My friends that see me make noise anytime there's an international football tournament like the FIFA World Cup, Olympics, or AFCON always rate me as someone deeply into football — but no, I'm not even close to an average football lover. Even with my little percentage of interest in sports, I can't imagine how the world would be without sports, especially football. That would mean stripping me of one of the major sources from which I derive pleasure. So, with this, if the world decides to reduce or prolong the years in which tournaments like the World Cup, Olympics, or AFCON are held all because they spend much on organizing such tournaments, that would mean stripping a lot of people of their source of joy — including me.

But no, that can’t happen. In fact, the money realized by the organizers during the tournaments is much bigger than what they spend, and that’s the beauty of football sports. Sports, especially football, are loved by many, and people can empty their accounts to purchase a match ticket just to see their favorite stars or teams play. I'm among them — whenever there’s a Nigeria match, even if I don’t have food at home or a data subscription, I’ll spend my last amount of money to purchase data just to watch the match. That’s exactly how far sports lovers can go to watch sports, and you can imagine how many millions of dollars the organizers make from ticket sales alone. Should I talk about the money they make on social media? You can’t beat that! What about the money they make from partnerships? The profit is so huge that you can’t even measure it against the input.

Well, the input and output are fair in just a few sports tournaments, but when it comes to some tournaments that don’t pull much interest, it’s most times a loss to the organizers.

Do you know that the about-to-kick-off U-17 FIFA Women’s World Cup was usually held every two years but is now held annually? Do they suffer loss in hosting? No! The most shocking thing is that it’s even a women’s tournament, which pulls a lesser crowd compared to the men’s version, yet the organizers are doing it with ease.

Should the money used in hosting such tournaments be put into something else?

Every time, we judge ourselves a lot with too much seriousness. Mehn, life is already hard, and these things, such as sports, are where most of us pick out the little pleasures that make life soft for us. By the way, sports are not just for fun — they currently serve as a source of livelihood for a lot of people. During tournaments like these, people make a lot of money; more staff and sports officials are employed. The betting industry, TV stations, banks associated with national teams or directly linked with the organizers, and all other sports-related companies get to make good fortunes from the tournaments. Just imagine if the FIFA World Cup were to be played in Nigeria — that alone would single-handedly spark a good flow of living for a lot of people in Nigeria. So, sports tournaments like these are good in all ramifications.

Thanks for reading.

This is my entry to Week 187, Edition 03 of the Weekly Featured contest in Hive Learners Community

Image source