How FIFA corruputed the World Cup

How FIFA corruputed the World Cup

And how Russia and Qatar took advantage of it.

On December 2, 2010, FIFA announced the 2022 World Cup would take place in a surprising country, Qatar. At that same meeting, they also announced that the 2018 World Cup would take place in Russia. These selections set off a new chapter in FIFA’s history, one where the public would have a greater sense of how bribery and corruption play a huge role in who gets to host this international sporting event.

The last 14 World Cup locations were decided by a group of 24 powerful men within FIFA called the executive committee. Their votes meant a lot to bidding nations and allegations on bidders bribing members of the committee lingered for decades. These allegations reached a new level when criminal investigations were launched nearly five years after that FIFA announcement. The fallout of these investigations nearly broke FIFA and tainted the World Cup.

Watch the latest episode of Vox Atlas to understand how FIFA corrupted the World Cup host selection process.

You can find this video and all of Vox’s videos on YouTube.