FIFA versus South Africa: a total victory

Recently, we noted FIFA's outrageous so-called Tax Bubble: abusing its monopoly position (it is after all, the monopoly supplier of World Cups) to extract egregious tax concessions out of poverty-stricken African nations. Click here to read about that racket.

Now, after the Vuvuzelas have died down, here's a quick scoreline on the profits that each side reaped from the football event.

Fifa: US$3.5 billion Francs in profit: "the most profitable in FIFA history."

South Africa: 2.8 billion Swiss Francs net loss.

As Adrian lackey, a spokesman for the South African Revenue Services (SARS) said:

The concessions we had to give to FIFA are simply too overwhelming and demanding for us to have material monetary benefits.

For those who read French, a good short summary is here. (Warning: this will make your blood boil.) The longer English draft version, from Swiss Labour Assistance (good on them) is available here.

Reminder: FIFA is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, for tax reasons.