In 1930, Jules Rimet, the creator of the Football World Cup, crossed the Atlantic in a steamship to attend the inaugural competition in Uruguay. In his bag he carried a small trophy, the World Cup; in his heart he carried the belief that the World Cup could unite nations and smooth nationalism. ‘Men will be able to meet in confidence without hatred in their hearts and without an insult on their lips,’ he declared.
Rimet would have been horrified by what the World Cup has become. A tournament that has funded the endemic corruption and racketeering within Fifa exposed by the FBI. A tournament whose dubious hosts — Russia this year and Qatar in 2022 — allegedly won the right through bribery; of the 22 members of Fifa’s executive committee who awarded the World Cup to Russia and Qatar, ten have subsequently been banned for corruption. And a tournament that has literally killed people — the immigrant workers who perished while building World Cup stadiums in Qatar.
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