The World Cup of Mediocre Ethics

How FIFA prefers big money and lacks standing for a noble purpose

Olivier Onghena-’t Hooft ~
Author of ‘The Book of Noble Purpose’
Brussels, 2022 12 01

Football is a sport full of passion. It allows people to forge bonds, to feel proud, to become free, to climb the social ladder. It also has the potential to transform society, the economy, and even Humankind.

At the start of professionalizing football in 1904, when 7 football associations of amateurs joined forces, they did so out of idealism: to play sport against each other and to let football be a force for good.

Connecting people(s) through sport indeed is a powerful noble purpose.

There is, however, an ocean of discrepancy between that ideal on the one hand, and how FIFA has been guilty of corruption and shabby deals for decades, and what FIFA stands for today on the other hand. And above all a lot of hypocrisy, unprecedented self-interest, great lack of ethical leadership and the lure of billions.

Partying on mass graves without scruples

Meanwhile, the games are in full swing, a few billion people from all over the world will watch at home, and possibly a few million people will come to Qatar to experience the vibrant atmosphere. Experience the atmosphere and party abundantly in stadiums built by countless migrant workers who came from several poor countries. Modern day slaves who have lived, worked, and suffered in unacceptable conditions. Thousands of them have died, are forgotten, and unrecognized by Qatar.

A country that did not have any infrastructure and has invested over USD 220 billion to host the games. Not to improve the rights of migrant workers, of women, of LGBTQ+ people, neither to allow poor migrant workers to work in dignified and safe ways, but to build eight stadiums that had to impress, an airport extension, lavish hotels, a new metro, key infrastructure and the alike.

The many investigations done by independent media, by human rights activists and by Human Rights Watch, have exposed the extent to which Qatar was guilty of migrant labor and human rights abuses.

All with the knowledge of FIFA … that remained silent!

Red card for low moral standards & ethics

The biggest responsibility, however, sits with the capitalist short-term thinking and ego-driven macho leadership of FIFA. The choice for Qatar came after extensive corruption, manipulation, and an internal power struggle. NB: the recent Netflix documentary by Daniel Gordon about this is particularly intriguing!

No human rights due diligence was done before awarding Qatar with the world cup organization. Clear and enforceable agreements about the protection of and respect for the tens of thousands of migrant workers have never been made.

FIFA has never urged Qatar to reconsider the flawed women’s rights and the place of women in modern times. Qatari laws, regulations & practices impose discriminatory male guardianship rules, which deny women the right to make key decisions about their lives. We’re talking about needing permission to marry, to travel abroad until certain ages, to work in government jobs, etcetera.

Nor was Qatar requested that the rights of LGBTIQ+ people be reviewed or respected. Homosexuality is punished by law. Too often people ‘found guilty of acts of immorality’ are mistreated, excluded or worse. And instead of making a strong stance against such discrimination, FIFA president Infantino said that anyone wearing a ‘One Love’ armband on the field would receive a yellow card. Hence several teams refrained from their initial intention to support the One Love movement.

FIFA has time and time again failed to shoot the ball wide of the ethical goal. FIFA has been particularly concerned with the billion-dollar deals it was able to win with the host country, the media groups that pay for the broadcasting rights, the sponsors, and other financial stakeholders. That is why FIFA deserves a red card for its low moral standards and its substandard ethics.

Money before meaning

Instead of standing outspokenly for what football could or should be – a sport to uplift individuals, to connect people and to help nations become more tolerant and inclusive – FIFA ‘just’ chooses to exist to govern football and to develop the game around the world. This is a very transactional and totally noble purpose-less approach to football. Hence the selection of Russia and Qatar in 2010.

Indeed, I don’t see any benefit for society or the much-needed progress of our world in remaining silent about or indirectly accepting discrimination, separation, and intolerance.

I don’t believe that shabby dealmaking is what a global organization with a huge potential for noble purpose as FIFA should be about, despite all the nice sentences and images on their website.

 I consider it a long-gone paradigm that a self-selected bunch of male leaders decide solely in the interest of their organization, and in too many cases, in their own interest.

Unless if there is a system that protects itself. And that system, called short-term capitalism, organizational greed, and self-centered egotism, does indeed exist.

FIFA makes deals with governments, sponsors, and stakeholders that all have shared interests in keeping the system going.

What if some major sponsors had refused to wire the huge amounts of money? What if media groups had said no to broadcasting the games? What if governments had decided not to send representatives to the opening or to the match of their teams? What if the public had massively turned its back to the world cup? What if you, as an individual, had refused to watch and shared with your close ones why you did so?

That’s where the problem sits! Too many people talk about the repressive regime of Qatar, the shame of not respecting the human rights, the horror of these thousands of deaths, how ridiculous Infantino was with threatening with the yellow cars, but too little of these same people stood up to call this world cup a shame for humanity, an irresponsible act of a humanly weak but strong money-machine that FIFA still is.

If sponsors will keep coming along with buckets of money, FIFA will not change. And if FIFA allows sponsors to come along without imposing conditions, these sponsors will keep coming and enjoying the massive benefits. Some of these sponsors by the way who stand on their websites for inclusion, human rights, and equality. What a fucked-up rationale this is!

If governments without the necessary human and humanitarian framework will still be granted the honor of hosting the games, without the condition of humanitarian due diligences or adapting national laws to become more democratic, inclusive, and respectful of minorities or specific parts of the population, none of these governments will feel the need or have the intention to do something about it. If they wire the right amount of money, promise the right infrastructure and the safe conditions for the visitors, everything can just remain as it has always been.

And if we, as individuals, don’t stand up and speak out what we feel and think about this ‘system’, if we don’t decide – I did though! – not to watch neither to party, and if we don’t create consciousness of what really matters on an ethical level, then nothing will change neither.

The noble purpose hope for global football

I do believe though that nothing is permanent, and that transforming a system is possible when the right people come at the right moment with the right intentions. FIFA is not there to serve its own interests but to serve the world. FIFA has an enormous potential to transform itself from a neoliberal machine, initiated by former FIFA president Joao Havelange, and continued by Sepp Blatter, to an inspirational force for good for Humankind, led by conscious and integer men and women, that represent inclusion and diversity that our world makes a much better place to live.