If the average number of goals per game in the current event, until yesterday Wednesday 30, barely exceeded two per game (2.2), in addition to five matches that ended in draws without goals, there is another figure at the World Cup in Qatar that soared before the first ball reached the back of the net. The amounts for television rights are stratospheric.
Among the main recipients are the nations that have their teams in the competition, but also those that have a passionate and rabid fan base, even if they don't make it to the finals. For example, in Europe, the four-time champion, Italy, and in America, Colombia, with its colorful and fierce soccer, which is missed in Qatar.
For this part of the world, these rights have been marketed for months by the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) in more than 200 countries, with the aim of selling exclusive signals, precisely 85 years after the first match broadcast live on television. It was In 1937, and it was a friendly match in England, between Arsenal's first team and its substitutes.
Prior to the opening whistle of the World Cup, FIFA estimated the revenues at US$ 2.46 billion dollars for selling the benefit to the various television channels. It is clear that the planet, every four years, becomes a ball. As it happens to us in Cuba, with our television, public and with rights for all, with the 64 World Cup matches, the television set is the largest stadium in the world.
Not all negotiations include the 64 games of the competition. There are some that cover that 100%, but with a part of the matches on a deferred basis; others reduce the service to a number of matches, for example, 32, plus those played by the country's national team. In the Greater Antilles, which has a vast sporting culture and a great love for soccer, all matches are broadcast free of charge, live and direct, a privilege enjoyed since the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.
In this dance of the millions, there are no surprises. There is no Argentina that falls to a modest team, as has happened in this World Cup; or that the great Germany is surpassed, despite showing its solid game, it definitely will not. In this other World Cup, the big fish eats the little fish, or in other words, the little fish pays to see the party, or not to be eaten.
Before that rain of goals, or dollars, no one remembers their needs and that the world is becoming less and less equitable. However, when the last goal is scored, after the euphoria of the World Cup title, the goals of the little ones will be filled again with the usual anguish and, just like the hardships seemed to disappear for a month, so will the cry of goal disappear to hear again the pain of the World Cup of inequality.
Translated by ESTI
