The 2016 Olympics and Soccer World Cup 2018/2022?

May 9, 2009

One of the world’s most popular sports is football, more commonly known as soccer in the United States. Its international athletic attention is unrivaled, except by the actual Olympic Games, and even some would argue that fact. The World Cup and the Olympics are so similar on many levels that it may have even become a sore spot for the Olympic Committee.

Every four years, international soccer teams play against each other in a World Cup tournament, an event that gathers hundreds of thousands of spectators, rivaling the turn out for the Olympic soccer games. The host of the World Cup is chosen through bidding, similar to how the choice for the Olympic location functions. Chicago is not only waiting to hear from their 2016 Olympic bid, but the U.S. Soccer Federation is waiting on their 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid. A different country will host the two games.

Both the Olympic soccer games and the World Cup operate under the International Federation of Association Football governing body (FIFA). “We have a parallel working relationship with the Olympics,” said Neil Buethe, Senior Manager of Communications for the U.S. Soccer Federation, which operates out of Chicago. He describes the U.S. Soccer Federation as “big governing body” by itself, controlling a men’s and women’s team with 11 youth teams.

“People think not a lot of people enjoy soccer in the U.S., but there are,” Buethe said, mentioning the large immigrant population from Latino and European countries that support the sport. In the U.S., soccer is played more often in youth sports. “More kids are keeping with soccer now, picking soccer more often,” said Buethe. He mentioned that U.S. Soccer has some of the best youth development programs. Buethe hopes that if the U.S. is given the 2018 or 2022 World Cup, the sport would become more popular here.

“Interesting thing about soccer in the U.S., it’s extremely popular among children, but we’ve never really seen it really catch hold as a major national sport,” said President Barack Obama during an interview with Univision Sports on May 8. “I think that having the World Cup here would be huge for the sport here in the U.S. and it would a wonderful diplomatic coup where we can show what a wonderful country it is to everyone who participates around the world.”

Since the U.S. men’s soccer team is only 14 years old, it’s done significantly well so far, but “needs time to grow,” said Buethe. There are restrictions on the men’s Olympic soccer team, requiring that only three players can be older than 23 years old. These rules are in place to try to distinguish the Olympic game from the World Cup games. When women’s soccer was introduced in the Olympics in 1994, the U.S. women’s team won the first two gold medals. They also won the gold medal in 2008 at Beijing. The men’s team still needs some time to develop its competition against other nations who’ve developed their team since Olympic soccer’s inception.

“European-based countries are major competition [for the bid] because soccer is huge there,” said Buethe. But he also added that one of FIFA’s goals is to “spread the games around,” making the U.S. a good contender in need of a boost. The 2010 World Cup will be brought to South Africa for the first time, expanding the soccer tradition to another corner of the world.

Buethe also mentioned that when the U.S. hosted the 1994 World Cup it was a large success. It resulted in a $50 million surplus that has been used to develop the U.S. Soccer Federation since. They are hoping that its precedent is remembered in the bid review.

One of the issues with finding stadiums that can be used for the World Cup matches is size limitation and meeting the field standards of international football games. The bigger the stadium the better. The 2008 Beijing Games used their 78,000 square meter, 60,000 seat Tianjin Olympic Center Stadium for many of the soccer venues. Chicago already has Toyota Park, a soccer-specific stadium, among the 58 other high capacity venues that have expressed interest in the U.S. bidding process. Buethe mentioned that the U.S. has the ability to produce large stadiums in a short time, making it a strong factor in the bid.

Brazil is scheduled to host the 2014 World Cup and Rio de Janeiro is also bidding for 2016 Olympics. Critics voiced concerns that the World Cup would overshadow the Olympics if they were hosted in the same country within a few years time, but others said it would prove Brazil’s ability to host international sporting events.

“The World Cup is the greatest sporting event in the world,” said Sunil Gulati, President of the U.S. Soccer Federation and chairman of the bid. “We are confident we can put together a successful bid to host another impressive event, and invite fans from around the world to enjoy the world’s game in our country.”

Buethe said that most people think that the U.S. will get the 2022 World Cup, which allows for more time to prepare, build bigger stadiums, and gather more American support for the sport. If we get the World Cup, “we’ll put on the biggest, greatest event ever,” said Buethe.

“It’s a world’s sport,” he repeated, and there’s no denying it. “In any Olympics, soccer games are one of the largest events.” These factors all make the World Cup an event to pay attention to considering the Olympic race Chicago is involved in.

Chicago will host a World Cup qualifying match June 6 featuring U.S. versus Honduras at Soldier Field. The event will be a chance to prove that the venue can successfully host an international sporting event for its Olympic bid.

The deadline for submitting a national bid for the World Cup games of 2018/2022 is May 2010 and a decision will be announced in Dec. 2010.