Should we be surprised at the behavior of the leaders of the International Football Federation?
The World Cup in Qatar is only the fourth day, and various scandals around football have accumulated for several tournaments ahead. This is the ban on One Love headbands for the captains of a number of national teams. The ban on the Belgian national team to train in a bright form. Constant arrests of fans and journalists with LGBT symbols and even a scandal with one of the FIFA sponsors, who was banned from placing his tents and selling alcoholic beer at the World Cup stadiums.
Interestingly, in all these situations, FIFA and its president, Gianni Infantino, took the side of the organizers, urging them to respect local customs and customs. To be honest, they sound strange, for at least one reason: the World Cup is a holiday for the whole world, and here the organizers need to find a compromise and adapt to the generally accepted norms of the whole world. We will generally keep silent about the situation with the hushing up and ignoring the numerous deaths of workers who worked on the construction of the World Cup facilities.
More surprising is FIFA’s decision to shrug off its longstanding partnership with Budweiser in favor of local authorities. Putting your reputation on the line for the whim of the sheikhs – indeed, you need to decide on this. The company is already thinking about filing a multimillion-dollar FIFA lawsuit and, quite likely, the case will not be limited to one beer producer.
It seems that the explanation for the actions of Infantino and FIFA is simple – money. No one knows how much and how it cost Qatar the right to host the World Cup. But it is already known for sure that the World Cup 2022 will be the most profitable in history. And its profitability compared to the 2006 tournament has tripled. As they say: nothing personal, just business.
Source: Sportarena
