The values of European football are Rolex and Euro
Created: 11/17/2022, 8:00 p.m
By: Prof. Dr.
Justus Haucap
Prof. Justus Haucap is director of the Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE) at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf.
© Bruckmann/M.
Litzka/DICE
Professional football and its fans suffer from growing alienation.
A look at the World Cup in Qatar reveals just how bad the situation has become.
But instead of putting FIFA on a leash, politicians - and the sponsors dutifully look aside, writes competition economist and football fan Prof. Justus Haucap in the guest article.
The World Cup kicks off in Qatar on Sunday.
It's basically a disgrace to football, especially its European representatives at UEFA, DFB and other European football federations.
While the sporting performance of the German national team was more than disgraceful at the last World Cup in 2018, this time football fans have to be ashamed of their official representatives.
When representatives of UEFA, DFB etc. speak of their values, they are more likely to mean amounts in euros and dollars;
Human rights and sustainability are obviously not part of it.
Rarely has it been so clear that human rights and even the future of the planet play no role for professional football in Europe - or at least for its elected representatives - apart from Sunday speeches to appease the fans.
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World Cup: Professional football defends contract for Qatar
Not only did the representatives of professional football not oppose the awarding of the World Cup to Qatar.
They have even actively defended and endorsed them publicly.
When public criticism – keywords: allegations of corruption, lack of compliance with essential human rights, exploitation of workers, lack of sustainability – became louder after the decision in favor of Qatar, Qatar invited numerous representatives of top European football to Doha, including Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the chairman the European Club Association.
After the return flight, Rummenigge was caught by customs with two unpaid Rolex watches.
He later claimed the watches were a gift, from a friend, not the Qataris.
Since 2018, Qatar Airways has also been sponsoring Rummenigge's club, FC Bayern Munich, with around 20 million euros per year, according to media reports.
Uli Hoeneß described the fans' criticism as embarrassing - but not for FC Bayern, but for the fans themselves. This shows how far the official representatives of professional football have distanced themselves from the reality of life of the people, the fans.
FIFA: Unregulated monopoly
However, the reason for these undesirable developments is less to be found in the behavior of individuals, but rather of a systematic nature.
FIFA, together with its sub-associations, forms a monopoly that is completely unregulated and thus shows all the negative consequences of a monopoly.
Since competition is inherently non-existent, who really wants to see two, three or four competing world championships like in boxing?
- but really only remains a supervision of the monopoly or a regulation.
Here, however, politicians lack courage – nobody wants to mess with the sport.
The FIFA President is also currently allowed to speak to the heads of state at the G20 summit instead of declaring him persona non grata.
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This is how we report on the controversial World Cup in Qatar
FIFA: Sponsors accept misdevelopment
There is hardly any pressure from sponsors either.
With adidas there is only one European sponsor left anyway.
And Chinese sponsors will not be particularly interested in human rights and sustainability.
So there's not much hope that things will change in the future.
Let's be very realistic: Sunday speeches will remain.
Football has long belonged to the officials and no longer to the fans.
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Europe's looming energy disaster: How Germany is alienating its partners with billions in aid
Distribution, inequality, climate change: the ECB has been talking about the wrong thing for too long
World Cup favorites: The market is betting on Brazil and Argentina
If we finally take a look at the sporting side, economics knows two very successful methods of predicting the next world champion.
On the one hand, this is quite simply a comparison of the betting odds - i.e. a look at the markets.
There are currently the worst odds for Brazil (1:3.5) followed by Argentina (1:5), France (1:6) and England (1:7).
The chances that Germany will become world champion are therefore 1 in 10.
On the other hand, it has proven to be accurate to simply compare the values of the players of the different teams on the transfer market.
The team with the highest market value is England with €1.26 billion, followed by Brazil (€1.14 billion), France (€1.07 billion) and Portugal (€923 million).
With a market value of 874 million euros, the German team is in 6th place in this ranking and thus well ahead of the Argentinians, who are also favorites (633 million euros).
But the nice and exciting thing about football is that everything can turn out differently.
In almost no other sport can luck and bad luck be so decisive that David can always win against Goliath.
About the author: Prof. Justus Haucap is director of the Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE) at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf. From 2006 to 2014 he was also a member of the Federal Government's Monopolies Commission, four of which as chairman (2008-2012). Haucap has been campaigning for the legalization of cannabis for years.