Commentary: Russia tarnishes the World Cup
by Jules Boykoff, Los Angeles Times
May 15, 2018
3 minutes
The World Cup opens in Moscow in a month, an 11-city, four-week chanting, flag-waving showcase for the world's most popular sport and, this time around, for Vladimir Putin's Russia.
Conventional wisdom has it that with Putin in charge (he was inaugurated again last week for a fourth term), the quadrennial world soccer championships will run like clockwork. Back in 2013, Jerome Valcke, then secretary-general of FIFA, soccer's international governing body, said as much: "I will say something which is crazy, but less democracy is sometimes better
You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.
Start your free 30 days