TThe greatest trick ever taught by the devil was to overwhelm the critical powers of those who considered him. Use the word “garbage” once and the mass of the next lesson arises, an exercise in its true meaning: said “suckers” or “helpers”? A convicted deed, who bursts out with reproaches and does not immediately follow through, yet the response is too uneven, too hollow, always moving to the next insult, so that no one ever sticks to it completely.
Saudi Arabia will be awarded the right to host the 2034 World Cup on Wednesday. There may not even be a vote applause. Lise KlavenessThe president of the Norwegian Confederation was targeted, a brilliantly consistent critic of Gianni Infantino, and last month. raised a number of questions about the process going forward in 2034, but seems to be doing little even now. The other Scandinavian confederations, with only a vague position of resistance, seem now to have accepted the inevitable. When there is only one option available, what else can you do?
But repping is the most important reason why there is only one option. FIFA regulations – quite reasonably – are hosted by the state behind the confederation World Cupneither of these two is possible. The 2026 World Cup will be held jointly by the USA, Canada and Mexico, and Concacaf will be taken out of the running. The 2030 World Cup will be held in Spain, Portugal and Morocco, with the sign of three games in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay recognizing the percentage of the first World Cup that has been hosted in Uruguay. That removed Uefa, Caf and Conmebol, meaning 2034 had to go either to Asia or Oceania.
On the 6th of October last year, unexpectedly; Fifa The order opened the process, giving the potential army 25 days to submit its orders. The contribution that is ordered takes months: the level is placed, the stadiums are chosen, the logistics are considered, the construction is funded, the planning permission is secured. What the 25th day does not do. Saudi Arabia successfully ordered their document to go. Australia, who could participate in hosting, could see which way the wind was blowing and didn’t bother any type of entrant.
However, despite Fifa’s vetting process, it was tough for the Saudis to negotiate. AS&H Clifford Chance, which is based in Riyadh, was contracted to “put together an independent human rights assessment of the context”. Amnesty International the report described it as “a patch” some issues are neglected while making use of selective UN investigations that highlight the widespread practice of torture in prisons, women and girls who often allege sexual abuse. face criminal chargesand complaints about the rights of workers.
This last point seems most appropriate in their light report by Fifa’s subcommittee on human rights and social responsibility that was published last week. Although Fifa has concluded that it is responsible for compensating those who suffer damage due to the World Cup construction projects, the governing body has refused to pay compensation.
Reports anticipate that the situation is even worse in Saudi Arabia due to the construction scale they are essentially ignored. Around 21,000 Indians, Bangladeshis and Nepalese have died in Saudi Arabia since 2016: as work begins on a fleet of new stadiums and associated infrastructure, including 185,000 hotel rooms, that figure will not decrease. The kafala system of work by the author which was eventually abolished in Qatar – at least in law, if not in practice – while colleges of the arts are banned and laws are rarely enforced, leading to a large influx of migrant workers.
Fifa’s own report on the Saudi bid has sharpened to make the risk of human rights “medium”, which makes you wonder what would be seen in the country as “high”. Amnesty described the situation as “harsh” and deteriorating under Mohammed bin Salmanwho, as a crowned leader, “presides over a skyrocketing number of mass executions, torture, extermination, severe restrictions, free expression, repression of women’s rights under the masculine system of male custody, LGBTI+ discrimination and the killing of hundreds of migrants at the Saudi Arabia-Yemen border”.
Saudi Fifa bid for a high score of 419.8 out of 500, perhaps the least likely figure released by the official body. Enver HoxhaThe Communists cast 1,627,959 votes out of 1,627,968 votes in the 1982 Albanian election. Their stages are estimated to be the same as 2026, the amazing 11 events of Saudi Arabia have not yet actually happened.
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All of which raises the obvious question of why. The Saudis are keen to host the World Cup as part of a broader effort to invest in the sport, but what is Fifa doing? Last week, Infantino announced that the streaming rights to the World Cup next summer, his favorite to wrest at least some of the club’s hunting power and its resources from Uefa, had been bought by Dazn for $1bn, which will be every match. Live and enjoy the lake. That’s a figure industry insiders suggest is significantly higher than the market (Fox offered only $10m to US rights).
Dazn has posted losses of at least £1bn every year since 2019, but recent reports have suggested the Saudi Public Investment Fund is to prepare a $1Bn bid for 10% of the company. So Dazn would become a platform to promote Saudi investment through the game, while also supporting the Club World Cup, which was in. desperate need for an injection of cash. Infantino and Arabia win; He loses his pride and human modesty.
The World Cup was established by Jules Rimet, a romantic who set up his own club in Paris, in response to the Pope’s suggestion that sport used to relieve “wretchedness and misery” and believed that “sport can unite the world”. Only four years and the intervention of Italy’s dictator Benito Mussolini hinted at how rural she was. But the World Cup has never been seen as far from the models of the Rimetors as now, at the same time the biggest festival on the sporting planet, and a dirty commercial machine at an immense human and environmental cost for torturers, murderers, abductors and inextinguishably greedy, scrutinized stymied rum variety of atrocity.