The 2010 FIFA World Cup has left the country with an expenditure legacy of an oversupply of stadiums, thus making some of the stadiums unsustainable.
Furthermore, the results indicate that the exorbitant costs of the stadiums for the 2010 FIFA World Cup were significant in relation to the underutilisation of the stadiums in the wake of the event. Generally, the results suggest that there has been a significant decline in the utilisation of stadiums following the 2010 FIFA World Cup. A utilisation rate and a stadium usage index were used to analyse the utilisation benefits derived from the stadiums. This paper determines whether the substantial investments into the stadiums’ infrastructure are justified by the utilisation of the stadiums after the 2010 FIFA World Cup event. The South African government invested approximately US$1.57 billion and US$523 million into the development of new stadiums and upgrades to existing stadiums, respectively. This paper provides an ex-post analysis of the utilisation of the stadiums that were built for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Furthermore, FIFA needs to continue its recently initiated internal reforms. While removing FIFA’s legal status as a non-profit organisation seems not to be an option, the executed amendment of the Swiss anti-corruption law is a step forward. In addition, this study examines whether Switzerland is capable of regulating or restricting FIFA’s hegemonic power. These cases reveal FIFA’s hegemonic power both through the overruling of national law in favour of transnational law, and by the questionable bidding processes to host the games in Qatar and the Russian Federation. This has empirical support as seen in four World Cup cases: previous Cups in Brazil (2014) and South Africa (2010) and the forthcoming tournaments in Russia (2018) and Qatar (2022).
This study provides an insight into the dispute between transnational and national law in sports, which FIFA has used to strengthen its hegemony. To understand FIFA’s hegemonic role on the global stage, it is best to place it within the context of two major shifts in the international system-power transition and diffusion. The hegemonic power of FIFA over countries hosting its capstone World Cup tournament is worth examining in the context of hegemony theory in International Relations literature.
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