What Price FIFA World Cup for the host nations?

With all the negative sentiment emanating out of international media about #Brazil's ability to host the upcoming #FIFAWorldCup, the obvious question comes to mind: "Does a country's privilege to host a major sporting event help its reputation or is it detrimental to its credibility?"

This is not the first time that the image of a country is tarnished ahead of it staging a sporting extravaganza. Going back to Athens 2004, when Greece's capital city hosted the Olympics and Paraolympics, the country came under the scrutiny of the global media who went to various lengths in order to dig dirt, uncover scandals and blame the organisers for just about everything under the blue skies of Attica, factual or fictional, the media could come up with.

Beijing followed suit and the situation was pretty much similar with international media striving to splash the most incredible headlines about China's social imbalances, regimental training methods for its athletes or lack of hygiene and air pollution.

More recently, the #SochiWinterOlympics fell victim to an anti-Russian sentiment stemming from geopolitical tantrums in the Caucasus area and the media had yet another field day off the pistes of the picturesque wintry resort.

And of course Brazil! Hardly a day has gone by during the last six months or so without Brazil's reputation thrown in tatters by media the world over on a vast variety of issues.

But irrespective of how sensational some of these media stories are, candidate host countries and cities of future big ticket sporting events need to ponder and ask themselves one question: "Can the financial benefits forecasted to be derived by the various revenue streams associated with the hosting of such events outweigh the reputational damage the host is likely to suffer in the run up to the event?”

Let’s take Qatar as another point in case; Prior to it winning the bid to host the #2022FIFAWorldCup, the Peninsula State at the northern part of the Arabian Gulf (others call it Iranian Gulf), was better known to the world as one of the richest countries with limitless gas supplies and a temperamental CEO of its flagship airline.

Now, following the various bribery allegations that seemingly helped it win the FIFA bid, Qatar’s international image is that of a greedy Arabian sheikhdom, with little regard for human rights, an appalling record for the treatment of its expatriate workforce and a very corrupt leadership.

So after the hype has ended, the fans have returned home and the desert sand has settled upon the empty stadia, what will Qatar mean to the rest of the world? What will the real legacy of FIFA’s gigantic football tournament be on the miniscule monarchy?

Reputation is the most important asset a person, organization, government or country has in its disposal and if this reputation is tarnished, reparation would require a long time and a lot of investment. And if money is no object in the case of Qatar and a quick fix of its reputation should not be a major issue, countries like Brazil, with limited revenues and expansive debt may find the task of rebuilding its image a much more arduous and time consuming affair.

Just ask the Greeks! Ten years ago their football team won #Euro2004 in that memorable final in Lisbon against host nation Portugal, in the same summer when Athens hosted the Olympics. With an average growth rate at roughly 4 percent for a protracted period of time and national pride at an all-time high, the Olympics came and went and with them the connective tissue that seemed to be holding the country together.