Professor Simon Chadwick, an expert in Sports and Geopolitical Economy, questioned whether FIFA should consider if Mexico is a suitable host for the 2026 World Cup. He raised this point as a guest on the News Central sports show “Game On“.
He made his assertion when the host asked if there are different sets of rule for Russia and different sets of rules for Israel.
He noted that the issue to be concerned about, is moral equivalence. He retorted:”Is Israel worse than Russia, is Russia worse than Israel?”
“What we don’t have in IOC, UEFA , FIFA is a clear and well establish policy on what happens to a country when it engages in a particular form of action .
“We have Russia and Israel. Keep in mind for example, over the last 2 months in the run ups to the Mexican election, 37 prospective members of parliaments from Mexico have been shot dead. The question is, should FIFA be considering if Mexico is a fit host for 2026 World cup” He said.
“Sport governing bodies don’t have Governing Systems and Policies in place to deal with these kinds of things.
“If we expect the sport governing bodies to reflect on geopolitical actions of military conflicts or breaches of human rights or whatever it may be, then our sport governing bodies do need to reflect on who they are and what they do, What kind of actions they take because of the inconsistencies we see not only in the case of Russia Israel but in all cases we have seen so far.
He added that “If we have very transparent, very public and objectively defined standards of conducts within the governing body, we wont be in the situation where we are trying to compare the moral equivalence of what Israel doing and what Russia did before.
According to the don, “Most international sport bodies were set up by Europeans, now the Europeans no longer dominate again.”