© Reuters It’s money time: the economic summary of the World Cup in Qatar
| Ariel Bolstein, Israel Today |
Millions of Argentines continue to celebrate their team winning the World Cup, but if you’re looking for the winners of the economic bonanza that accompanies the world’s biggest soccer event, look far from the bustling streets of Buenos Aires.
The tournament in Qatar symbolized the final transition to the era of big money in national team football. The spending threshold set by the oil and gas emirates will affect all major tournaments for the foreseeable future. The International Football Association will find it difficult to entrust the hosting of the next competitions to countries that are not able to pour capital without an account.
So what is left for the slimmer candidates, who do have a penny in their pockets, but they know that the penny won’t be enough? Just to join the rich countries, as Greece and Egypt did, who chose to submit a joint bid with Saudi Arabia to host the 2030 World Cup. This is what will happen from now on: a candidacy without an unstoppable financial backing – will have no chance.
Neither will the advertisers agree to return to the concept of a modest tournament. The entire chain of expenses related to the World Cup has swelled: the sponsors pay more, the hotels and restaurants charge more (this is the real reason for the non-arrival of thoughtful and thrifty Europeans to Qatar), and the bar for entry into the club of those who profit from the World Cup is only rising.
Those who do enter it should not complain. According to the estimates, everyone involved in the organization of the last tournament made a handsome jackpot, and it is likely that we will probably never know the exact profits of some of them.
Even the clubs, seemingly unrelated to the competition between the national teams, will be able to get their hands on the cake. According to a dedicated FIFA program, 416 clubs from 63 countries will be able to request special compensation at the rate of 10,000 dollars for each day that any player from the club played for the national team during the World Cup or in the promotion matches.
The compensation will amount to 209 million dollars, a modest sum in terms of the competition held in Qatar. Those who advocate the values of modesty a little less are the heads of FIFA.
The Qatari experience has immeasurably increased the appetite of the organization, and it is already aimed at the next goal: to bring the revenues in the next 4 years until the 2026 World Cup to an imaginary amount of 11 billion dollars, an increase of almost 50 percent compared to the revenues for the World Cup that ended, which were also revenues record.
Read the full article on the Israel Today website