How should one feel about handing over ticket money to an organization as notoriously corrupt and immoral as the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)? Luckily for Seattleites, making moral compromises with globespanning unaccountable bureaucracies has always been a part of our DNA.
The bribery prosecutions implicating top FIFA warlords a decade ago is the scandal that comes to mind for most. You’ve got to be doing something really egregious for a country as soccerphobic and corrupt as the United States to indict you, but rigging host country bids and awarding broadcast and marketing rights in exchange for literal briefcases full of cash was too much even for even American prosecutors.
Host countries that successfully convince/bribe FIFA to come to town don’t always understand the kind of monster they’re hauling into the boat. World-renowned whale mural painter Wyland recently had one of his massive art pieces painted over in Dallas by a FIFA advertisement. Not to be outdone, Seattle has whitewashed no fewer than three of Wyland’s orca murals in recent history. Surely the whales dying by the pod across the Salish Sea this year are a coincidence.
The unelected local organizing committee that foamed the runway for Seattle’s first World Cup reflects the city fathers well: a disgraced ex-mayor (Jenny Durkan), executives from major defense contractors (Amazon and Microsoft), and the CEO of an oligarch’s charitable fund currently reviewing its ties to Jeffrey Epstein (Mark Suzman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation).
FIFA officials will feel right at home in such company. The players of the Iranian national team may not. As of press time, Iran is still scheduled to play Egypt in Seattle, despite worries about the team’s safety playing in a country currently at war with their homeland, and visa troubles for players who have previously served in Iranian security forces. That Iran will compete under the shadow of corporations responsible for the bombing of their country is a fact most commentators seem keen to avoid.
The irony of the Iran–Egypt match being the official Seattle LGBTQ Pride Match, however, is lost to no one, as both countries criminalize homosexuality to a degree Washington Republicans can only dream of. Neither country is thrilled by this coincidence, though Iran has taken a larger hit for it in the press, as we’re currently bombing them. It is, however, worth noting that Egypt’s repressive military government is propped up by the United States—our ruling class is fine supporting a bigoted dictatorship in the most populous country in the Middle East as long as their tanks stay on their side of the border with Israel.
Despite our progressive reputation, it’s hard for Seattle to maintain the moral high ground on human rights, given the community’s long domination by the weapons industry. FIFA is really giving us a run for our money, though, awarding President Trump the inaugural “FIFA Peace Prize” in between bombing campaigns and regime change attempts.
But suppressing cognitive dissonance to make a buck off geopolitical tensions filtering into international sports is a proud Seattle tradition. We partnered with the recently deceased Ted Turner to host the 1990 Goodwill Games, an apolitical rival to the Olympic Games, whose broadcast advertising profits were hamstrung by dueling boycotts by the US and Soviet governments. The Cold War ending the following year may have put a damper on such profiteering, but now the FIFA World Cup has arrived. It’s time for Seattle to remind the world that we’re always willing to look the other way in the interest of international fraternity, friendly competition, and advertising revenue for PepsiCo, Eastman Kodak, and the Church of Scientology.