An article by Sports Illustrated revealed that according to their estimates 80% of elite athletes end up ruined economically. With the World Cup Qatar 2022 in the making, the issue of financial advice to footballers, and athletes in general, is back on the table. Today we will know a little more about the World Cup Qatar 2022, ruined footballers, and sports finance. The issue of financially ruined footballers and other athletes was dealt with by Gustavo Mirabal on numerous occasions.
The World Cup in Qatar is highly anticipated for many reasons. It is the first World Cup in the Arab region and the contrast both climatic and cultural has brought much controversy.
The fact that Qatar has never qualified for a World Cup and yet been selected to host the World Cup generated much controversy. The controversy led to accusations of bribery of members of the FIFA committee. However, independent investigations so far found no evidence in this regard. Despite this, France still has an ongoing investigation and the US accused 3 FIFA members of accepting bribes.
But there are still other controversies involved… And we will tell you these later. For now, we will tell you the differences and characteristics of the World Cup Qatar 2022.
World Cup Qatar 2022
FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 will be the third World Cup to have part of its matches on the Asian continent. It is also the first World Cup to be held in the Middle East.
Due to Qatar’s weather, the World Cup will not be held in summer like all the previous ones but between November 21 and December 18, 2022. Temperatures in Qatar during the summer are incredibly high, which would affect the performance and health of the players. This is one of the things that will make the World Cup Qatar 2022 unique.
Another curiosity is that the opening match will not include the host. The first match will be Senegal vs Netherlands
The only team debuting in the World Cup Qatar 2022, and it will be Qatar, which is in turn host and debutant. From the rest we have great champion teams such as:
- Brazil (five World Cups)
- Germany (four world championships)
- France (two world championships)
- Argentina (two World Cups)
- Uruguay (two world champion titles)
- Spain (a world championship)
- England (a world championship)
Italy is the only one of the world champions, with four titles under its belt, to be absent from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Ruined elite footballers. Athletes and finances.
As we discussed at the beginning of the article, elite athletes have serious problems maintaining good finances after their retirement. In the article “Finance for athletes“, we analyze in more detail the aspects that affect the finances of elite athletes.
But to sum up a little, athletes end up ruined because:
- They start earning a lot of money when they are not yet mature and do not know how to handle money.
- Their career is quite short and ends at a very young age.
- The large amounts of money they earn seem inexhaustible and therefore there is no real money management.
- Many people around take advantage of immaturity and resources that seem inexhaustible to ask for money or scam athletes.
- Many “financial advisors” who approach them are not really professionals in the field.
Therefore, athletes should seek professional financial advice to manage their assets and guarantee their future.
Below, we will show several cases of elite footballers who were totally ruined or who currently lead a very austere life.
Mané Garrincha
He participated in the football world cups of 1958, 1962 and 1966, held in Sweden, Chile and England respectively.
This Brazilian footballer suffered from a strong addiction to alcohol that deteriorated his health significantly. But he was also addicted to tobacco from a young age. He started smoking from the age of 10.
He also married on numerous occasions and had a total of 14 children which quickly exhausted his economic resources. Between alcohol and an unplanned reproduction ended in ruin.
Paul Gascoigne
If you see a list of ruined footballers, you will always find Paul Gascoigne. This footballer of the England national team participated in the World Cup in Italy 90. His talent was not enough so that his indiscretions did not affect his professional facet.
Gascoigne was instrumental in England’s qualification for the 1998 World Cup in France. However, a week before he was called up with the national team to the World Cup, photos of his way of life were leaked to the press. He was shown drunk and eating street food late at night when he was due to rest. Due to his indiscipline, he was not summoned to the World Cup. For this and his aggression to the coach for excluding him from the World Cup he did not play again with the England national team.
His problems with alcohol were the beginning of a streak that would lead him to ruin.
Salvador Cabañas Ortega
This Paraguayan player played with his country’s national team in the 2006 World Cup in Germany. He was also about to participate in the 2010 South Africa World Cup, in whose qualifiers he was the top scorer of the national team. But his aspirations were dashed by a gunshot wound in a bar in Mexico, fired by a drug trafficker.
A mixture of bad business, unnecessary expenses and waste, joined with his health situation after the assassination attempt, to end his finances. He received great support from his fans and football clubs, but his economic situation was very compromised.
Julio Alberto Moreno
This Spanish footballer played in the 1986 Mexico World Cup with the national team, reaching the quarterfinals.
After retiring he began his descent into hell. Between drug use and depression due to moving away from the courts this made him descend quickly. In 1998 he was arrested by the police for stealing money from the business where he worked. Due to this situation his life was at risk on several occasions.
Although he never regained the fame and money he lost, he was at least able to regain control of his life years later thanks to rehabilitation.
George Best
This footballer born in Belfast, played with the National Team of Northern Ireland although the selection never reached the World Cup. However, despite playing with a small team he stood out in his time and that is why we will make this exception. He played for the Northern Ireland national team from 1964 to 1977 (age 14). He also played with Mancherter United for 13 years and continued to play for other minor clubs until 1984.
Shortly after his retirement from football he revealed that he was financially ruined, acknowledging his excessive spending on “alcohol, women and fast cars”. To close, he said that, in his own words, “I wasted the rest.” Listening to his words we wonder what he spent the rest on if what was worth it were women, alcohol and sports cars.
La entrada World Cup Qatar 2022 – Ruined footballers and finances se publicó primero en Gustavo Mirabal Castro.