SOCCER / JULIE CART : World Cup ’94 Report Reveals 1993 Finances

The ongoing saga of World Cup ‘94’s books, and who has the right to review them, continues. But at least some critics were hushed when World Cup President Alan Rothenberg on March 22 released the Organizing Committee’s 1993 financial statements to the World Cup’s board of directors and to state association presidents of the U.S. Soccer Federation.

The figures, while not noting specifically where the money was spent, are revealing. According to the revised budget report ending Dec. 31, 1993, the single-largest revenue source was from ticket sales, more than $90 million. The single-largest expense was some $20 million for general management, presumably staff salaries, etc. Fixed and variable expenses came out to $20 million, and professional fees for the year cost $8.6 million. Special projects cost $9.2 million.

Accounts receivable shows $15 million for the Premier Ticket program. By World Cup’s own projections, based on selling 100% of the Premier Ticket base packages, the net profit from the program will be nearly $140 million.

The balance sheet shows “advances to Major League Prof. Soccer” in the amount of $932,000 for the year. World Cup lists its current assets as $64.8 million.

In a letter to soccer officials, Rothenberg again pledges a surplus of $20 to $25 million, to be used to provide a legacy for soccer in the United States. From the looks of things, that is likely to be a vastly underestimated figure.

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Interior ministers of seven European nations sent out mixed signals last week in a flap about World Cup security arrangements.

At a meeting of European nations in Brussels, the minister of justice for Ireland suggested that police in the United States lack the experience to handle hooligans and other potential soccer-related problems.

Having said that, the European officials then refused to provide the very information that could help World Cup security keep the peace. At least seven nations said they would refuse to provide American authorities with lists of known hooligans.

Police officials in many countries keep lists of hooligans--persons convicted of crimes involving soccer violence. Such lists are passed all around the Continent before matches where there is potential for trouble. Hooligan lists were provided to the organizers of the 1990 World Cup in Italy and also to organizers of the 1993 U.S. Cup. The list helped authorities detain English hooligans at Logan Airport in Boston and preempt trouble.

Now these lists are sacred documents?

“We’re not going to be stool pigeons,” said the Belgian interior minister.

Perhaps the Belgian minister forgot that his team is in the same group as the Netherlands, a nation with a reputation for wonderful soccer players and some misbehaving fans.

What the European ministers missed but should have noted with dismay was the Los Angeles police union’s launching of an anti-tourism campaign, timed to disrupt the World Cup. Officers have been working without a contract for 21 months and, in order to force the situation, have been mailing letters and brochures around the country and world warning visitors “not to come to Los Angeles because it is not safe.”

“It is our intention to carry out a systematic publicity campaign designed to affect tourism in the Los Angeles area, especially as related to the upcoming World Cup,” the letter said.

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A federal judge ruled last week that World Cup ’94 sold the same rights twice in a case involving two sponsors, Sprint and MasterCard. The exasperated judge noted the case was of “little overriding legal significance” but cited all parties for cruel and unusual use of hype.

“The parties’ assertion as to the importance of this issue may reflect a certain amount of hyperbole,” the judge stated. “For example, Sprint states: ‘It is estimated that 32 billion viewers throughout the world will watch the games.’ This is indeed an extraordinary assertion given the current estimation of a world population of only 5 billion, and no reliably verified evidence of interplanetary travel.”

They must have meant cumulative viewers.

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Now that Switzerland’s coach, Roy Hodgson, has announced his no-sex policy for his players during the World Cup, other abstinence reports are trickling in. It’s all very amusing, if not futile, and it’s a topic that comes up at every World Cup.

U.S. Coach Bora Milutinovic says he favors a more relaxed approach, reasoning that normalcy is the best policy to offset nerves. Wives and families will be welcome to visit U.S. players during appointed hours, he said.

Milutinovic has guided two teams in the World Cup, and his experience will be a key element in the U.S. team’s campaign. But, even with his lack of World Cup experience, 1990 U.S. coach Bob Gansler handled himself with great aplomb when a similar story broke at the Italian World Cup.

Asked about his policy regarding sex, Gansler answered, “Not at halftime.”

Pressed, Gansler said that while players’ wives and girlfriends were not allowed at camp, the players were free to visit them in Florence.

“It’s not the moments of pleasure that concern me,” Gansler said. “It’s the hours of pursuit.”

Again Gansler was asked about his policy and reminded, by an Italian journalist, that “sex is very important to Latin peoples.”

“Sex is very important to Americans, too,” Gansler said. “That’s why there are 250 million of us.”