World Cup: Profits and prostitution

World Cup: Profits and prostitution

I CAN hardly call myself the greatest football fan alive. However, I
used to be football crazy when I was little and I still remember the
excitement of the 1982 World Cup in Madrid; my first "conscious" world
football event.

Tanja Niemeier (recently returned from Germany)

I knew all the players of the German team by the numbers on their
shirts and I remember jumping up and down in front of the telly in
despair when Uli Stieleke missed the penalty in the semi-finals against
France. So obviously, I can understand every football fan’s excitement
for the World Cup and I also understand their desire to go and see one
of the games in the stadium.

But this is where the trouble starts for many ordinary and
international football supporters. What is meant to be an event for the
mass of the population turns out to be one of the most pro-big business
orientated and commercialised events I can possibly imagine.

Ordinary working-class people stand very little chance of getting one
of the desirable tickets for any of the games at the Cup. They have to
pay money and undergo some "thorough questioning"- allegedly for
security reasons – for the ‘privilege’ of having their names entered in
a sort of ticket raffle.

Ironically, some fan organisations estimate that there could be as
many as 70,000 vacant seats as 70,000 "hospitality tickets", worth
€170
million – €2,400 per ticket – are not likely to be sold.

The International Football Association, FIFA, which better fits the
description of a giant corporation, is estimated to receive €1.7 billion
in income compared to €580 million in expenditure. Selling TV licenses/
broadcasting rights and settling exclusive commercial deals are paying
off for this gigantic corporation. It even went to court to try and make
sure that bakeries could not use the name World Cup 2006 in, for
example, "Word Cup" rolls. This gigantic profit bonanza contrasts with
the €40 million in public money which will be spent every day of the Cup
on top of the €1.2 billion in public money already spent.

Not surprisingly, big business sees the World Cup and everything
around it as an opportunity to make big money. Wherever such a
"possibility" exists, the sex industry is not far away. According to a
devastating and revealing article in the Guardian (30 May) the Coalition
Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) estimates that an extra 40,000 women
will be "imported" into Germany [where prostitution has officially been
legalised since 2001]. In Berlin, a 3,000 square metre mega-brothel has
been built next to the main World Cup venue which is designed to take as
many as 650 "customers" at any one time.

As a woman and a socialist, opposed to prostitution, I must say that
this is a disgusting and infuriating scenario. There cannot be a more
graphic illustration of how people and women in particular are treated
as commodities in a capitalist society.

Also, it is possible, if not most likely, that many of the so-called
‘imported’ women will be trafficked, illegal and under age and therefore
in no position to defend themselves against violence from pimps or
‘customers’.

Adrian Cooper, a Football Association (FA) spokesperson is quoted as
saying "It is not the concern of the FA if fans go to brothels … we
need to remember we are a football, not a social, body".

Given FIFA’s attitude about making profits, this approach does not
come as a surprise. Why should we rely on big business to check another
big industry? Some critical fan organisations have taken up the issue
and so have some women’s organisations.

However, I believe if we are to reclaim the game – on all levels –
then the trade union movement internationally needs to take up the
issue. They are still the strongest organisation of the working class
and have the responsibility to make sure that the World Cup turns out to
be what most fans want it to be: a truly exciting and enjoyable
international event where the 2006 motto "The world: at home with
friends" is not an empty phrase which leaves a bitter taste.