Vladimir Putin with the World Cup trophy

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     Almost forty years to the day after the World Cup was held in authoritarian Argentina, the 2018 World Cup kicked off in Russia. As shown above, FIFA finds hosting World Cups in authoritarian regimes easy, so Vladimir Putin’s Russia was an ideal choice for the tournament. The many controversies which would plague the Russian World Cup began more than 8 years before the first game began, when countries were competing for the right to host. In 2010, there were four bids: joint bids from Belgium-Netherlands and Portugal-Spain and singular bids from England and Russia. Within the proposals, the other countries boasted about their large stadiums and superb infrastructure, while Russia admitted that “none of its proposed sixteen stadiums were ready at the time the bid was placed” and FIFA asserted that the country “would require significant investment in the “modernization of its hotel sector,” before the country could host thousands of visitors from around the world.”[13] Despite all of these caveats, Russia won 13 of the 22 votes and were awarded the rights to hosting the 2018 World Cup, but allegations of corruption would bubble to the surface almost immediately after FIFA President Sepp Blatter held up Russia’s name in the announcement ceremony. 

     Specifically, in late 2010, the Sunday Times in England “published an investigation into alleged vote-buying, accusing aforementioned FIFA executive Amos Adamu of telling an undercover reporter that the Russians had offered him cooperation with building facilities and training players in Nigeria in turn for his vote.” [14] FIFA condemned the publication and claimed all allegations were categorically false, but in April 2020, “the United States Department of Justice on Monday said for the first time that representatives working for Russia and Qatar had bribed FIFA officials to secure hosting rights for the World Cup in men’s soccer.”[15] This announcement by the US DOJ came after a years long investigation into corruption within FIFA that has “produced convictions of numerous soccer officials and executives” including Sepp Blatter. All of this contributed to a World Cup where fans were suspicious of Russia’s motives, but more issues would appear. 

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Sepp Blatter at a press briefing

     Along with the corruption, Russia was caught in another scandal when Richard McLaren released his report for the World Anti-Doping Agency, which saw a vast amount of Russian athletes banned from the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Games. “Thirty-three footballers who were alleged to be part of the Russian steroid programme are listed in the McLaren Report. On 22 December 2017, it was reported that FIFA had fired a doctor who had been investigating doping in Russian football.”[16] The doping was reportedly performed at the request of Putin and the Kremlin, which shows Russia’s other attempts at using sports success as a way to gain favor on the world’s stage. 

     Along with the World Cup, the Olympic Committee awarded Russia the Sochi 2014 games, the first major sporting event utilized by Putin for sportswashing. Before the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics had taken place, Russian militias “stormed the Crimean peninsula, eventually annexing the long-disputed Ukrainian territory and sparking international outcry. The invasion recast Putin’s Russia as public enemy number one in the west, with several foreign governments imposing financial sanctions against prominent Russian businessmen and companies.”[17] Russia’s history of attempting to hide behind sports is on full display through the annexing of Crimea. Putin appropriated the Winter Olympics to make an aggressive move for land and power, which caused a limited amount of uproar in the international community as many individuals were focused on the sports and not the international incident.  

     Finally, Russia has a history of human rights violations to add to the list of reasons why they should not have been chosen to hold the 2018 World Cup. In 2013, Putin signed legislation which made “spreading of information directed to the forming in adolescents of non-traditional sexual arrangements” illegal. Additionally, right before the World Cup began, “police in Chechnya rounded up, beat, and humiliated dozens of gay or bisexual men in an apparent effort to purge them from Chechen society."[18] When faced with backlash from activists groups, FIFA asked Russia to clarify their stance of the 2013 legislation and Russian officials claimed that LGBTQ+ people would not be targeted, but advocacy groups warned fans against showing public displays of affection during the World Cup in fear of retribution. [19] 

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Anti-government protestors in Russia arrested 

     According to Human Rights Watch, the Russian government treated workers in horrible conditions. “At least 17 construction workers died and many others faced exploitation and labor abuses while working on infrastructure projects for the 2018 World Cup.”[20] Workers at stadium sites were also not paid and forced to work in -13 degree temperatures. It was also reported that 110 North Korean laborers were forced to work seven days a week, live in inhumane conditions, and sleep in outdated shipping containers through the bitter winter. In November 2016, a North Korean man was found dead and the cause of death was attributed to a  heart attack.[21] 

     All of the above reasons would seem to be enough for FIFA to move the 2018 World Cup out of Russia, but the World Cup continued. Unexpectedly, Russia advanced to the quarterfinals through a Cinderella story run by beating Spain on penalties, but lost to Croatia. France and  Croatia played in the final, with France winning the World Cup. After the tournament ended, FIFA’s new president, Gianni Infantino, called it “the best World Cup ever” and Putin awarded him an Order of Friendship medal, which he has refused to return despite Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine. Again, the FIFA World Cup was utilized by Russia as a public relations exercise which allowed Putin to create legitimacy and a favorable image for a brutal dictatorship which oppresses citizens and limits freedom of speech. Only now, with the war in Ukraine, have people realized the extent of the sportswashing from the 2018 World Cup.