FIFA: A Monopoly on International Football and The World Cup, Part 1

This article is the first in a three part series where I will examine the FIFA World Cup Host Country Selection Process, the monopoly that FIFA has on International Football and the World Cup, and provide a critique of how FIFA's position has allowed for money to control the selection process.

In order to begin to understand the decision to have Russia host the 2018 World Cup and Qatar to host the 2022 international football championship, it is useful to be familiar with the short history of the host selection process for the tournament.

First held in 1930, the early years of the FIFA World Cup were hosted on one of two continents: Europe or South America. Only once was there a vote until 1962, and often countries had unchallenged bids as a result of opposing nations withdrawing from consideration. In a symbolic effort to foster diversity and equality in the selection process, North America was allowed to enter a bid to host the tournament, and as a result from 1962-1998 the tournament was alternated between Europe and the Americas.

In 2002 Japan and South Korea hosted the World Cup in a revolutionary move by the FIFA Executive Committee, who voted in favor of the two countries after they merged their individual bids against Mexico at the last moment; resulting in the actual globalization of the tournament. The voting process has continued up until today with subsequent competitions being held in Germany (2006), South Africa (2010), Brazil (2014), Russia (2018), and Qatar (2022).

Confused? Don't over-analyze it. I liken it to a country who operates under a theocratic government, a religion whose leader is appointed by divine intervention, or the governance of Emerald City by the Wizard of Oz.

The next logical question is "What are the criteria that eligible host countries are judged on during the selection process?" This is tough to answer. FIFA's Executive Committee never explicitly states what factors into their decision, but a close look at the Host Selection Agreement all countries must submit to be officially considered provides some "clarity" on the topic. The 60+ pages of legal jargon ultimately provides broad, completely subjective requirements for the country selected to host the FIFA World Cup, including:

• The ability to provide sites for competitions and "fan related promotional events" that adhere to the highest technological, commercial, and infrastructure international standards, and if necessary, develop existing facilities to meet these requirements
• The ability to provide utilities, parking facilities, and security/emergency services for competition related events, along with volunteer and ticket facilities near the stadiums.
• Provide one stadium per Host City, and host cities, as well as 4 potential venue-specific training sites in aforementioned cities located close to respective venue-specific team hotels (Max 20 min drive)
• Provide a traffic management plan, public transportation, emergency routes, as well as shuttle bus routes for matches and FIFA Fan Fest on match days for duration of the competition
• Provide hotels to serve as "Team Base Camps" for each participating team within 20 min of their respective training sites
• Provide established local, regional, and national communication plan to promote competitions
• AND be able to minimize environmental impact :)

Clearly, this leaves much to be desired in explaining why countries have been chosen to host the tournament in the past.

The next installment in the series will delve further into the Host Selection Agreement to reveal some "interesting" demands FIFA makes of countries wishing to be considered to host the FIFA World Cup.

- NLW