the brilliantly leaping gazelle

Depending upon your point of view, the increase in the amount of teams competing in this years World Cup – up from the 32 that competed in Qatar in 2022 to the 48 now – is either long overdue and a welcome corrective by FIFA, the organiser of the the World Cup and footballs governing body, to be more inclusive. It increases participation at the elite level whilst further boosts footballs global appeal. Alternatively, one might see it as nothing more than yet another demonstration of FIFA’s cynicism towards the football fan, being all too aware that for some football fans there is no such thing as costing too much.

Wonderfully both of these views are correct. In fact, one could not exist without the other. The culmination of the group stage bears this out. In Qatar, a total of 64 games were played. This time around though, there are 104, with the group stages comprising the vast majority of these, 74 matches. Some of the teams competing in the group stage had no business being there. Well, in purely footballing terms anyway, those of skills, ability and sheer class. 

However, if one looks at it another way and sees fans as the business, as being little more than cannon fodder, the difference being that the only thing they’ll bleed is money, then it all begins to make sense. The World Cup is being held in three countries; meaning that the distances the fans will have to travel just to get there is as nothing as the distances they’ll have to travel between games. This all costs. Not just the getting there and getting to the group games. But the cost tickets to the matches themselves, of all the accommodations needed to see them, the food they’ll eat, the drinks, the sundries…

And what happened at the end of the group stage, how many teams were eliminated from the competition after all 74 matches were played? 16, leaving 32 other teams, the same amount as competed in Qatar, but crucially leaving 32 groups of fans. That’s why it’s called the ‘knockout phase’ because it seems that the aim is to knockout whatever remaining cash there is from the fans who stay. That’s why the gaps between games get longer. Yes, so the players can recover and do whatever they need to do to prepare for the next game. But also to allow the fans to spend even more money on the aforementioned items; travel, accommodation and food. It makes me think of the advert for the V&A museum; ‘An ace cafe with a nice museum attached’

It’s all one big money making scheme and nothing better proves this than the much derided ‘hydration breaks’, of which there of there is one in each half. These are all 3 minutes long and are compulsory, even if the match is being played in a stadium with the roof closed and the air-conditioning on. FIFA claims its all about player safety and that the compulsory nature of them is to ensure everyone plays by the same rules. This isn’t the first time ‘hydration breaks’ have appeared at the World Cup. Four years ago, they were at were used Qatar. Until I did some research for this post, I was completely unaware of that. Understandable though. They were only used twice, both times at the discretion of the referee and then only if a temperature threshold had been breached.  

Indeed, Qatar provides us with an interesting comparator. In order to mitigate against the extreme heat that the players would face if it was held in the June/July 2022, as World Cups normally are, they simply held it in November. But of course Qatar, being a Muslim nation, doesn’t observe Christmas and so could do that. But in America, the religion there is for the Almighty Dollar, so having the World Cup compete with Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas advertising revenue was always going to be unlikely. So FIFA threw in the 2026 American TV rights on as a compensatory thank-you, adding to the deal it had struck with Fox in 2015, for the World Cups in Russia and Qatar.

This was anything other than generous. It was shrewd. So whilst it is estimated that the advertising revenue will generate around $250 millions for Fox, this is as nothing when compared to the $3.8 billions FIFA made when it sold all of the global TV rights. So whilst a lot of attention is rightly focused on Fox selling 30 second advertising spots for around $200,000 a pop for matches matches featuring lesser teams, rising to $750,000 for matches featuring the US during these breaks, the bigger picture is being missed.

It is now a near certainty that ‘hydration breaks’ will become of permanent addition. Mr Magoo, the president of FIFA can make the claim that FIFA doesn’t profit from this arrangement because it’s true. Right up until the next bidding wars start for the TV rights for the next ones. That’s when even more money can be made. He’ll can point out to national broadcasters how lucrative this one was, how cheap was is compared to them producing their own content, how the minutes they buy can be reused again and again. The build up to the live matches, the live matches themselves, the post match analysis, the highlights…

But first there is this World Cup and the inevitable lacklustre display from England in the knockout phase that will see their exit to contend with. But I don’t care about that. Obviously I will. But for now, like most England fans, I’m enjoying the fact that Germany have lost a World Cup penalty shoot-out! And they’re gone. Schadenfreude, indeed.