The world cup

Friday, April 23, 2010

Several more weeks left to the World Cup, and there’s no deal between the local telco companies and Fifa for the broadcasting rights. Football fans are getting increasingly frantic, but can only brace themselves for a disappointment as the date draws near. As a soccer fan, I’m not excluded, but in view of the greater scheme of things, so be it. People are people, and they will get over it, especially when it’s over.

What I could not tolerate is the sheer greediness of Fifa. How dare they justify the drastic increase in price by the fact that Singtel paid 400 million for EPL rights! Going by their logic, are Hongkong dramas, movie screening rights going to go up too? It’s absurd that we are paying much more for screening of just 64 matches than China, a population and therefore market size more than thousand times of ours. It’s absolutely ironic because unlike the EPL, the World Cup is an international competition. Profits gained from broadcasting rights should be seen as a plus, after covering expenses for present and perhaps future obligations. Can we allow ourselves to be held to ransom?

Some pointed out the media has been doing an epic job pushing all the blame for FIFA, that whether it’s 40 million or 100 million, it’s only a fraction of the company annual profits. Some accuse Singtel of indirectly causing this situation because it is them who made the 400 million dollar bid. I find it difficult trying to understand how they think that letting yourself be hit by A means you let yourself be kicked by B. Besides, it’s is corporations’ priority to maximize earnings that make Singapore what it is today. Can you fathom the repercussions when they don’t? While I can acknowledge that corporations are not all that good, I think we should provide rational criticism.

Some express outrage at the yearly compensations the top executives receive. To this I can only say: this is a country that rewards more or less based on meritocracy. If you have the ability, get up there too. If you don’t, quit whining. Life as it is, is full of inequalities, except that it’s probably much minimized in this area. Billions of people had lived with kings who are who they are because they are the sons of departed monarchs. Live with it.

Some of them actually have that ability, unlike Blatter, and I find it hard to justify his pay, unless of course the you have reason to find assurance in the things he has said in the media, and confidence in Fifa’s reluctance to implement new stuff that can help promote fairness in the game.

In the end, there are always alternatives, especially when it comes to recreational activities. There are things in life we should remain headstrong about.