World

Qatar World Cup in Question After FIFA Chief Steps Down

In the end, it took the U.S. government to tame a mountain goat. Sepp Blatter, who once compared his durability to that of the sure-footed animal, announced his resignation on June 2, just four days after winning a fifth term as president of the global soccer body FIFA. It was a rapid U-turn from his defiant posturing after nine of his former and current colleagues were indicted on May 27 for racketeering, money laundering and wire fraud. “Why would I step down?” he said after his victory. “That would mean I recognize that I did wrong.”

But step down he did, as FIFA’s dirty money trail creeps closer. He’s not indicted, though he’s clearly in the crosshairs of U.S. prosecutors. Former FIFA executive committee member Chuck Blazer admitted that he and others accepted bribes in conjunction with the bidding for the 1998 and 2010 World Cups, according to court papers released June 3.

When Blatter actually leaves office, likely in early 2016, the first task facing his elected successor will be to revisit FIFA’s decision to stage the 2018 World Cup in Russia and especially the 2022 Cup in Qatar. Michel Platini, one of Blatter’s possible replacements and the president of European soccer’s governing body, has said that if investigators can prove long-held allegations of bribery in the Qatar victory, the vote should be reopened. “If I were Qatar right now,” said Greg Dyke, head of the English Football Association, “I wouldn’t be feeling very comfortable.”

Rumor and controversy have dogged the decision to hold the world’s most popular event in a tiny Gulf nation with triple-digit temperatures in summer and little soccer infrastructure, especially given the humanitarian crisis it has sparked. The International Trade Union Confederation estimates that 1,200 migrant workers from Nepal and India have died there since the bid was awarded in 2010. Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, who lost the presidential election to Blatter on May 29, would not rule out reopening the 2022 bid if he led FIFA.

Qatar could end up spending a staggering $200 billion on World Cup preparations–over 10 times Brazil’s record spending for 2014–and recently announced a site for a fifth stadium. Still, FIFA’s sponsors, like Coca-Cola and Visa, can pile pressure on the new leadership to reopen the bid. “Now there are very serious allegations of corruption along with very serious allegations of worker abuse,” says Stephen Russell, coordinator of the London-based advocacy group Playfair Qatar. “It only takes one of them to say, ‘This is no good, we’re getting out of there.'”

And FIFA’s new leader can always follow suit.

NIGERIA

‘We cannot claim to have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok girls.’

MUHAMMADU BUHARI, Nigerian President, speaking at his inauguration in Abuja’s Eagle Square on May 29. Buhari vowed to tackle “head on” the insurgent Islamist group Boko Haram and to rescue the 276 schoolgirls it kidnapped in April 2014 from Chibok in northern Nigeria, a mass abduction that sparked a global outcry.

POLL

FEELING GOOD ABOUT FINDING WORK

Gallup asked people in over 130 countries their opinions on local job opportunities. Here’s a sampling of how many said they were optimistic:

[The following text appears within 6 charts. Please see hardcopy or PDF for actual charts.]

66%

Philippines

51%

U.S.

34%

India

22%

Venezuela

18%

Sudan

3%

Italy

Tragedy on the Yangtze

CHINA

Rescuers observe a moment of silence over bodies pulled from the cruise ship Eastern Star, which overturned in the Yangtze River during a violent storm on June 1 with 458 people aboard, mostly elderly Chinese tourists. Despite a huge rescue effort by Chinese authorities, only 14 survivors had been found by June 3. The capsizing in Hubei province looks set to be China’s deadliest nautical disaster in decades.

THE EXPLAINER

India’s Dangerous Smog Problem

Toxic air pollution in the Indian capital of Delhi has given some 2.2 million children irreversible lung damage, according to a 2010 study from the Kolkata-based Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute that surfaced this month. The report has raised fresh concerns in a country where carbon emissions are forecast to increase for decades.

Out of breath

Delhi’s air now contains twice as much toxic matter as that of notoriously smoggy Beijing. The health impact has been disastrous, with children in Delhi now three times as likely as others in India to develop severe lung disorders.

National issue

The capital isn’t alone: according to the U.N., India has 13 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities. Low vehicle-emission standards, booming industrialization, crowded cities and the burning of trash means that the vast majority of Indians breathe unsafe air.

Limited action

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched India’s first air-quality index in April, but pollution will keep growing unless India stems coal production, which Modi has pledged to double by 2020.

WORLD 25%

Share of the world’s population that the U.S. is legally bound to defend thanks to pacts and treaties signed with over 60 countries, according to a report from the Harvard Belfer Center

Trending In

ELECTIONS

Turkey will vote for a new parliament on June 7, with recent polls predicting that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is unlikely to win the two-thirds majority it needs for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to push through constitutional changes and strengthen his office’s powers.

HEALTH

South Korea has quarantined over 1,300 people and closed at least 500 schools as it grapples to contain an outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), the largest yet outside the Middle East. The country has confirmed 30 cases, including two deaths.

HEARTBREAK

Paris city officials removed symbolic “love locks” fastened to the French capital’s famed Pont des Arts bridge after parts of the railings collapsed under their weight. The city will remove nearly 1 million padlocks, weighing almost 50 tons, and replace the metal grilles with padlock-proof panels.