The most expensive World Cup in history?

In 2010, the announcement was made that the World Cup would go to Qatar, making it the first Arab country to host the world’s biggest national team tournament. Criticism was rife, but the organisation promised to deliver the best World Cup ever, and so far the spending has been impressive.

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How much have you spent on past World Cups?

Let’s take a look at what the hosts have spent to host the tournament in recent years.

By the time the tournament came to the United States in 1994, the federation and host committee knew they had to make it a memorable Cup, and that meant doing it the American way, a little over the top, and they spent a staggering $500 million for a wonderful tournament that people will not soon forget, far exceeding what was spent on previous tournaments, and so the overspending began.

For the next tournament, France did not want to be left behind and spent 2.4 billion dollars to see Zinedine Zidane score a double in the new Stade de France that was built just for this World Cup.

In 2002, for the first time, the tournament went to Asia, and the venue was shared by Korea and Japan. Between them, they spent a whopping 7 billion dollars. Two venues equals double-spending, and FIFA was not so happy because the World Cup was not the success it was expected to be.

For Germany in 2006, it was back to Europe. This time it was decided to make the tournament a little more economical, and only 4.3 billion was spent, less than in 2002, but more than in 1998. For this tournament, a period of globalisation was beginning, and this meant more infrastructure costs.

Africa would have its first World Cup for the first time and knew that they had to invest to make it unforgettable, but, although there were many shortcomings in the infrastructure, they did not spend what was spent in Germany, and it was only 3.6 billion.

Brazil hosted the tournament in 2014, and as a country that is basically crazy about football, they wanted to make it a spectacular World Cup, and they did it, without a doubt one of the most impressive tournaments in recent years, and for this, the South American country spent 15 billion dollars.

Yes, it was an unforgettable tournament, but it caused a lot of social instability, as people in Brazil were against spending so much because there were other needs in the country, this ended up costing Dilma Rousseff Brazilian president at the time, a lot, and she was accused of corruption and excessive spending.

For 2018, Russia decided not to spend so much and lowered the cost from 15 to 11 billion. It made for a wonderful tournament in a summer we will never forget. France lifted its second World Cup title on a rainy afternoon in Luzhniki and set the bar high for the World Cup in Qatar.

The most expensive in history

The Qatari organisers knew that to silence the wave of criticism from the football world against the World Cup in the Arab country, because of allegations of human rights violations and because it will be played in winter, they had to spend to make it an unforgettable World Cup.

220 billion has been spent on stadiums and infrastructure to make this the most expensive World Cup in history. The ball hasn’t even moved onto the field yet, and already the first record has been set.

No doubt this World Cup will be something different, and the expectation is high, for now, money has already been invested to make it the best, but the last word will be left to the players who are the protagonists. Apart from being the most expensive, will it be the most spectacular?

 

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Also published on Medium.