World Corrupt

December 15, 2022 11:44 AM

As we had into the finals of the 2022 World Cup tournament, much has been made of its location, Qatar, and how they got the bid and executed preparing for the global event. Podcasters Roger Bennett (Men In Blazers) and Tommy Vietor (Pod Save the World) bring us a seven-part podcast, World Corrupt [Crooked Media page with listening links], which examines these issues in depth with humor and outrage in equal measure. Episodes mostly run under an hour.

And part of the story will have to be this week's arrest of European Parliament members and office searches that turned up literal bags of cash in offices. Qatar scandal: What just happened at the European Parliament? [Politico]

posted by hippybear (14 comments total)

This sounds like a good podcast for me. I don't know anything much about the sport except that, even for FIFA, this was a brazenly awful decision, and that is saying something.
posted by Countess Elena at 11:55 AM on December 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

I've seen plenty of calls to boycott (e.g. not watch) this year's cup due to it's wanton corruption and cruelty, but it seems like boycotting the sponsors would be more meaningful, right? There's no way that watching or not watching matches will have a lick of impact, but a meaningful boycott of Budweiser, Coca Cola, etc. might.
posted by MengerSponge at 11:57 AM on December 15, 2022

The Guardian's football cartoonist, David Squires has hit it out of the park with a series of cartoons leading up to and through the group stages looking at this World Cup.

A whistleblower's story
A migrant worker's story
Death by 'natural causes'
We're really doing this?
Totally normal opening
Stories of the group stage as seen by the workers
posted by Superilla at 12:23 PM on December 15, 2022 [5 favorites]

This sounds like a great antidote to the breathlessly enthusiastic coverage I hear every time I tune in to NPR/BBC news. There was some decent reporting leading up to the event but all of it seems to have long been forgotten
posted by treepour at 12:59 PM on December 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

God, literal bags of cash, measured in hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The amazing thing to me about corruption like this is always just how cheap it is.
posted by mhoye at 1:03 PM on December 15, 2022

The Lords of Soccer podcast (Spotify link) dives pretty deep into FIFA's history of corruption and covers the Qatar bid pretty well. I basically noped out of the World Cup this go round after listening to it. Highly recommended.
posted by slogger at 1:04 PM on December 15, 2022

I've been following the tournament online but years ago my wife, a friend and I resolved to not watch because of...well, all of the shit. I'm not judging anyone who is watching, because we all make decisions about where we draw the line in terms of separating the art from the artist or, in this case, the event from the organizers, but it's been easier for me than I thought it would be (I mean, I *love* the World Cup and Toronto is usually a fun place to be for it) because the usual international football tourney vibe just doesn't seem to be happening. It's winter here, so you can't sit out on a patio and watch, and almost nobody has been out celebrating in public after a win, so it's kind of like it's not even happening.

In another thread I said I'm not a little kid, I know that *all* of these massive tournaments and events on this scale are mired in corruption, but this one tipped the line from everyday corruption to cartoonish supercorruption years ago, to a point where I personally would not have been able to enjoy watching the games, no matter how entertaining they were.
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:06 PM on December 15, 2022 [2 favorites]

It's also easier to not enjoy watching the games when every tie of the last two rounds has been lost by the team I wanted to win.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:12 PM on December 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

Superilla, those are some brilliant cartoons, with metaphors such as crowded worker living conditions like a game of human Tetris, or the bureaucratic maze that's basically an Escher drawing.
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:17 PM on December 15, 2022

I can recommend this podcast, I've listened to them all. Really good breakdown of the corrupt background on FIFA and Qatar. Morgan Freeman giving a presentation for the U.S.'s failed bid is quite a story as well.

Also, Roger Bennett is an absolute joy to listen to.
posted by mcstayinskool at 3:00 PM on December 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

Morgan Freeman giving a presentation for the U.S.'s failed bid is quite a story as well.

Wait, didn't he do a big appearance in the Qatar opening ceremonies?
posted by clawsoon at 3:22 PM on December 15, 2022

Freeman isn't a fool and wouldn't turn down FIFA level money. Would you?
posted by hippybear at 3:29 PM on December 15, 2022

I still am boggled that the original architect (d.2017) of the Qatar Cup was Albert Speer, Jr., promoter of eco-friendly design with "a human dimension" though "he later bridled at being associated with the mounting human toll of his grand desert design and stopped speaking to the press."
posted by CCBC at 4:39 PM on December 15, 2022 [2 favorites]

Albert Speer, Jr.

okay uh okay... uhhhh... small world, I guess?
posted by clawsoon at 5:43 PM on December 15, 2022 [2 favorites]