With the world preparing for the opening of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in just 70 days, discussions on possible threats appear to be increasing. The 2018 FIFA World Cup is expected to be the showcase of football for FIFA, but also for Russia as the host country.
Exactly the fact that the World Cup has a great exposure in the media generates a series of threats. In this case, we are talking about threats of a political, economic and terrorist nature. In this article we will examine in more detail, five possible ways that, in certain circumstances, could discredit FIFA, Russia and the World Cup.
Political threats
As political tensions arise on the international stage, between Russia and a number of Western countries, media reports suggest that the United Kingdom, Iceland and Australia could boycott the World Cup at the diplomatic level.
The threats began when the UK foreign minister compared the 2018 World Cup in Russia to the 1936 Olympic Games, which were a showcase for the Nazis.
The country's prime minister, Theresa May, declared that there will be no assistance from ministers, or even members of the royal family, at this summer's World Cup in Russia.
The implications in such case will be important for the United Kingdom, since Duke Harry, who is the president of the English Football Association, will not attend the games. The United Kingdom joined Iceland, as the island's Foreign Ministry declared that Icelandic leaders would not attend the World Cup either.
On the other hand, media reports, according to which Australia had plans to boycott the World Cup at the diplomatic level, were refuted by government officials, leaving the United Kingdom and Iceland on their own until now.
However, from the pragmatic point of view, if there were no more support for the British initiative, it could have a low impact, even none. Some analysts even consider that he can bring more support to Putin inside Russia.
The question here is where the UK will go and whether it can gather more support from more countries that join the initiative. In any case, a greater tension in international relations could push other Western countries to join the initiative.
Terrorist attacks?
The World Cup as described above is a high profile event and has exactly the characteristics for a high profile terrorist attack. Most people have seen the chilling threat issued by ISIS for a terrorist attack in the World Cup that shows Lionel Messi crying blood and being behind bars.
It may be the most chilling, however, it is not the first. The previous threats have been showing the logo of the 2018 World Cup exploding and others even pointing to specific stadiums. The question here is how serious terrorist threats can be and how serious the Russian authorities will be in the face of such threats.
Because ISIS uses independent terrorist cells, the possibilities vary enormously. It is impossible to say how serious the ISIS cells can be with their threats. The terrorist organization has also threatened in the last soccer tournaments, including the European Championships 2016 and the European Women's Championships 2017, which took place without incident.
In addition, the Russian authorities have extensive experience with terrorist groups and appear to be well equipped to prevent such incidents.
Lack of Sponsors
Media reports indicate that FIFA may face a financial reaction, as sponsors turn their backs on the Russian World Cup. Many companies seem to avoid possible sponsorship of the World Cup, since they do not want to associate with FIFA or with Russia.
The problem seems to be rooted, in part, in that FIFA has a bad corporate reputation for corruption. The problem started with FIFA's corruption case under which several FIFA officials were arrested on corruption charges, which ultimately toppled Blatter from the FIFA presidency on ethical charges.
The issue was shaken again at the end of 2017 as the arrested officials would be tried and the former FIFA president asked the ethics committee to reconsider his six-year ban on the sport.
If FIFA issues what is not enough, Russia was in all the media during the last months for the wrong reasons. The headlines about the Salisbury incident with the poisoning of the former Russian double agent last month, the accusations about racism in Russian football and the poor state of LGBT rights in Russia made potential sponsors think twice more about joining the effort.
Currently, the event is sponsored by several companies such as Adidas, Coca Cola, Gazprom, McDonalds, Budweiser, as well as by regional companies such as Rostelecom, Alpha Bank and, lately, Russian Railways. However, the media insists that FIFA has trouble finding additional sponsors and if the event turns out to be an economic loss for the Federation, it could mark a negative turn in the history of football.
Violence among fans
Possible clashes between fans of the World Cup could not only represent a significant danger but also discredit football once again. However, is there really danger of vandalism at the 2018 World Cup? Will we see images of riots among fans like those of the Eurocup in France in 2016? Many media seem to think that.
Especially when the English and Russian fans seem to have a grunge for each other since Euro 2016. The recent political tensions between Russia and the United Kingdom, as well as the negative headlines of the media could make the situation even turn more tense once the fans of these two countries meet.
However, there seem to be a couple of arguments that contradict the notion of extensive violence in the 2018 World Cup. The first argument could be that English fans had visited Russia in the recent past to see Manchester, a team that plays in the leagues. European and police security was so close that there were no incidents of violence.
Another argument could include the extensive police experience with these groups, as well as the recent repression of the Russian authorities on vandalism in football. In any case, the Russian police seems very confident to be able to control any riot quickly and began to prepare for such incidents before the World Cup begins.
There is also a sense of hospitality that seems to dominate the World Cup among the Russians, since they understand that their country will be in the spotlight in those days.
There are also several other problems that the World Cup will have to face, such as the use of video assistance for referees (VAR), the fixing of bets in the games, if the entire infrastructure will be ready for the opening ceremony and others.
Whatever the case, one thing is certain: that this World Cup will have more at stake than simply giving football to the world champion.
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