The economics of FIFA World Cup

The 2018 football world cup is just over three weeks away. It starts on 14th June and the final game will be played on15th July in Moscow.

This is as good a time as any to examine if the FIFA World Cup, beyond the passionate rhetoric of football fans, is a worthwhile economic pursuit for any country. We have heard, read, and seen multiple news stories on the eventual financial imprudence of hosting the Olympics. Even a cursory glance at news pieces on the aftermath of the 2016 Olympics in Brazil will give pause to the most optimistic sports fan. Ghostly quiet stadiums that lie vacant and serve as parking lots at best, and targets of vandalism at worst, tend to do that to people. Then we have the long shadow cast by the Commonwealth Games held in India in 2010. The financial irregularities that we saw there are now the stuff of legend.