There have always been protests from the days of old like we are told in the Bible. One of such protests was a divinely ordained protest by Moses to King Pharaoh against the enslavement of the Israelites in Egypt.

Moses’ repeated demands to Pharaoh to “Let My people go” eventually led to the Exodus.

However, when protests are done in order to prevent the spread of hosting of sports events to other parts of the world not Europe, it amounts to selfishness.

For the purpose of this argument, I want to limit the protest here to hosting of football at FIFA levels.

From 1930 when the first World Cup took place in Uruguay with only thirteen countries, seven from South America, four from Europe and two from North America, till 2010, the com- petition had rotated between Europe and South America with North America hosting only twice through Mexico in 1986 and USA in 1994.

The argument then was that these regions housed the core football Nations and had the infrastructure to host the event. Though the World Cup started in 1930, the football body has had Presidents since 1904 with Frenchman, Robert Guerin, who spent two years and 12 days in office, as the first.

FIFA has had 12 Presidents, with nine in substantive posi- tions and three, Cornelis August Wilhelm from the Nether- lands (Europe), Ernts Thommen from Switzerland (Europe) and Issa Hayatou from Cameroon(Africa) in acting capacity. Of the nine substantive Presidents, only Joao Havelange from South America’s Brazil is from outside Europe. He was in office for 24 years and 31 days, second longest serving president only to Jules Rimet of France who was in office for 33 years and 112 days.

Europe therefore has always had the upper hand, not because they have more member countries but because of their economic power. Most of the sponsors of FIFA’s competitions are from there.

A good example of the power of sponsors was exhibited after Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets won the first FIFA U-16 Championship in 1985 and the main sponsor, Kodak pulled out allegedly claiming that Africa is not a strong market for their products.

Apart from sponsors protesting about suitability of hosts countries/regions for their products, other sentiments ex- pressed by Europeans include weather, insecurity and poor infrastructure.

It was however, an European, Sepp Blatter who muted the idea that for the FIFA World Cup to be truly a world event, it has to go round all the continents of the world and picked Africa to take the first short.

Though some people may say he took the decision for self- ish reasons as he was wooing the continent because of its large number to support him during elections, it was a genuine concern.

He campaigned for Africa to host the 2006 World Cup. South Africa and Morocco with standard infrastructure put up bids alongside some European countries. Morocco lost out after the first ballot. From all calculations, South Africa was going strong and would have tied with Germany. That would have given Blatter the opportunity to break the tie in their favour by voting for them.

That was not to be as New Zealand’s delegate and Presi- dent of the Oceania Confederation, Charles Dempsey went against the directive of his Confederation to vote for South Africa and abstained instead. He said he did so because of pressure from both South Africa and Germany and an attempt to bribe him. But insiders said that he didn’t want South Africa to win, knowing where Blatter’s vote would go in case of a tie.

This was the reason Blatter lobbied his FIFA Exco that the 2010 World Cup should go to Africa.

Only South Africa and Morocco where candidates this time and the rainbow nation won. Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president played a big role.

Again some European media outlets mounted a big campaign against the readiness of South Africa to host the World Cup, focusing on perceived potential security threats there for visitors.

They equally questioned whether South Africa’s infra- structure and venues were adequately prepared to host a World Cup and consistently asked Blatter what FIFA’s plan B was in case they were not able to meet up with the deadline.

To Blatter, “There definitely is no plan B or C. The only plan is to make the South African event a success. If there are still doubters, let me say that the 2010 World Cup will be organised in South Africa”, he emphasized..

He dismissed all the issues raised assuring that everything was being done to ensure a successful hosting of the event. “Football is the most popular game in the world and in 2010 Africa will show that it is able to host a World Cup”,

and “I’ll be proud because it is my baby”, he stressed. Despite the initial concerns raised by some European Me- dia, the 2010 World Cup was considered a success. It was well-organized and delivered memorable moments, includ- ing a new champion outside the traditional ones Spain won it for the first time.

FIFA also reported a $631 million surplus from it, primarily from television, marketing, and hospitality rights. For South Africa, the World Cup added 0.5%, or R93 billion, to her GDP in 2010. This year FIFA is trying a new format for the Club World Cup, after expanding it to 32 teams to accommodate more teams but the criticism from Europe is high again.

Critics including the Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive, Maheta Molango and former Liverpool manager, Jurgen Klopp have slammed the competition.

Molango complained about high temperatures impacting players and low crowds at some venues while Klopp fears that players will suffer injuries next season.

The same concerns were raised about Qatar 2022 World Cup but it held successfully. Concerns are hardly raised when Europe is hosting. Europe should understand that the world doesn’t revolve around them only.