Unlike most of the world, soccer (the rest of the world calls it football) is not America’s favorite sport. It’s not even second or third. As a result, most Americans don’t pay that much attention to what’s going on with the World Cup until the finals. For instance, on Thursday the USA’s Men’s National Soccer team plays Trinidad & Tobago as a part of the 2018 World Cup qualifying rounds. This game isn’t even on TV! You can however stream it live on Fox Sports Go.
Meanwhile, the road to qualify for one of the spots in the 2018 World Cup finals have been going on since March 2015. That’s because unlike baseball’s World Series, the World Cup really involves the world. There are 211 countries that have to be whittled down to 31! (The total number of competing teams in the finals is 32, but the host country automatically gets to play.)
So, why am I thinking that Russia may win the World Cup in 2018? It’s simple. Russia is the host for the 2018 World Cup. Russia. Not to be cynical, but these days playing fair and Russia aren’t exactly two concepts that go together.
Why The Sports World is Skeptical About Russian Fair Play
Just last year Russia got nailed for a huge steroids “doping” scandal that got some of their Olympic athletes stripped of their 2012 summer and 2014 winter medals. On top of that, over 100 Russian athletes were banned from the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. They also were completely banned from the paraplegic Olympics, and may end up being banned from the 2018 Winter Olympics. (The Olympic Committee is still deciding.)
Why is every Russian athlete under scrutiny? Well, by all accounts – except of course, the Russians – this wasn’t about individual athletes using steroids. The Russian doping scandal is that the drugs and cheating to fool the tests was fully a state-sponsored program!
Is this level of duplicity a new thing? Probably not. In the McLaren report, law professor Richard McLaren detailed the ways Russia cheated to win in 2012 & 2014. He also noted that it could have been going on much longer than the time period covered in the report.
It is impossible to know just how deep and how far back this conspiracy goes,” he said. “For years, international sports competitions have unknowingly been hijacked by the Russians. Coaches and athletes have been playing on an uneven field. Sports fans and spectators have been deceived.
Considering that Russia also has the largest amount of medals stripped due to doping in the history of the modern Olympics this is a valid point.
Why Does Russia Still Get to Host the 2018 World Cup? Ask FIFA.
You would think that with all of Russia’s illegal scheming to win at sports that the FIFA would have decided to strip Russia of its hosting duties. Nope. Then again, the FIFA’s in the middle of its own corruption scandal. Charges against the organization include the following:
…bribery, fraud, money laundering, and racketeering, including in the award of hosting rights for FIFA’s showpiece World Cup and broadcasting rights for the tournament’s qualifying matches and other international competitions.
I’m sure you know that saying about people in glass houses, right? So, no, FIFA’s not about to take the World Cup away from Russia. In fact, the FIFA situation does beg the question of how Russia got to host in the first place – but that’s something best left to investigators, not bloggers.
Maybe Russia won’t use this opportunity to cheat their way to the top. Perhaps they’ll just sell the win to the highest bidder. Okay, there I am being a little cynical. The Russian odds of winning The 2018 World Cup are is listed at 25 to 1. To give that some perspective, Germany, who won the 2014 World Cup, are at 5 to 1. The World Cup’s other usual suspects- Brazil and Italy – are respectively at 7 to 1 and 14 to 1. As for America – we’re at 66:1. So Russian winning isn’t impossible. It’s certainly more likely than America.
Nevertheless, I doubt I’m the only one looking at Russia’s history and thinking the 2018 World Cup will end up with an asterisk next to the winner. Feel free to leave your thoughts about this in the comments. Maybe someone can convince me the 2018 World Cup Finals won’t be a big scam.
On a positive note, at least Russia doesn’t handle the qualifying rounds. Maybe I’ll stream that game on Thursday. Go USA!
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