellence on the eld
the admini stration of the game has been controlled by corrupt
and short-sighted bureaucrats. The Federation Inter nationale
de Football Association (FIFA), which administers the game
globally, is notoriously scandal-ridden. Its long-time president,
Sepp Blatter, has faced many allegations of nancial mis-
management and is also known to have regressive views
on a number of subjects related to football such as on the
widespread racism in European stadia and on women in foot-
ball. For the 2014 World Cup, FIFA got a national ban on alcohol
sales and use in stadia overturned, showing little concern for
a well-thought-out measure to stamp out hooliganism in
Brazilian football.
FIFAs manner of accepting bids for conducting World Cups
has also come under intense scrutiny. The bid for the 2022
World Cup was won by Qatar whose method of obtaining
support from FIFA executives has come under suspicion. Accu-
sations of bribes being given to a number of executives across
different countries have led to FIFA launching an internal eth-
ics enquiry that is scheduled to submit its report in October this
year. That Qatar won the bid for the 2022 World Cup did not
make sense at all. The country has never qualied to play in
the World Cup nals. The extreme weather conditions in Qatar
during the summer months when World Cup matches are
generally scheduled so that they do not conict with league
football in Europe are unsuitable for outdoor play. One of the
key negotiators in Qatars bid, billionaire Mohamed bin Ham-
mam, had been suspended from FIFA-related activity for al-
leged corruption during a bid for the FIFA presidency in 2011.
Qatars government and football authorities have come under
even more intense criticism than their counterparts in Brazil.
Investigative reports have depicted abuse of migrant labour,
who are engaged in construction work as the country embarks
on a makeover ahead of 2022.
The protests in Brazil and the reports about corruption
and inhuman working conditions in Qatar beg the question as
to the purpose of holding these World Cup jamborees. The
World Cup and the beautiful game have been built as a spec-
tacle for football-loving fans. Yet it is the proteers who have
beneted through exploitation of labour and displacement of
the poor. But do the fans really care? When the football kicks off
and the frenzy over the performances on the eld takes over,
would the ugliness in the administration of the sport really mat-
ter to anyone watching the game?