Thirty-five years ago, I was in Switzerland at the HQ of FIFA for the annual meeting on the invitation of the committee that was going to select the 1994 WC host.
Brazil, Morocco, and the USA were the finalists. Brazil’s presentation centered on Maracana as a football shrine, in addition to the traditional elements of football as a national culture. The Brazilian delegation ended their presentation with poetic eloquence of how the “English Boy’s Toy” had become ingrained in the Brazilian national psyche.
Brazil had a few stadia that didn’t meet up with the standards FIFA had stimulated.
For Morocco, the kingdom had just successfully hosted the Cup of Nations in March of 1988, and the King was behind the kingdom of Morocco’s bid. The Moroccan delegation presented 4 stadiums that could pass for the required purposes of hosting a WC event.
They went on to add that 6 other stadiums were under construction, and those sites and standard stadiums will be ready by 1994 for the quadrennial global showcase of football. Morocco was still in the process of negotiating loans from greedy international finance capitalists to complete these stadiums.
FIFA has a policy of not asking host nations to incur public finance debts in order to host the WC. Football should have a multiplier effect and not a drain on scarce national resources. Kindly excuse my macro-economics digression; I got the gist from a highly placed FIFA hosting selection committee member.
Even Joao Havalenge, then FIFA President and a Brazilian was not going to subject Brazil to huge public finance debt spending to showcase the brilliance associated with the “English Boy’s Toy”
The USA delegation presented sixteen world-class stadiums and asked the select committee to choose the best 12 of 16 standard stadiums required to host the WC.
There are obvious reasons as to why the USA will be a fine host. FIFA has been careful and doesn’t want to be branded as too elitist for an organization that has become a rich global phenomenon on the backs of a poor man’s game! FIFA protects its image and doesn’t want to be accused of showing favoritism.
After 32 years of ‘globe-trotting’ the WC as the premier international sportingjamboree, FIFA can be proud of returning to North America this time.
The USA was FIFA’s last frontier, and it wanted to secure a foothold around that gigantic American sports industry. In 1994, the USA didn’t have a thriving local professional football league, a requirement for granting hosting rights.
But FIFA made an exception to that rule on the condition that the USA must establish a professional league. Alas, the MLS was established, and it has thrived.
Major League Soccer, like most contemporary American phenom, is driven by the advantages of a growing and potentially prosperous immigrant population. So the MAGA brigade can take a chill pill and let the game enthusiastically and authentically played with the foot flourish to higher grounds .
Kudos to the USSF, they have delivered on their promise to establish a thriving local professional soccer league.
Juego bonito; long live the beautiful game.
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