Soccer, Like Politics, Is About Corruption, Incompetence, and Obsessing With the Jews

Ravaged by allegations of widespread corruption, FIFA—world soccer’s controlling body—focuses on Israel

By Liel Leibovitz for Tablet Magazine

There are very few things in this world I love more dearly than the World Cup. Every four years, like a crazed pilgrim to the pitch, I shun all other forms of human engagement, chant the names of Cameroon’s captain or Croatia’s midfielder as if they were life-giving mantras, and howl as the titans of soccer kick, block, and tackle their way into eternal glory.

But not this year.

I’ll still watch the games. I’ll still shout and cheer and curse. But every kick will remind me that what I’m really looking at is the spectacle put forth by a supremely corrupt authority, one that will earn $4 billion this year by sacrificing its own integrity, the principles of sportsmanship, and the sanctity of human life.

In case this sounds overly dramatic, a quick tour of soccer’s sickness is in order. This past weekend, the New York Times uncovered a match-rigging syndicate that fixed 15 games or more ahead of 2010’s tournament in South Africa. Unimprovably named Football 4 U Int’l, the cartel managed to bribe its way into some of soccer’s most sensitive nerve centers, appointing its own referees and then watching with delight as they called handballs that never were and performed other acts of perfidy to ensure the outcome desired by their paymasters.

The revelations struck a nerve with fans and officials alike, suggesting that the beautiful game may be anything but. Still, the corruption of 2012 pales in comparison with that of 2022, the year the cup will be held in Qatar.

To understand just how senseless the decision to give the Arab emirate the privilege of hosting soccer’s premier tournament truly is, all you have to do is set the temperature in your apartment to 122 degrees Fahrenheit and then run around nonstop for an hour and a half. If you’re still sentient, you can stop and reflect on the fact that Qatar has no soccer tradition to speak of and little by way of civil liberties—the sort that ought to be insisted upon as the minimal requirement for hosting an international sporting event—and that its climate and political conditions alike are killing the migrant workers charged with building its shiny new stadiums, with 184 Nepalis having perished last year alone and as many as 4,000 people slated to die by the time the whistle blows on the first match of the tournament, eight years from now.

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