SEPT 14 — Everybody loves a good party; and if there’s one thing better than going to a great party, it’s hosting one.
As I discovered for myself by staging a particularly successful Millennium New Year’s Eve bash on December 31, 1999, putting on a good party can leave a warm afterglow (once the hangover has faded).
It can boost your reputation within your peer group, grant you a greater air of authority and respect, and ensure reciprocal invites to future events elsewhere.
In terms of global parties, nothing can compare to our planet’s two greatest sporting events: the Olympic Games and the World Cup Finals. So when the opportunity arises to host one of these international mega-parties, it’s no surprise there is never a lack of bidders.
That was evidenced again last weekend, when Tokyo erupted into delirious delight after beating the challenges of Istanbul and Madrid to win the right to stage the 2020 Olympic Games.
As a resident of Spain, I’ve been able to sample close-up Madrid’s intense disappointment at missing out, having also failed with bids to stage the games in 2012 and 2016.
Within minutes of the decision being announced, Spanish television screens were filled with images of weeping sportsmen and women, administrators and fans, who rapidly flocked away from the city’s central square that had been set up with a giant TV screen in readiness for the joyous celebration that never materialised.
In the midst of a serious economic crisis (unemployment in Spain has reached record levels in the last few years), Madrid was hoping receive a significant boost in prestige, infrastructure and self-esteem by winning the bid.
Madrid had seen, after all, just how much Barcelona had benefitted from staging the games in 1992. Entire neighbourhoods were redeveloped at great cost but with even greater future benefits, a huge range of sporting facilities were developed, new roads were built and the world was captivated by images of Mediterranean sunshine and Gaudi’s architecture that have kept tourists flooding towards the city ever since.
But dreams of becoming the world’s party host were shattered by Saturday’s announcement in Tokyo’s favour and, as always, the chief complaint emanating from Madrid in the wake of their defeat has been the lack of transparency in the process.
The problem is that the ballot is held in secret, with each of the members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) able to make their decision without having to offer any public justification.
Why did Tokyo win while Madrid and Istanbul lost? It’s anybody’s guess. All three cities presented perfectly valid cases but ultimately the decision came down to the personal subjective opinions of the voting members — and there’s no way of knowing precisely what influenced their thinking.
Of course, it would be nice to think that every ballot-holder made a carefully reasoned and well thought-out decision, based upon a thorough consideration of the potential benefits arising for the competing athletes, the host city, the watching spectators and the global television audience.
But when secrecy reigns and no decisions have to be explained, it’s inevitable that suspicions over foul play will linger. Did Tokyo bribe voting officials with promises of personal payments or lavish “investments” into shadowy “projects”? There has been no suggestion that such corruption was involved... but it wouldn’t be the first time.
For example, the decision of football’s global governing body, FIFA, to award the 2022 World Cup Finals to Qatar is looking increasingly ludicrous.
The result of the secret vote amongst 22 FIFA members in 2010 never made much sense, beyond vague wishes to take the event to “new frontiers” (if that was the main consideration, how about Malaysia or Thailand, where there’s already an enormous passion for football, or Australia, one of the losing bidders for 2022?), and there have always been far more reasons not to take the event to Qatar than positive factors in its favour.
Qatar has no great footballing history, possesses a tiny population (less than two million people), is relatively inaccessible, has been accused of various human rights offences and is not a particularly welcome place for visitors – especially international footballers who will be expected to produce peak performance despite playing in 50 degree Celsius heat in mid-summer.
But Qatar is also rich — extremely rich — and inevitable allegations that Qatar “bought” the World Cup have been rife ever since the vote took place. Nothing has been proven (yet) but, from a rational point of view, bribery is the only logical explanation for FIFA’s decision. No other explanation makes sense.
The farcical nature of the situation was again highlighted this week when FIFA’s old warhorse Sepp Blatter, a man of extremely dubious moral virtues, publicly admitted that the decision to hand the games to Qatar was “a mistake” and expressed his desire to move the event to the winter months — bang slap in the middle of the domestic European league season.
Predictably, the head of the Qatari bid, Hassan al-Thawadi, reacted promptly to assert that the tournament should take place, as planned, in the summer of 2022, and that his committee is working very hard to deliver an extremely successful event.
I’m sure that’s true and that there’s no lack of commitment from the various authorities in Qatar to make the very most of their opportunity. But the question of how they were even awarded the event in the first place remains unanswered and open to allegations of foul play.
Maybe, in time, similar accusations will be levelled against the suitability of Tokyo to stage the 2020 Olympics. I would hope not: there was probably nothing underhand about their bid and they are probably (again, that word “probably”) winners on merit.
But while the current air of secrecy continues to pervade the voting process, suspicions of corruption will always remain. Greater transparency, requiring all voting officials to fully explain the reasons for their decision, is the only possible step. Whether the IOC or FIFA will be sufficiently forward-thinking to implement such a measure is entirely another matter.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
