To me and to many people around the world, World Cup is mostly a media event. Despite how the media has changed, most people watched the games one way or another still on TV. 1 Nonetheless, the media nature has changed. Inevitably, there are secondary channels on social media. Memes are now a big part. One could also see it from the TV screen the effect of the secondary channels. Some audience was not directly reacting to a goal, but acted in front of a self-recording smartphone presumably for TikTok or Instagram. One could also see it from the TV screen that fans “stage” a social media reaction with fans of another team. For example, a Japanese fan pretended to be bullied by a group of Brazilian fans as a symbolic presentation of how the Japan Team loses. As a critic, I ask myself where the authenticity has gone. 2
Even back in the day, World Cup as a media event was heavily commercialized. World Cup to us was just World Cup. But now FIFA tried extremely hard to protect its branding and “FIFA World Cup” was everywhere in the broadcast. But here is the thing: FIFA does not own the media event. In people’s memory, there are only World Cup, die WM, Copa del Mundo, W杯, etc. Never “FIFA World Cup.”
But it doesn’t mean that FIFA played no roles in it. We could see during the Balogun incidence how FIFA (or even two persons, Infantino and Trump) 3 had the power to influence the whole tournament. FIFA was very present even as a media event. Many FIFA decisions (such as the countdown, the super expensive tickets, the hydration break, the half-time show) fundamentally changed how the event was presented in the media. There were of course many commercial calculations. At the very least, adding the countdown gave FIFA a chance to seek for a sponsor of the countdown. Speaking of which, perhaps we should see these sponsors through a critical lens.
There is a core group of FIFA sponsors. If I had a business, I did not want to be a FIFA sponsor. FIFA sponsors are either using the sport event to make the otherwise unhealthy product look healthy (e.g., Coca Cola) or just look “normal” in front of million of viewers. Case in point: Aramco. One could see this name all over the place during the World Cup, but it’s not like Coca Cola or Adidas (or even Kia) that one can readily recognize what business it is.
But Aramco has the money to sponsor the count down. Aramco’s full name is actually Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company of Saudi Arabia. In this warming world, this fossil fuel company as the world’s fourth largest company is a scandal. The country behind Aramco is rich, but also one of the many dictatorships on this planet. The de facto leader, Mohammed bin Salman al Saud (otherwise known as MbS), is very keen on increasing Saudi’s international influence. Aramco is one of his many leverages. And FIFA, as a Trump-like organization under Infantino, is very happy to accept money from Aramco. In fact, this is not the first time something like that happens. Gazprom, the state-owned oil company of Russia, was the main sponsor of World Cup 2018. 4
FIFA did only one nonnegative thing during this World Cup, although I still think that it was based on some unknown political calculation. In some countries, the World Cup broadcast had the “Be Active” commercial (a joint campaign with WHO) to promote less sedentary lifestyle for children. The message is good. I would hope that it’s not just a commercial. I still remember a moment (not during this World Cup) when Christiano Ronaldo removed the all-over-the-place bottles of Coca Cola from the sponsor in a press conference and said “drink water.” This is much more persuasive than some dancing kids and mascots in promoting a healthy lifestyle.
Speaking of which, not all footballers are like CR7 and can serve as role models. Among all the commercials broadcast during the World Cup in Germany, I think the only nonnegative one was actually “Be Active.” The main sponsors of the broadcast (Coca Cola) and the German National Football Team (Google Gemini and Zalando, both big techs) were everywhere. The German footballers, former or current, were not shy away from being seen on TV. Both Ballack and Mattäus were the faces of sport betting. 5 In my view, the most memorable commercial was the commercial with Podolski claiming that TikTok is safe for children. Similar to Aramco, these are companies that urgently need the mediated sport event and the popularity of footballers to promote their interpretation of the world. And unfortunately, these are the companies which have the means (i.e. money) to flush the information system with their messages.
The first World Cup that I have memories watching was the 1990 World Cup in Italy. However, the first one that I really enjoyed watching was the 1994. I don’t think I am a football fan (sorry the game isn’t called soccer). I don’t want club football, for example. But I like watching World Cup. And 1994 was the root. I still remember the good time watching football with my sisters and my father, writing down the results and our favourite players; pretending to be our favourite players and reenacting their goal celebrations for their goals. The favourite player of my sister was Kennet Andersson of the Swedish team. His goal celebration was charm. Of course, everyone loved to do the very funny goal celebrations of Bebeto and Milla. Good time. I miss the time when every one in my family was healthy and happy. ↩
I think it’s like people must record with their smartphone basically any live performance. ↩
For the future self: Balogun is the striker of the US Team. He got a red card in a match. Usually, he should not be able to play the next match. But the punishment was not executed during the World Cup. Trump admitted that he had called Infantino about this. Of course, FIFA rejected the association between the two events. ↩
Gazprom during that period was extremely active in sportwashing. Except FIFA, it was the main sponsor of Champion Leagues. Other than that, it was the sponsor of the Bundesliga Team Schalke 04. Due to the war and sactions, Gazprom is not as successful now in sportwashing. ↩
Prediction markets are super big during the World Cup in the US. But in Germany sporting betting has been a fixture. There were stories during the World Cup that many people lost a lot of money. ↩