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FIFA, the governing body of association football, concocted a “FIFA Peace Prize”—described as recognizing “individuals for exceptional contributions to peace and unity”—in order to award it to Donald Trump. Alongside revelations of deep-seated corruption—collusion, bribery—involving official bodies and executives, and now ticket prices for this year’s World Cup being called not just excessive but “extortionate,” you might say more folks are “following” football (or soccer) these days, but not necessarily as fans.
Sports has always been a big part of news media, but typically segregated into its own section on stats and personalities, ignoring the economic, social and environmental impacts sports have always had. Think about cities enticed into building new arenas with promises of jobs and commerce that never arrive. Or whole communities uprooted for temporary “Olympic Villages.”
Jules Boykoff has been following the relationships of sport and society for years now; he’s a former professional soccer player himself, as well as a critic and writer, now teaching political science at Pacific University. He’s author of a number of books, including What Are the Olympics For? (Bristol University Press, 2024).
He joins us to discuss his latest: Red Card: The 2026 World Cup, Sportswashing and the FIFA Greed Machine, out now from OR Books.
Plus Janine Jackson takes a quick look back at recent press.
Featured Image: Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok
One can’t go wrong in computing the costs of American waged war by multiplying the Pentagon’s stated numbers by 2. Then, don’t forget the “black” numbers that never get released to the public. Confidential mind you. Multiply the doubled numbers from previously Pentagon’s stated costs, and multiply them by another 150%. Translation: a $500 million ‘non-budgeted’ combat operation costs the taxpayers $1,500,000,000.
One could buy a US presidential election with funds like that.
Let us also not forget how the corporate media, including The Guardian, hype up men’s sports and predominantly only share stories of women’s sports if there’s a scandal or abuse involved. After I called out how The Guardian’s front page on sports rarely if ever showcases women’s sports unless the female athletes have been victimized or are part of a media-induced ‘drama/catfight’ type of situation, as you can scroll down to their sports page and 99% of the time only see maybe one, if any, news stories about women athletes/teams. In Australia, sports are not financing colleges, they are intramural. No one should be getting into an academic institution because they can throw or kick a ball or run fast….nor getting special privileges in school because of it. American sports mythology and corporate greed are speeding up the destruction of higher education, not to mention basic services. ln Portland, Oregon, the faux-green Mayor Keith Wilson literally wants to use the climate fund $$ to do repairs to the Blazer arena – not actually use it towards improving services for Portlanders. It’s creepy and it’s wrong and yet no one gives a sh*t even though no one can even afford to go to professional sports games anyhow. We stopped going to Mariners games because you have to go through Ticketmaster to get in. F that.
“no one can even afford to go to professional sports games anyhow” apart from the tens of millions of Americans and other residents of the West who do. For them, sports are so absurdly important that they will pay any price, no matter how high, to watch men (and, increasingly, women) kick, throw or run. I can’t say I’m sympathetic to their plight under capitalism.