Reclaiming Economic Legacy : One Legal Strategy for a 2022 FIFA World Cup USA

Indictments of top FIFA officials by the Department of Justice and ongoing investigations into corruption in the World Cup bidding process have intensified speculation about whether FIFA will strip the 2022 World Cup from the host Qatar Football Association (“QFA”) and instead award it to the No. 2 bidder, the United States Soccer Federation (“USSF”). FIFA seemingly does not have the authority to void the hosting contract with the QFA, nor do FIFA's mandatory internal dispute mechanisms provide a basis for doing so. As this Article explains, those mechanisms do offer one potential legal strategy, however: the USSF can force the QFA to proceedings in the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which can apply Swiss unfair competition law to issue an order enjoining the QFA from executing its contractual hosting duties. The injunction would constitute a force majeure that triggers FIFA's discretion to award the event to another bidder. One key to this strategy is that the USSF must show a prejudice to its economic interest. This Article therefore draws from the literature on the economics of international sporting mega-events to show how the interests of the USSF as well as of its professional members like Major League Soccer will be harmed by losing the economic legacy of the World Cup