New Jersey’s governor, Mikie Sherrill, has hit out at Fifa after reports her state’s transport system will charge $100 for a return ticket to World Cup matches
“Our administration inherited an agreement where Fifa is providing $0 for transportation to the World Cup. Zero. That leaves New Jersey Transit with a $48m to safely get 40,000 fans to and from every game. At the same time, Fifa is making $11bn off of this World Cup, and charging fans up to $10,000 for a single ticket for the final. I won’t stick New Jersey commuters for that tab for years to come, that’s not fair. So here’s the bottom line: Fifa should pay for the rides, but if they don’t I’m not going to let New Jersey commuters get taken for one.”
That would probably result in the whole agreement being ignored, and would likely result in court cases where Fifa wins a settlement (paid for by tax dollars) if the state doesn’t uphold a contract. Also reputational damage to the state that contracts aren’t honored. IMO this is the only option that doesn’t result in the tax payers to foot the bill, so i commend her on pushing back on Fifa over this.
Tbh, given that it was clearly a very exploitative agreement done by an extremely corporatist and conservative predecessor… my position is “fuck ‘em”. Companies and organizations seeking to make deals like that should be wary of rational governments.
Not to mention, this is exactly what the neofascists are doing, only in reverse, and turnabout is not only fair play, but existentially necessary as well.
FTA, the quote from the governor:
Just get the legislature to nullify the agreement. Or just void it as governor, or something like that.
That would probably result in the whole agreement being ignored, and would likely result in court cases where Fifa wins a settlement (paid for by tax dollars) if the state doesn’t uphold a contract. Also reputational damage to the state that contracts aren’t honored. IMO this is the only option that doesn’t result in the tax payers to foot the bill, so i commend her on pushing back on Fifa over this.
next time states should rethink thier plans about hosting fifa or the olympics if they are forced to pay.
Tbh, given that it was clearly a very exploitative agreement done by an extremely corporatist and conservative predecessor… my position is “fuck ‘em”. Companies and organizations seeking to make deals like that should be wary of rational governments.
Not to mention, this is exactly what the neofascists are doing, only in reverse, and turnabout is not only fair play, but existentially necessary as well.