Your Guide to the World Cup's Corruption Scandals

No sporting event is more popular than the World Cup. Almost half of humanity — more than 3.2 billion people – tuned in to the month-long competition in Brazil in 2014. But long before nations compete on the field, they vie for the prestige of hosting the tournament that generates billions of dollars in television and sponsorship rights for FIFA, soccer’s ruling body. That competition can spell trouble. Graft scandals have dogged previous tournaments as well as this year's event in Russia and especially the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, raising the question: Is corruption indelibly staining the beautiful game?

On the eve of the World Cup in Russia, the U.S., Canada and Mexico were chosen to host the 2026 World Cup, beating Morocco in a vote by member nations of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association. The spate of bribery scandals had prompted FIFA to use a new selection process that wrested the decision from the two-dozen executives who had voted in secret for previous tournaments. That's part of the fallout from a challenging few years for the soccer ruling body: Its long-time president, Sepp Blatter, was banned from the sport for six years, six of its top officials pleaded guilty or were convicted of corruption-related charges in the U.S., and its vice president was arrested by Spanish police investigating graft claims. Although Russia and Qatar's bids were exonerated by a FIFA probe, federal investigations continue in the U.S., Switzerland and France. Blatter's successor, Gianni Infantino, has pledged to restore FIFA's reputation, but the ruling body may be feeling the pinch: Its legal bills are mounting and in the two years after the scandal broke, it failed to attract new major sponsors from Europe or the U.S. FIFA stands to boost revenue by expanding the World Cup to 48 teams from 32 in 2026.