On the third-to-last day of games at the 2022 World Cup, Argentina cruised to a 3-0 victory over Croatia in the semifinals on Tuesday. And after entering the day with the second-best title odds (behind France), Argentina’s win has moved them up a spot to become the tournament’s odds-on favorite to win it all.
Argentina’s final match will be in Sunday’s championship game, where they’ll take on the winner of Wednesday’s semifinal matchup between France and Morrocco.
With only three teams remaining in the bracket, here is a look at the latest title odds, courtesy of BetMGM’s John Ewing.
The FIFA president slated critics of Qatar in an extraordinary meeting with the media
AL-RAYYAN, Qatar — “What’s going on here is profoundly, profoundly unjust.”
Those were the passionate words of Gianni Infantino on the eve of the kickoff of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. But FIFA’s president wasn’t talking about persistent reports of exploitation and unsafe working conditions afflicting the country’s huge migrant worker population, or the well-documented allegations of corruption in the process by which the small Persian Gulf state was awarded hosting rights to this tournament.
No, Infantino was referring to the criticism of Qatar and FIFA, as he mounted a defiant, accusatory defense of both in an hour-long monologue at the start of a press conference at the World Cup media centre on Doha’s outskirts.
“Today I have very strong feelings. Today I feel Qatari. Today I feel Arab. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel a migrant worker. And I feel all this because what I’ve been seeing and what I’ve been told, since I don’t read, otherwise I would be depressed, I think,” began Infantino, referring to widespread critical reporting around this World Cup.
Comparing Qatar’s reliance on low-cost labor imported from developing nations to his own experiences as the son of Italian migrants who moved to Switzerland in search of opportunity when he was a child, Infantino suggested that past abuses of those workers have been addressed since he took office in 2016.
“When I came to Doha the first time after I was elected FIFA president, I went to see some of these workers’ accommodations here, and I was brought back to my childhood. And I said to the people here in Qatar, ‘this is not good, this is not right, we need to do something about it,’” he said, after claiming to have experienced persecution in his own right when his Swiss counterparts mocked his red hair, freckles and imperfect German language skills in his youth.
“And the same as Switzerland today has become an example of inclusion, of tolerance, of nationalities working together – with rights – Qatar has made progress as well.
“So I wonder why nobody recognize the progress that has been made since 2016 – the kafala system was abolished, minimum wage was introduced, heat protection measures were taken. ILO (International Labour Organization), international unions, acknowledged that. … some don’t.”
Infantino, who last winter relocated his primary residence to Qatar in advance of this tournament, went on to label European critics as hypocrites, even taunting his adversaries in the media that they would have to deal with him for another four years in the wake of his unopposed reelection earlier in the week.
He also defended the host nation’s laws banning homosexuality as not dissimilar to those found on the books in many other places around the world, insisting that all would be welcomed at the monthlong event that kicks off on Sunday.
“I am European,” he said. “I think for what we Europeans have been doing in the last 3,000 years around the world, we should be apologizing for the next 3,000 years before starting to give moral lessons to people.
“I don’t have to defend in any way whatsoever Qatar, they can defend themselves. I’m defending football here, and injustice,” he added. “Who is actually caring about the workers? Who? FIFA does. Football does. The World Cup does. And to be fair to them, Qatar does as well.”
DOHA, QATAR – NOVEMBER 19: FIFA President, Gianni Infantino Speaks Ahead of Opening Match of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 at a press conference on November 19, 2022 in Doha, Qatar. (Photo by Christopher Lee/Getty Images)
In a comparison that clearly shocked many among the gathered ranks of journalists from around the world, Infantino praised Qatar’s handling of migrant laborers – who have built the vast infrastructure that has made this unprecedented World Cup possible — as preferable to his home continent’s wary response to the waves of refugees arriving on its shores from Syria, Iraq and elsewhere since 2015.
“Hundreds of thousands of workers from developing countries come here, they earn 10 times more than what they earn in their home country, and help their families to survive. And they did it in a legal way,” said the FIFA boss. “We in Europe, we close our borders and we don’t allow practically any workers from these countries, who earn obviously very low income, to work legally in our country. Because we all know there are many illegal workers in our European countries, living in conditions which are also not really the best.
“So those who reach Europe, or those who want to go to Europe, they have to go through a very difficult journey, only a few survive. So if you would really care about the destiny of these people, of these young people, well, then Europe could also do as Qatar did, create some channels – legal channels – to at least a number, a percentage of these workers who come to Europe … give them some work, give them some future, give them some hope.”
Infantino also fielded a range of questions from the press, in which he denied that FIFA have ceded control of major decisions like a last-minute move to rescind beer sales in and around World Cup stadiums in light of Qatar’s strict restrictions on alcohol. He also defended Iran’s continued participation in the tournament amid violent, deadly crackdowns on women-led protests in that nation, and FIFA’s decision not to approve the rainbow-themed armbands some national teams are planning to wear in support of LGBTQ+ communities.
“I hope that I’ve given you enough information to write everything you want about these topics. If you want to criticize somebody, don’t criticize the players. Don’t put pressure on the players. Don’t put pressure on the coaches. Let them concentrate on football. Let them concentrate on making their fans happy,” he declared.
“Do you want to criticize someone? Come to me, criticize me. Here I am. You can crucify me, I am here for that. And don’t criticize Qatar, don’t criticize the players. Don’t criticize anyone. Criticize FIFA, criticize me if you want, because I’m responsible for everything. But let the people enjoy this World Cup.”
Among the many controversies surrounding the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar are the stadiums themselves.
When FIFA awarded Qatar with the 2022 World Cup back in 2010, soccer’s governing body decided to hold a tournament in a country the size of Connecticut with virtually no stadium infrastructure.
So while we take a look at the eight stadiums that will host World Cup games in Qatar, let’s not forget the staggering human cost that went into building them.
The series examines the rise of Sepp Blatter and the FBI indictments in 2015, among other topics
The new Netflix documentary “FIFA Uncovered” couldn’t have been released at a better time.
The four-part series came out on Wednesday, just a week and a half before the World Cup in Qatar kicks off. The process by which the Middle East country was awarded the tournament is, of course, a major topic of “FIFA Uncovered,” but the docu-series goes much deeper than that.
The first episode examines the presidency of João Havelange in the 1970s, as the Brazilian turned FIFA into the money-printing entity it would eventually become.
From there, the series goes deep on the rise to power of Sepp Blatter, a tenure that would fall apart after the 2015 FBI raids and indictments of top FIFA officials.
We spoke with “FIFA Uncovered” producer Miles Coleman about the series. This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
PSW: What was the onus behind choosing FIFA as a subject for a documentary?
Coleman: The inspiration for this came from the fact that we, like you, are football fans, so any any football fan basically in living memory will have had an uneasy feeling about FIFA. I think there are very few football fans who have looked at FIFA historically and said, “yeah, these guys are doing everything right.”
And really the catalyst for the series in many ways was the [FBI] raids in 2015. And after that, John [Battsek, producer] and Dan [Gordon, director], were sort of working out the idea to do something that profiles FIFA and it’s really a sort of a “how did we get here” piece.
The idea behind it is if you look at the start of FIFA and the noble aims and the very amateur spirit in which it was founded, how did we get to the point where the FBI is conducting raids across multiple countries in 2015 and arresting FIFA top executives?
PSW: Lots of us will be familiar with some of the corruption that has taken place recently, but this series begins in the 1970s with the presidency of João Havelange and the rise of his right-hand man Sepp Blatter. What did you learn about the Havelange era and how that set the tone for the FIFA that we know today?
Coleman: We were surprised how few people knew the name Havelange, even though he was such a fundamentally important figure in football. But I think the thing that’s really stuck with us and I hope the documentary shows is how cyclical history can be. If we look at the relationship between Blatter and Havelange, we can learn a lot about the direction FIFA’s going in today.
Money in football is not the default. It hasn’t always been thus, football and FIFA in 1974 basically didn’t have two pennies to rub together and now look at it.
The thing we found particularly interesting was the relationship between FIFA and corporate sponsors. This was a relatively new thing and the idea of sponsorship in sport really didn’t exist at any sort of meaningful scale until Havelange, until the Adidas and Coca-Cola relationship with FIFA.
(AFP PHOTO: Julio PEREIRA)
PSW: I want to ask about a key moment in the film, which is the 1998 FIFA presidential election. Blatter is facing Lennart Johansson, who presented himself as an anti-corruption candidate. Blatter’s victory is shown to be a butterfly effect moment where perhaps much of the corruption and grift that followed could have been avoided had he lost to Johansson.
Coleman: I think the thing that I found so astonishing is when you listen to Blatter’s pre-election speech, what he’s basically saying is, “you guys know me, and you know what you’re getting with me.” And it’s a wink and a nudge to the delegates. And then Johansson stands up and says, “I’m for transparency.”
And what blows me away about that election is that Blatter wins it not by stealth, not because you promise one thing and change. The delegates in that room knew what they were voting for in 1998. So I suppose if Johansson had won, football would be in a very different state. It’s hard to imagine, but I think that’s a fair thing to take away.
PSW: Speaking of Blatter, one of the things that stood out is that he is interviewed in the film, along with other major figures like Ricardo Teixeira and Mohammed bin Hammam. How did you get them to agree to be interviewed, and was there anyone you really wanted who turned down your request?
Coleman: You have to remember that someone like Sepp Blatter worked his way up from pretty much nowhere to be the most powerful man in world sport using just the gift of the gab. This was a consummate politician who got to where he was simply by his own nous so for him, when we approached him and said, “would you like to do this documentary?” He absolutely backed himself to manage that situation proficiently. That’s what he built his career on.
That being said, and forgive me if this is a little immodest. Myself and our team, we basically researched this topic for about two to three years before reaching out to anyone, which is like doing a master’s degree in FIFA. So I think when we reached out to people they respected the fact that we’d taken the time to understand the story and respected the fact that we were clued up.
But even I was surprised sometimes by some of the people who agreed to speak. Someone like Mohammed bin Hammam has not spoken to the press, certainly not the foreign press, in about 11 years. Someone like Ricardo Teixeira is essentially wanted by U.S. Justice and here he was doing an interview with us. Why did they do it? I suppose it’s the same thing as Blatter. These are people who are politicians by nature, and they’ve made their money from speaking and not by not speaking.
In terms of people who don’t appear, a couple come to mind. Issa Hayatou, who was the head of African football and the interim [FIFA] president after the arrests. We arranged an interview with him months in advance, we flew out to Cameroon to interview with him, and he canceled 15 minutes before he was meant to show up in the studio. I think it was indicative of the regard in which sometimes football grandees go about their day-to-day business. They do see themselves on a different plane and different rules apply.
(Photo by Philipp Schmidli/Getty Images)
PSW: What were some of the most surprising things you learned while making this film?
Coleman: I actually thought a lot of the corruption was more primitive in some ways. I thought it was just backhanders and brown envelopes, and there of course is that in the story, but what surprised me as I became more clued up on it was the power politics involved.
We’re talking about having lunch with the president of France and making deals to buy fighter jets, and then linking that to a World Cup vote allegedly. That for me was shocking, because as a football fan, I cannot emotionally connect with the fact that the World Cup, which I love and is the highlight of my every four years, is somehow linked to the purchase of a fighter jet. That sickens me and shocks me.
PSW: What are some of the new revelations that come from this film?
Coleman: To give you one example, Blatter confirmed to us that he sat with Mohammed bin Hammam and the now-emir of Qatar and made a deal that bin Hammam would withdraw his candidacy for FIFA president and in return, Blatter would stop talking negatively about the World Cup in Qatar.
This is something that has always been sort of whispered about but has never been confirmed, and certainly not confirmed by someone in that room, which is revelatory. Why? Because this week, Blatter stands up and says putting the World Cup in Qatar was a mistake. But here he is on our show, saying that he made a deal to keep it there. Why? To keep himself in power.
PSW: Do you have any hope that FIFA can be meaningfully reformed? There is so much power wrapped up in controlling the world’s most popular sport, which will always seem to attract unscrupulous people.
Coleman: Any optimism around football has somewhat gone out at me as I’ve spent three years looking at the dark side of it. I would say if we look across sports, there are very few sports governing bodies that haven’t been wracked by some sort of controversy around their governance. And I think there’s a reason for that.
The thing that is an inherent problem with sporting organizations is there’s no popular election. It’s just the vote of the member associations and that means that basically if you can convince 120 individual human beings that you are the right person for the job, you can stay in that job for a very long time. And a lot of the aim of the game becomes holding onto power and solidifying power bases. So these are organizations that are basically petri dishes for political scientists to study how to how power works in a very small coalition where very few alliances can keep you in power for a long time.
An aerial view of Al Bayt in Al Khor, Qatar. Al Bayt stadium will host the opening game of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 starting in November. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)
PSW: We love soccer and we love the World Cup. There’s no way around that. So how do we fully enjoy the upcoming tournament in Qatar, knowing everything that went on behind the scenes?
Coleman: What I’d remind fans at home is the World Cup was not put in Qatar because of their inaction, but because of the votes of 14 men. There is a lot of talk right now about boycotting and what we do as a fan, but I also think it’s important for fans to remember that basically, the World Cup is going ahead whether we like it or not. And what the organizers of the World Cup and Qatar are after in my opinion is not necessarily your eyeballs, it’s after your hearts and minds.
Whether you watch it or not doesn’t make a big difference them, it’s whether you watch it and say “Qatar was wonderful, what a great host.” Or if you go there and say the same. If you sit at home and you watch it, and you say “I enjoyed that goal, I enjoyed that save, but I think the following things about Qatar,” then they’ve sort of spent all that money and lost the battle.
Qatar defeated the United States in a now-infamous 14-8 vote
Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter has admitted that awarding Qatar the 2022 World Cup was, in his words, “a mistake.”
Blatter was in charge of FIFA during one of the most controversial moments in the governing body’s history when, on December 2, 2010, it awarded the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.
Now, two weeks before the World Cup kicks off, Blatter has said that he wishes the tournament was given to Qatar’s chief competitor, the United States.
“The choice of Qatar was a mistake,” Blatter said in an interview with Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger. “It was a bad choice. And I was responsible for that as president at the time.
“At the time, we actually agreed in the executive committee that Russia should get the 2018 World Cup and the USA that of 2022. It would have been a gesture of peace if the two long-standing political opponents had hosted the World Cup one after the other.”
There have been a myriad of controversies surrounding Qatar’s human rights record, but Blatter highlighted a more logistical concern for the Middle East country.
“It’s too small a country,” he said. “Football and the World Cup are too big for that.”
Qatar is roughly the size of Connecticut and only has a population of around 2.8 million. Each of the eight stadiums that will host matches is located within a radius of 34 miles.
Blatter blames Sarkozy-Platini meeting
Searching for an explanation as to why Qatar was awarded the World Cup, Blatter spotlighted a now-infamous meeting between Nicolas Sarkozy and Michel Platini the week before the vote took place.
Sarkozy, who was president of France at the time and Platini, who was president of UEFA, were joined by the crown prince of Qatar, now the Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
Blatter says that at that meeting, Sarkozy pressured Platini to convince the UEFA officials on the executive committee to vote for Qatar, not the United States.
“Thanks to the four votes of Platini and his [UEFA] team, the World Cup went to Qatar rather than the United States. It’s the truth,” Blatter said of a vote that ended up going in Qatar’s favor by a 14-8 margin.
Though Blatter regretted the choice of Qatar, he insisted that he did not feel the same way over awarding the 2018 World Cup to Russia.
“Many others also use sport for political purposes. I’m not a judge and I don’t want to judge that,” he added.
The series promises to go in depth on how FIFA became a “criminal organization”
Netflix has released the trailer for its upcoming documentary “FIFA Uncovered,” which is set for a November 9 release on the streaming platform.
That date is just 11 days before kickoff of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which will be one of the biggest subjects for the limited series.
The trailer promises to explore some of FIFA’s most unseemly moments in the past decade-plus, including a bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups that has been irrevocably tainted by corruption.
The U.S. Department of Justice indicted 14 high-ranking soccer officials in 2015 on a range of charges that involved bribery, racketeering, fraud and money laundering.
Last year, the DOJ said for the first time that officials working directly for Russia’s 2018 bid and Qatar’s 2022 bid bribed FIFA officials in exchange for their votes.
Ken Bensinger, a New York Times reporter who wrote a book on FIFA corruption, said on Twitter that he’s been working with the upcoming documentary, which he promised would have “amazing access and big revelations.”
For the past 2 years I've been privileged to help out w/ this ambitious project on FIFA & its manifold corruptions. I've seen the finished series I can say it's got amazing access & big revelations.
Eager to see "FIFA Uncovered" drop…just in time for the Qatar World Cup! https://t.co/L1OWYYm9IY
In the trailer, being a member of FIFA is described like being “in a secret garden” and the game’s governing body is described as a “criminal organization.”
Watch the trailer for ‘FIFA Uncovered’
For decades, FIFA united the globe through football. But behind the game, craftier schemes were at play. This documentary series traces the organisation's legacy, exploring the pageantry, power struggles and politics of hosting the World Cup.
The FIFA president said some offers were 100 times less than for the men’s World Cup
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has slammed broadcasters for what he deemed to be unacceptable offers for 2023 Women’s World Cup rights.
Speaking at a press conference ahead of the draw for the tournament, Infantino claimed that in some cases broadcasters were bidding 1% or less of what they offered to show the men’s World Cup.
“100 times less, even more than 100 times in some occasions, then this is not acceptable,” Infantino said. “I don’t want to mention them, but those who are there, they know it.”
“We are not going to accept this,” Infantino added, “because we know that the viewing figures for these broadcasters in some big footballing countries for the men’s World Cup or for the Women’s World Cup are actually very similar … meaning their commercial income is very similar for men and for women.”
Bloomberg reported that FIFA turned down offers from Italy, Germany, France and the UK to broadcast next summer’s tournament in Australia and New Zealand, and expects to do the same with an offer from Spain.
Infantino also took aim at a perceived hypocrisy in the low offers, which came from countries that have advocated for FIFA to invest more money in the women’s game.
“In some countries, they are quite good at telling us … that we should give more emphasis on equal opportunities, on equality, on non-discrimination, on treating men and women in the same way which is, of course, what we have to do, and we try to do that to the best of our ability,” Infantino said.
“It’s important that everyone puts actions, as well, behind words and we all start to treat women’s football the same way.”
FIFA has challenged European broadcasters to step up their bids
FIFA has told prospective broadcasters of the 2023 Women’s World Cup that their bids have not yet been acceptable.
A report in Bloomberg said that FIFA has turned down offers from Italy, Germany, France and the UK to broadcast next summer’s tournament, and expects to do the same with an offer from Spain.
FIFA’s Chief Business Officer Romy Gai has challenged broadcasters to step up their bids, hinting at a frustration over perceived lowball offers.
“This is not a case of being priced out, but rather testament to a lack of willingness of broadcasters to pay what the women’s game deserves,” Gai told Bloomberg.
“Audience figures show that the Women’s World Cup 2019 in France was a catalyst for change in terms of TV audience.
“We know the opportunity for women’s football is there. Now, together, we need to capture it.”
According to a report from FIFA, more than 1 billion people tuned in for the 2019 Women’s World Cup either at home, on digital platforms or outside of the home — a record for the tournament.
This summer there were a host of viewership records set around Euro 2022. The final between England and Germany drew in 17.4 million UK viewers, making it the most watched program of any kind in the UK in 2022.
In the United States Fox already has the rights for the 2023 World Cup, though the kickoff times won’t be conducive to large viewership. A 7 p.m. kickoff in Sydney would translate to 4 a.m. ET.
México había estado peleando su lugar dentro de las primeras 10 posiciones, sin embargo sus malos resultados los han hecho caer.
A mes y medio de que comience la fiebre mundialista con Qatar 2022, FIFA ha actualizado su ranking de las selecciones mejor ubicadas. El ranking llegó con algunas sorpresas.
México apenitas quedó fuera, quedando en la posición número 11, mientras que Estados Unidos cayó hasta la posición número 16.
¿Quién se llevó los primeros lugares?
La triada está compuesta por Brasil, con 1841.3 puntos; seguido por Bélgica, con 1816.7 puntos; y la Selección Argentina en tercer lugar, con un total de 1773.8 puntos.
La sorpresa nos la dio Italia, ubicada en el séptimo lugar del ranking. ¿Por qué nos sorprendió? Porque Italia no clasificó al mundial, aún así sus número son buenos.
La mala noticia es para Brasil. Aunque parece bueno que lleguen como el seleccionado más fuerte, ya van 4 mundiales en los que Brasil llega en primero y no se lleva la copa, lo que se ha convertido en una especie de maldición.
Tal parece que pese a vivir un mal momento El Tri sigue siendo muy atractivo a nivel comercial en Copas del Mundo
El Tri estará muy bien acompañado en la próxima Copa del Mundo de Qatar 2022, pues hasta el momento, más de 90 mil aficionados de nacionalidad mexicana han adquirido boletos para la fiesta del futbol.
De acuerdo a la FIFA y su sistema de ventas, México se encuentra entre las cinco naciones que más boletos han adquirido para Qatar 2022, aunque no todas las entradas son para los partidos del Tri, hay que mencionarlo.
Foto ESPECIAL
Las preventas de FIFA han sido un éxito en México y Estados Unidos que ocupa la segunda posición en cuanto a localidades vendidas en suelo estadounidense, aunque claro, no todos son aficionados del equipo de Norteamérica, es bien sabido que de ahí parten para ver a muchas selecciones más, incluyendo una enorme cantidad de aficionados de México residentes de Estados Unidos.
El país anfitrión es el que más localidades ha adquirido con cerca de 950 mil, le sigue Estados Unidos con más de 146 mil, Arabia Saudita con 123 mil como el top tres de aficionados en la Copa del Mundo.
Inglaterra y México con 91 mil están casi igualados con menos de 500 boletos de diferencia completando el Top 5. Destacan de Latinoamérica Argentina en séptima posición con 61 mil localidades y Brasil en noveno sitio con casi 40 mil boletos, menos de la mitad de los mexicanos que asistirán.
Tal parece que pese a vivir un mal momento El Tri sigue siendo muy atractivo a nivel comercial en Copas del Mundo, la “marea verde” hará de las suyas de nuevo en una aventura mundialista más.
