World Cup cash grab: Simon Kuper argues politics, greed are strengthening FIFA monopoly

Simon Kuper’s first World Cup memory is of watching the 1978 final in his pajamas from the living room of his home in the Netherlands.

He was 8. But he quickly was smitten with the game and the tournament — so much so he has attended every World Cup since 1990. It’s an odyssey Kuper, one of the sport’s preeminent journalists, muses on in his latest book “World Cup Fever: A Soccer Journey in Nine Tournaments.”

And in many ways it’s an odyssey that sets the stage for Kuper’s 10th World Cup, which kicks off next week in the U.S., Mexico and Canada. It’s a World Cup that, in many ways, will be like no other.

The cost of tickets and transportation to the games is ridiculously high in many places. Then there’s the expansion to 48 teams, which means many group-play games could be unwatchable.

And finally there’s the Trump administration’s draconian visa regulations and threats to use Homeland Security and ICE agents to provide security.

For its part, FIFA says all that gnashing of teeth is much ado about nothing.

“This will be the biggest and most inclusive, the greatest FIFA World Cup event,” FIFA president Gianni Infantino said last week.

For Kuper, whose expertise always has been the financial side of soccer, one of the biggest changes in recent years has been how FIFA, the organizer of the World Cup, and Infantino, its leader, view their relationship with the tournament.

“I don’t really see it as a corporation,” he said of FIFA, which has about $6.14 billion in total assets and $2.95 billion in cash reserves, enough to qualify as a pretty significant multinational corporation.

“If you think of McDonald’s or Nike, they’re trying to please consumers because they know the consumers can go someplace else,” Kuper said. “There’s only one World Cup, so FIFA is a monopoly purveyor. It’s more like one man running the cash box.”

That man is Infantino, who was elected to replace the scandal-ridden Sepp Blatter as FIFA president in 2016. And Kuper says Infantino has transformed the way the organization works by centralizing power.

“There used to be a lot of barons but now he’s the only guy,” Kuper said. “He distributes the money to 200 national associations, essentially to the president of the national association, who can decide, in some countries, to stick that money in his pocket. In return, those 200 guys reelect him.

“That’s not how a corporation works. It’s more like an autocracy mixed with a monopoly mixed with a cash box.”

Infantino already said he’ll stand for reelection when his term expires next March. And Kuper says his management style is having a major influence on this World Cup, starting with the ticket prices.

FIFA is projecting revenue of between $11 billion and $13 billion for the four-year World Cup cycle that will end when the tournament does. One way to make that kind of money is through ticket prices, with the face value for tickets to this tournament nearly four times higher than the tournament in Qatar four years ago. That has led the attorneys general in New York and New Jersey to launch an investigation into FIFA’s practices.

“All the tickets prices in this World Cup are inconceivable. It’s very much a new phenomenon,” Kuper said. “The World Cup should be affordable. That’s very much part of the ethos that’s now being breached.”

FIFA is also in charge of parking at the World Cup. And if you think the tickets are expensive, just try parking. A spot nearly two miles from SoFi Stadium will cost you $300 for the U.S. opener with Paraguay next week, while parking an oversize vehicle at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium for the July 11 quarterfinal will cost as much as $900.

“Infantino is going to go back to those presidents and say, ‘Look, I got four times, three times the ticket income we got in Qatar,’” Kuper said. “It’s brilliant. And then he’ll be reelected.”

The impact of the tournament’s expansion from 32 to 48 teams isn’t quite as clear. Four teams — Cape Verde, Curacao, Uzbekistan and Jordan — are making their World Cup debuts, and it’s unlikely any would have qualified under the old format.

“So they’re spreading the joy to more countries,” Kuper said.

FIFA would have preferred China, India and Indonesia, which have a combined population of more than 3 billion, accounting for more than a third of the people on the planet. Giving those countries a rooting interest in the World Cup could have done a lot to goose TV viewership and broadcast revenue. Instead, China paid just $60 million for broadcast rights to the tournament, and India’s Zee Entertainment reached a TV deal Monday that was believed to be far below FIFA’s asking price.

The expansion likely will lead to some first-round games, and even some early knockout-round games, that will be ugly to watch. Curacao, the smallest country to qualify for a World Cup, will play its first game against Germany, a four-time champion, while Cape Verde will open against Spain, the reigning European champion.

“What these countries are going to do is be as fierce as possible,” Kuper said. “Ten men in front of goal, aim for a nil-nil draw. That’s going to make the first round low quality. Fans are going to be astounded by how poor the soccer is.”

As for the Trump effect, that, like the president himself, is hard to predict. During the last year, President Trump has threatened to take the World Cup out of blue states, warned Iran — which qualified for the tournament — its team might not be safe here, and, through a presidential proclamation, levied partial entry and visa restrictions on citizens of 39 countries, including two World Cup teams.

His administration also confirmed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose officials have been accused of abuse or medical neglect in as least 40 states, will assist in providing security at World Cup venues. What could go wrong?

“With Trump, he’s wants to dominate the news cycle. He loves that and he’s very good at that,” Kuper said. “The World Cup is the biggest news cycle in the world. … Trump’s dominance is to surprise and to hit people. So that’s what we’re going to get the whole month.”

There is one thing that could save this World Cup, though, and that’s the soccer. As Kuper has learned well from his nine tournaments, the worst time for a World Cup is the two weeks before kickoff.

“Every World Cup has ugly aspects, and people like me write about them in the weeks before,” he said. “And then as soon as the World Cup starts, we will still be writing about that but we’ll also be writing about the great things; the beauty, the joy that only starts when people actually start scoring amazing goals.

“All that stuff is going to happen from Day 1.”

You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.