International Football
The economics and public relations of the 2022 World Cup
Money and football. Beauty and the beast.
No other event on earth comes remotely close to the World Cup in terms of viewership, attendance, talent, nationalism, and sheer magic. The World Cup is the ultimate celebration and dramatization of the beautiful game.
The economics of the World Cup also add up to an equally dizzying spectacle. The 2022 Qatar World Cup is the most expensive of all time. Here’s a breakdown of the numbers:
- $220 billion: The estimated cost of what Qatar spent on infrastructure in preparation for the 2022 World Cup.
- $42 million: The prize money awarded to the team that wins it all. FIFA allows each team to decide what share of the purse players receive.
- $30 million: Prize money for the runners-up.
- $9 million: The amount each team gets just for qualifying for the World Cup.
- $60 million: The reported annual value of Nike’s deal to sponsor the French Football Federation. Nike has deals of various sizes with 13 nations in the 32-team field, the most of any apparel brand.
- $128 million: The highest-paid player is France’s Kylian Mbappé, who’ll make $110 million on the field this year through his contract with Paris Saint-Germain, and another $18 million off the field.
- $209 million: The amount that soccer clubs around the world receive from a fund set aside by FIFA to reward them for developing players who play in the tournament for their national teams.
- $277 million: The widely reported amount David Beckham was paid by Qatar to serve as an ambassador for the 2022 World Cup, paid out in installments over 10 years.
- $440 million: The total prize pool for the 2022 World Cup, up from $400 million in 2018.
- $1.7 billion: The costs covered by FIFA for this year’s World Cup (prize money, hospitality, logistics and TV operations).
- $7.5 billion: FIFA’s commercial deals tied to the 2022 World Cup.
- $160 billion: The amount estimated to be spent by gamblers worldwide.
The public relations of the World Cup: the good and the bad
The tournament’s public relations value to Qatar and FIFA is a no-brainer. The energy-rich Gulf state will be able to showcase its shiny, state-of-the-art infrastructure and facilities.
In doing so, Qatar will become the face of an Arab world that projects itself as rich, bold, and futuristic – a dramatic contrast with current perceptions of a world wracked by conflict, repression, violence and conservatism.
In many ways, hosting the World Cup is in PR terms similar to Qatar’s launch in 1996 of the Al Jazeera television network that radically changed the Arab media landscape and put the Gulf state on the map in a way public relations never could have.
But the World Cup also has a dark public relations side. Overshadowing the question of the cost of the World Cup is the fate of the migrant workers who have toiled in the country for the past decade. There are 1.7 million migrant workers in the country, accounting for over 90% of the workforce in a population of 2.9 million.
Since it was awarded the tournament in 2010, Qatar has faced a barrage of criticism from human rights groups for its treatment of foreign workers, and thousands of migrant deaths have been reported.
FIFA, football fans and PR
How FIFA came to its decision to award the World Cup to Qatar will forever be shrouded in mystery. Allegations of bribery are just that, allegations. They have never been proven, nor will they ever be. There can only be assumptions.
For FIFA, football’s international governing body, neither migrant worker deaths nor the question of costs will affect its bottom line. It has been a financial boom.
For the football fans, economics and public relations are not relevant at this stage. All they want to do is sit back, relax and enjoy the tension of the beautiful game.
-prnomics.com/
International Football
Former Brazil coach Tite taking break to take care of mental, physical health
Former Brazil coach Tite said he is taking an indefinite career break in order to take care of his mental and physical health.
The 63-year-old, who led Brazil to the 2019 Copa America title, was hospitalised due to a heart issue last August. He was sacked by Flamengo the following month and had most recently been linked with the Corinthians job.
“I realised that there are times when you have to understand that, as a human being, I can be vulnerable and admitting that will certainly make me stronger,” Tite said in a statement posted on his son Matheus Bachi’s Instagram on Tuesday.
“I’m passionate about what I do and I’ll continue to be so, but after talking to my family and observing the signals my body was giving off, I decided that the best thing to do now is to take a break from my career to look after myself for as long as it takes.
“As has become public, there was a conversation in progress with Corinthians, but it will have to be paralysed by a difficult but necessary decision.”
Tite, who stepped down as Brazil coach after their quarter-final exit from the 2022 World Cup, has previously coached a string of Brazilian sides including Gremio, Atletico Mineiro and Palmeiras.
-Reuters
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Brazil have sacked head coach Dorival Jr, the country’s football confederation (CBF) said on Friday after the five-time world champions were thrashed 4-1 away to fierce rivals Argentina in a humiliating qualifying loss in Buenos Aires.
The 62-year-old was appointed in January 2024 after the team spent a year under two caretaker coaches as the Brazilian FA were unable to lure Italian Carlo Ancelotti from Real Madrid.
“The Brazilian Football Confederation informs that coach Dorival Jr is no longer in charge of the Brazilian national team,” the confederation said in a statement.
“The management thanks (Dorival) and wishes him success in continuing his career … the CBF will work to find his replacement,” it added.
Dorival was handed the job after his success with Flamengo in 2022 where he won the Copa Libertadores and Brazilian Cup, a trophy he lifted again the next year with Sao Paulo.
However, he never seemed to get to grips with the national team job and failed to earn the trust of Brazil’s demanding fans after winning only seven of his 16 games in charge.
Sources told Reuters the CBF was not confident in Dorival’s work, considering there had been little to no progress since a lacklustre Copa America campaign when Brazil were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Uruguay last year.
Still, the CBF was willing to wait and see until the 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Ecuador and Paraguay in June to reassess the situation following the end of the European season and the Club World Cup in the U.S. in June and July.
But after Brazil slumped to their heaviest-ever loss in a qualifier when they were thrashed by Argentina this week, CBF president Ednaldo Rodrigues decided to pull the trigger.
IDEAL CANDIDATE
Sources told Reuters Ancelotti was still the ideal candidate but he is under contract with Real until July 2026 and there is no indication he would leave the European and Spanish champions.
Brazilian media have reported that Al Hilal’s Portuguese coach Jorge Jesus is the favourite to replace Dorival.
Brazil have been in unfamiliar territory for over two years since crashing out of the 2022 World Cup against Croatia on penalties in the quarter-finals, a heartbreaking elimination that led to the exit of long-time manager Tite.
Their humbling defeat in Buenos Aires was the latest of a series of negative records Brazil have set under caretakers Ramon Menezes and Fernando Diniz and with Dorival in charge. They had never conceded four goals in a World Cup qualifier.
Brazil are in the midst of their worst-ever World Cup qualifying campaign. They are fourth in the South American standings with 21 points, a point above sixth-placed Colombia who currently occupy the final direct qualifying berth.
Never have Brazil lost so many games, conceded so many goals or set so many negative records in the qualifying competition. They have lost five of their 14 games and conceded 16 goals.
Brazil’s 1-0 defeat by Argentina in the Maracana late in 2023 was their first-ever qualifying loss on home soil.
They also lost to Colombia for the first time, saw the end of their unbeaten run against Uruguay stretching back over two decades and were defeated by Morocco and Senegal, having never previously lost to an African nation.
-Reuters
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International Football
England’s German manager Tuchel will not sing the English anthem in his first game
England manager Thomas Tuchel said he would have to “earn the right” to sing the national anthem, God Save the King, after announcing his 26-man squad on Friday ahead of the team’s World Cup qualifiers.
Tuchel, who was appointed as Gareth Southgate’s successor in October and named his first squad to face Albania and Latvia this month, said he would not sing the anthem in his first games in charge.
“It means a lot to me, I can assure you, but I can feel that because it is so meaningful and it is so emotional and it is so powerful, the national anthem, that I have to earn my right to sing it,” the 51-year-old German told a news conference.
Former caretaker manager Lee Carsley was criticised last year for not singing the anthem during his tenure.
However, Tuchel added that while he is proud to be in charge of the team and knows the words to the anthem, he plans to earn the right with results.
“Maybe I have to dive more into the culture and earn my right from you, from the players, from the supporters, so everyone feels like ‘he should sing it now, he’s one of our own, he’s the English manager, he should sing it’,” he said.
-Reuters
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