FIFA's Blatter Infection

Perhaps it was woefully predictable all along.

The FIFA Congress, by a wide, convincing margin, reelected Sepp Blatter to another term as president of FIFA. All those who voted for Blatt in the wake of the US arresting nine FIFA officials on bribery and corruption cast their vote for plutocrats, not meritocracy.

What a blatant admission of guilt, of being fundamentally corrupt, all the while flaunting how much they simply couldn't possibly care less. If the US making sweeping arrests of its high-ranking officials isn't enough to convince the premier governing body of international soccer to reform, what possibly could?

It's not that as if this is the first concrete sign of FIFA's penchant for nefarious deeds. Russia and its (let's be honest) dictator Vladimir Putin unilaterally redrawing the world map through the country Georgia, later Ukraine, winning the 2018 World Cup bid was sketchy enough. But Qatar being awarded the 2022 World Cup?! That's as astonishingly corrupt as it is stupid.

Qatar has only one truly large city, Doha, with a population of just 1.5 million, where a whopping 90% of Qatari citizens reside. Next closest is Al Rayyan at 444,000 people. No other city even comes close to cracking the 100,000 mark.

Originally, they planned to actually host the game during the Cup's traditional summer block. Naturally, people howled with disapproval given that the average summer temperatures hover around 115 degrees Fahrenheit. I personally spent one miserable summer day on an airstrip in Qatar, temperatures pushing 130 degrees. It was far from pleasant. Something resembling common sense prevailed, and FIFA opted to shift the games towards more mild winter months. This upset many advertisers long-term commitment and plans.

Then there's the obvious stadium issue. Brazil's 2014 World Cup had 12 venues averaging 50,000 capacity. We're just seven years away from World Cup 2022 and Qatar still doesn't even have one stadium with that capacity, the closest being a lone 40,000 seater.

Qatar plans on expanding three of its current stadiums and build nine brand new ones. Nine. The 12 venues would combine for a total of 605,850 seats. If that seating is permanent, all those chairs would represent an almost laughable 28% of Qatar current total population. If they can't even fill their current 10k seaters, what will become of all those stadiums once World Cup patrons go home? Brazil is still having controversies with World Cup stadiums it built with a much larger population to help fill them. Qatar has no realistic long term plan for those stadiums. It also doesn't help that they have a non-existent soccer culture.

If it was just a matter of Qatari officials wasting the same petro dollars they used to bribe FIFA officials and letting the desert sands eat soon-to-be derelict stadiums, fine. They can probably more than afford it. It's the human cost that will keep people up at night.

Qatar is notorious for its human rights violations, practicing de facto slavery at the expense -- and lives -- of its migrant workers. Qatar has been hurriedly attempting to build up its inadequate infrastructure in preparation for the games. Migrant-worker death rates have spiked since the bid victory was announced in 2010. The International Trade Union Confederation estimates there have been 1,200 migrant deaths so far and that there will be a depressing, astonishing 4,000 more worker deaths by 2022. Deplorable. Disgusting.

When Qatar wins, Nepalese, Bangladeshis and Indians lose their lives by the thousands.

It would be awesome for an Arab, Middle East country to host a World Cup games, but it needs to go a country for its merit, not for its bribery and slave labor.

The reelection of Blatter shows just how low FIFA has gone and is yet willing to go. They went from rewarding South Africa in 2010 for its borderline miraculous conquering of Apartheid to Russian usurpers and Qatari slave holders. They don't care about overwhelming evidence or justice; they clearly only care about their financial, political interests, certainly not people and the sport.

I love the World Cup. Even though I'm pushing the big 3-0, I still can barely sleep when the Cup is just two weeks away. I'm that excited for it. But what does it mean when the hosts are undeserving countries who oppress and kill people? What does it mean when FIFA officials themselves are so undeserving of being the prestiges stewards of the world's game?

I won't be watching the next two World Cups. I suggest you do the same, to steal FIFA's and further highlight their inexcusable hypocrisy, "For the Game. For the World."