Link: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/may/01/european-countries-still-expect-to-lose-money-at-world-cup-despite-prize-fund-increase

Nations in Europe believe the high cost of travel and hotels across north America won’t be offset by Fifa’s decision to raise prize money by $112m

Sorry, UEFA, but the whole point of the World Cup is to redistribute money from rich European nations that already have soccer infrastructure to countries that need that money to build the game locally. The World Cup payments would be a rounding error for England, but will likely change soccer forever for Curaçao:

Fifa opted to split the increased payouts equally rather than pegging them to performance, whereas the leading European nations had wanted a change in the distribution system to make it more merit-based.

Good.

I hope the whole venture is a massive loss. Half the world can't fucking afford groceries.

but the whole point of the World Cup is to redistribute money from rich European nations that already have soccer infrastructure to countries that need that money to build the game locally.

...

You believe that?

Like, I understand that's the claim by the oligarchs who run and profit off the World Cup, I'm asking if you legitimately believe them when they say that.

I think changes to the prize structure that make that more true are better than changes to the prize structure that make it less true.

But the prize structure is just an expense item...

Even if it was the most expensive official line item (I genuinely don't know), it's still not the purpose of the games.

The purpose of the World Cup is to enrich World Cup officials, and that was obviously before the court cases a decade ago.

Just look at the countries who are hosting the games since the 2015 corruption trials. Obviously the corruption didn't stop.

The whole thing is a giant capitalist grift, which is why I was surprised you made that initial claim about the purpose for the games.

The purpose of a system is what it does. The World Cup both enriches corrupt FIFA officials and redistributes money within global soccer. That leaves you with two options: to view the World Cup as a scam that pays minimal money to federations to maintain the grift, or to view the World Cup as a global celebration of soccer that helps build the game internationally which FIFA officials skim off the top of. Both perspectives are true to an extent, but you need to take joy in something in this gods-forsaken world where literally every institution is evil, and I have chosen to take joy here, and pick fights when I believe it’s likely to make a difference.

The purpose of a system is what it does

The purpose of a system is why it exists...

Everything does lots of things, nothing does only one single.

By your definition, nothing has a single purpose. Everything has a bunch of different ones that are equally valid and we can just pick one arbitrarily.

I'm sorry I can't explain this in a way you can understand, I won't try anymore.

I think you’ve done a good job explaining my position, and fairly eloquently. The world isn’t a simple place, and the r squared between influence and corruption is ~.95. I don’t think I’d go so far as to say “arbitrarily,” but I’ve been following international soccer since the ‘99 World Cup and have decided that the institution is best reformed from within. It’s a big part of why I’ve picked a fight here, over the World Cup in the US. Because it’s in my hometown, by not spending money this time, I’ve been able to have conversations with representatives from my local organizing committee, my local clubs, and US Soccer. It’s a hard line to walk because it is so clearly a corrupt organization, but the goal at the heart of the organization is fundamentally good, and to what small extent I’m able, I will not allow evil FIFA executives to take that from us.