RSL Soapbox: Checking Out Some Of The Facts FIFA Overlooked

There’s no question there were lots of people more than a little miffed at Qatar winning the right to host the 2022 World Cup. A lot of that anger has descended into downright xenophobia and purposeful shading of the facts.

RSL Soapbox’s Denz tries to remove himself from a little bit of that, and instead lets some of the numbers speak for themselves.

So according to FIFA’s own documents Qatar was the only high risk option, the US was a low risk with the potential to sell more tickets than any other World Cup in history. FIFA also hired a consulting firm to look at the bids and to determine which bids would be the most profitable (clearly something they wanted to know since they paid for the study).

Denz attaches a whole host of charts that effectively illustrate how big of a gamble the Qatar bid really is. There’s no doubt none of them paint a very good picture for the oil-rich country.

But awarding World Cups is not usually about numbers. There is a logic at play, after all, it’s just not necessarily the logic we want FIFA to use.