The corruption that corrodes the organization of the World Football Cup, which began Thursday in São Paulo, Brazil, has not been a surprise for many. What has created uncertainty and preoccupation in financial circles is the lack of political capacity on the part of those governing this country to deal with popular discontent. The out-of-control expenditures for luxury items has led to a generalized rejection on the part of the population. For a number of decades now, the world economy tends to go from crisis to crisis. The productive sector – which was the engine of development – has taken a back seat to financial activities, including widespread speculation. Instead of measuring economic growth on the basis of production, today “progress” is measured by the movement of savings from workers to the banks.

 

Today everything has a price, everything is a commodity. “Politics has ceased to be a service and has become a business.” Sport is no exception. On the contrary, it has become one of the principal sources of wealth. A century ago, sports were captured by organized crime (mafia associated with government) and placed at the service of illicit activities for huge profit (gambling and other manoeuvres). What was considered part of the “underworld” is today part of the business world. At the end of the Twentieth Century, even the Olympic games were professionalized for mercantile ends. Athletes compete for better remuneration. The venues and the authorities compete for commissions and prestige. The financing entities compete to appropriate millions of dollars invested in works and in “cost-plus” factors.

 

The sporting event that is most in demand is without doubt the Olympic Games. These generate billions of dollars that the International Olympic Committee manages together with global finance. The International Olympic Committee projects a carefully crafted image related to the founders at the end of the Nineteenth Century. One of supposed gentlemen who wished to revive the Olympic spirit of ancient Greece. Every four years the Greek cities suspended their wars so that their youth could compete in sporting events. This noble spirit has been forgotten.

 

In the case of the World Cup, the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) has become an element that has become one of the most successful business enterprises. FIFA spends several billion dollars per annum. The World Cup organized in Brazil will generate nearly five billion dollars, most of this for the sale of television rights on a world scale. FIFA takes a slice of all the rights sold by its members. This includes national and regional championships.   For every football shirt, sock or shoe that is sold, FIFA gets its share. Of the five billion dollar total generated by the World Cup in Brazil, FIFA keeps 90 per cent.

 

The protests of the great variety of organizations in all Brazilian cities are fully justified. The government is investing more than 20 billion dollars in the construction of stadiums, enlarging of airports and infrastructure development to the benefit of FIFA, speculators and Brazilian and international financiers. Paraphrasing the English sociologist David Harvey, the World Cup has “dispossessed” the Brazilian people. Those who protest cannot accept the fact that their wealth and their savings are handed over to construction companies, financiers and speculators without any recompense for themselves. In this systematic looting, FIFA is only an intermediary. It is important to note that the spectacle presented is unique: Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar and other super-stars with 32 teams, 62 matches in one month that the latest technology brings to the last corners of the world.

 

The Brazilians quite obviously have nothing against football, or against the World Cup. They are the penta-champions, the best players – according to many – on earth.   But they reject the arrogant way that the FIFA and the international banks come to the country to loot the people with the apparent complicity of the government. The lesson that needs to be learned from the Brazilian protests is that the sport can no longer be manipulated by speculators. The Brazilian government will have to face the people again in 2016 as the Olympic Games come to Rio de Janeiro, where once again there will be expenditures that do not benefit the people of this South American country.

 

- Marco A. Gandásegui, Jr. Professor of Sociology of the University of Panama and researcher with the Centro de Estudios Latinoamericanos Justo Arosemena (CELA) www.marcoagandasegui14.blogspot.com, www.salacela.net

 

 

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