Every four years, 32 of the top national football teams from around the globe enter a month-long
tournament known as the World Cup.
Watched by nearly half of the Earth's population, with over 1 billion tuning in for the final
match in 2014, the World Cup is among the most popular sporting events on the planet.
The tourney takes a staggering amount of preparation, much of which is riddled with controversy.
From the scandal that rocked the International Federation of Association Football, aka, FIFA,
to the real costs of prepping its host cities, the event makes plenty of headlines before,
during, and after kickoff.
Here's what really happens behind the scenes at the World Cup.
Red cards for FIFA brass
In June 2015, longtime FIFA President Sepp Blatter announced his resignation from the
post after 17 years.
It was the culmination of years of investigation into fraud and bribery allegations by FIFA
auditors, as well as former MI6 agent Christopher Steele, the IRS, and the FBI.
According to The New York Times, Steele began looking into FIFA at the request of, quote,
"wealthy individuals and corporations supporting England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup."
The UK lost that bid thanks to an alleged bribery scandal that implicated Prince William
and former Prime Minister David Cameron.
Steele concluded that Russia engaged in corruption of its own to win its 2018 bid to host, although
this ultimately couldn't be proven, due to the alleged destruction of the bid team's
computers.
Steele passed his findings to the FBI, and the U.S. Department of Justice then took the
ball and built a case that accused more than two dozen FIFA officials of varying degrees
of "racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy," according to CNN.
Blatter was eventually slapped with a six-year ban from the sport over charges of making
a "disloyal payment" to another former FIFA official.
And having narrowly skirted corruption charges, Russia moved forward with its 2018 World Cup
preparations.
Not making the cut
It's not just officials, but entire teams who have been excluded from World Cup play
due to shady sideline activities.
In March 2015, Zimbabwe was "expelled from the preliminary competition" after failing
to pay a former coach what was owed on his contract.
According to Reuters, the snub was just one example of the financial woes that plagued
the Zimbabwe Football Association.
A month later, Indonesia was excluded from World Cup qualifiers, for "government meddling
in the country's domestic league," according to Reuters.
These losses are remarkable, considering the $9.5 million teams bank for making the finals,
and the $38 million awarded to the champs.
If you build it, they'll park in it
According to NBC News, 2002 host countries Japan and South Korea both reported a boost
in their overall economies, post-Cup.
South Korea claimed an estimated $4.1 billion in direct and 15.1 billion in indirect economic
benefits thanks to its hosting stint.
But Russia's aiming much higher.
According to ESPN, the nation is expecting a $31 billion return on its staggering $11
billion price tag, as host of the 2018 tournament.
That may sound like a worthy investment, but as NPR reported, a $550 million stadium built
by Brazil in 2014 is now a parking lot for busses.
Clearing the scene
It should come as no surprise that the efforts of host nations to stage such an event are
shrouded in controversy.
Al Jazeera reported that 250,000 people were allegedly "forcefully removed from their houses"
or threatened with eviction to make way for stadium projects ahead of Brazil's World Cup
in 2014.
And Russia allegedly embarked on a campaign of stray dog genocide before the 2018 World
Cup.
According to The Telegraph, a Russian official said,
"There shouldn't be any stray animals, they should be destroyed, and that's it."
The Sun also published unconfirmed reports of homeless people being rounded up and placed
into former army camps away from tournament venues.
But unfortunately, it gets worse...
Pulling off Qatar 2022
According to a March 2015 report by the Independent, a force of approximately 1.5 million migrant
laborers are living and working in inhumane conditions to get the country overhauled in
time for the 2022 Qatar World Cup.
Long hours, dangerous work sites, and squalid living conditions become unbearable under
Qatar's kafala labor system, which "prevents [migrant workers] from going home without
their employer's permission," so they can't even quit.
As a result, the BBC reported more than 1,000 workers have already died working on World
Cup-related projects.
That number is expected to exceed 4,000, according to an estimate by the International Trade
Union Confederation.
But there are more positive results of the heated international tournament.
Pulling the goalkeeper
One of the most interesting behind-the-scenes happenings at the World Cup is the phenomenon
of increased birth rates for host countries.
According to The Guardian, Germany reported a jaw-dropping national birth rate increase
of almost 30 percent, attributed to the euphoria of the event held there in 2006.
Even countries that didn't host, but performed well, also counted birth rate increases.
England reported as much after reaching the quarter-finals in 1970 and 2002.
So, with their latest quarter-final win in 2018, it's gonna be babies galore.
Nobody touches Viking pride
The Nordic nation of Iceland had every reason to be excited for the 2018 World Cup.
After all, this marks the first time it's qualified for the tournament.
And according to The Guardian, it's also the smallest nation to ever qualify for a World
Cup.
Perhaps unsurprisingly then, a jaw-dropping 20 percent of the country's entire population,
around 335,000 soccer diehards, applied for tickets to the World Cup.
To put that into perspective, that's like 65 million Americans all going on the same
road trip.
While Iceland ultimately got knocked out by Croatia in Match 40, it's fans like these
that make the World Cup something to watch.