> Not to mention that there aren't many stable democracies left willing to host World Cups, there's a reason why Qatar and Russia ended up hosting 2018/2022.
Nah, stable places are totally willing to host, if it was offered to them. They are just not willing to bid as high as Qatar and Russia were. (Where bidding is informal, basically how much bribery you were willing to do.)
> Every world cup assignment of the last decades was loaded with corruption charges - including, to my shame as German, the 2006 World Cup.
I can believe that. But the amount of money in bribes is still relatively trivial compared to the total amount they make from the World Cup.
(In general, what's so infuriating about bribes and corruption is how low the stakes are. If someone is willing to sell out their country for a few billion Euros, I wouldn't be mad. But have a look at eg the paltry sums that changed hands in the CDU-Spendenaffäre. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDU-Spendenaff%C3%A4re They are talking about mere millions.
Nah, stable places are totally willing to host, if it was offered to them. They are just not willing to bid as high as Qatar and Russia were. (Where bidding is informal, basically how much bribery you were willing to do.)
> Every world cup assignment of the last decades was loaded with corruption charges - including, to my shame as German, the 2006 World Cup.
I can believe that. But the amount of money in bribes is still relatively trivial compared to the total amount they make from the World Cup.
(In general, what's so infuriating about bribes and corruption is how low the stakes are. If someone is willing to sell out their country for a few billion Euros, I wouldn't be mad. But have a look at eg the paltry sums that changed hands in the CDU-Spendenaffäre. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDU-Spendenaff%C3%A4re They are talking about mere millions.
Compare also https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/09/18/too-much-dark-money-in... )