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The premise of this newsletter is simple. I will argue that everyone in the world should get a 29-day paid holiday to celebrate the World Cup. The set-up of this newsletter evinces that same similarity. The following paragraphs will provide my rationale and support for this argument, as well as a little bit of background and contextual information. If you don’t agree with me? Well, give me a chance to explain myself, damn. If you agree with me? Heck yeah brother, read on! I’m here to confirm your priors.
For those of you living blissfully unaware of the world around you, the World Cup happens every four years. The best teams in the world come together for about a month to play soccer/football in a massive tournament. It is the most watched event in the world whenever it occurs, with billions of people tuning in during the course of the tournament. The World Cup is run and administered by the Federation Internationale de Football Association. Better known as FIFA. The tournament changes host countries every time it is played. Qatar is the current host. Because of the incredibly high temperatures during the summer months the tournament has been moved to the winter, a first for the World Cup. The games started on November 20th. Ecuador beat the host country Qatar in the first game 2-0
Before I get to my main thesis, it’s important to note the violence and graft that come with the tournament every year, and this year in particular. Qatar almost certainly bribed FIFA officials hundreds of millions of dollars to host the tournament, and thousands of migrant workers died and worked under slavery conditions to build the stadiums for this tournament. Qatar itself has committed a boatload of human rights abuses that most TV presentations have ignored or glossed over in the lead-up to the tournament. This isn’t to elide over the other atrocities committed by any number of participants in this year’s tournament, but to call attention to how Qatar is trying to use its status as host to launder its international reputation. There have also been recent reports that FIFA is threatening players who wear pro-LGBTQ armbands, or other symbols of protest, with red cards.
The problem with sport, which has been pointed out any number of times, but any number of outlets is that sports are entirely inseparable from politics. It might not always be obvious as when West Germany used to compete, or when North Korea makes it in, but it’s certainly always present. An event that is almost always talked about as a symbol of international solidarity is also a place for despots to show a good face, and advertisers to sell products. Money and politics are everpresent. The Olympics too always faces similar scrutiny. Not to say that no one should watch the games, but that everyone should be aware of what’s going on.
So, why should everyone get the World Cup off? Especially after I’ve just made some big bummer statements about it. Well for one, that whole international solidarity thing might ring a little more true, if everyone was able to watch the games. Soccer/football is an incredibly popular sport the world round. It’s inescapable in most nations. The one event that can truly lay claim to its nickname, “the beautiful sport.” The problem is that a lot of people can’t attend, or even more importantly watch these games. The World Cup is the height of soccer. It’s ne plus ultra. Yet many people cannot even afford the time off to watch their country play. This paid holiday would allow for that to happen. Knowing that not just you, but billions of other people around the world are watching the same thing at the same time is a powerful thing. It creates instant connections between you and someone halfway across the world. This works on a national level as well. The international coordination needed to pull something like this off would be beneficial to relations across the globe. A beautiful thing for a beautiful game.
That is a more ideological reason. A more immediate one is that a twenty-nine-day vacation in the middle of summer sounds freaking amazing. No one would be forced to watch the games of course, but if you abstain, those 29-days of freedom would be useful in so many other ways. A time to recharge, to rest, to vacation. People who have never traveled could travel, and people who just need some time off work, could rest, recover, and relax from their work. Sounds great to me. Heck, maybe you and your friends will play your own soccer games! All the things people need to live healthy, vibrant lives
Big ideas encourage other big ideas too. When people see what the world can do by organizing this month-long holiday, it instantly becomes more possible in most people’s eyes to do other big things as well. It seems more possible to solve world hunger, climate change, a thousand other things. It’s a virtuous cycle to use an economic term. Big dreams lead to big things as they say.
There will of course be haters here, naysaying all of this. Sure, I’m talking big here, poo-pooing the difficulties of all this. Capitalism is nothing if not against poor people getting time off work. I don’t want to downplay the difficulty of instituting this either. It is certainly not something that would happen in my lifetime, if ever. But I also don’t want to act like it’s impossible. It’s not. It is entirely possible for this to occur, and occur every four years. The only thing stopping it from happening is a lack of political will and imagination. No one thought that humans would ever reach the moon in 1900, but sixty-nine years later someone did. This is infinitely easier than that.
Everyone in the world deserves dignity and a high-quality of life. Just from being born. Perhaps soccer can be the thing that helps build a world capable of giving this to everyone. It’s just a matter of will, and the coordination of the working people of the world to get it done.
One final note. The US plays Wales today at 1pm Eastern time. Let’s go USA! Beat those dang Welsh.
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