This article offers an interesting and relatively original interpretation of the decisions taken on the location of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. It argues that they may reflect changing geopolitical realities in the world.
This article offers an interesting and relatively original interpretation of the decisions taken on the location of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. It argues that they may reflect changing geopolitical realities in the world.
The BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) are growing fast, along with other emerging countries such as those in the Middle East. The G7 countries (US, Canada, Japan and the top European economies) are beset by fiscal crises and in relative decline. As a consequence, the balance of power is shifting in the world and this is bound to affect football which has become a relatively globalised game.
I think that these structural arguments repay attention and they are part of the story. The other part of the story is an agency one in terms of Sepp Blatter and his cronies at Fifa. These were not objective, evidence-based decisions but reflected as much as anything the internal politics of Fifa.
Football as a competive league game remains at its strongest in Europe. The South American leagues have been affected by the departure of some of their best players to Europe. Europe can still afford to buy the best players, particularly from the Global South. One way that emerging countries can get involved is by staging the World Cup and another is to invest in clubs in Europe, particularly in Britain.
A letter writer in The Football League Paper yesterday asked, ‘As an Irishman, I would like to know why you tolerant Englishmen allow foreign owners to come in and build teams around foreign players.’ The UK has been open for foreign investment since the 19th century. It is a much more recent pheomenon in football. One could make an exception for football, provided one was compliant with international treaties, but it might send a signal that Britain was no longer ‘open for business’.