Fun FIFA facts!

Did you know that Canadian taxpayers are giving $729 million to the Vancouver portion of the World Cup?  And did you know that the beleaguered Toronto rate payer is handing over $380 million?

I didn't and wish I hadn't.  That's $1.109 billion from your threadbare pockets to the vast riches the FIFA bank account.  How outrageous!  And no serious matches are even being played in either city, just group-level games that don't count -- not the final, not the semi-final and not even a quarter final.

Mr. Infantino making the pitch to pick our pockets.

Just to put it into an even more depressing perspective, here are a few other fun facts:

• The Vancouver budget tripled 750% in eight years since the original estimate;
• With only seven matches being played in Vancouver, that's $104 million per match, or $1.2 million per minute per match;
• Gregor Robertson, now the witless and hapless Federal minister of housing, was the mayor who bid for this fiasco, with the backing of then premier John Horgan, now deceased;
• Considerable money is being spent on FIFA-logo condoms and lubricants;
• FIFA demanded major renovations to B.C. Place, including the ripping out of the artificial turf, the replacement of it with real grass and then the re-installation of turf when the games are over.  (With stage four water restrictions in B.C., the stadium will be the only site which will be allowed watering);
• FIFA demanded that all other major sporting events be cancelled during the games -- which included all B.C. Lions games and the famous Dragon Boat races;
• They also demanded new luxury changing rooms for the players and new VIP and VVIP suites for the bigwigs be installed;
• Infantino also demanded Pope-level security, which includes road closures and police escorts;
• Property taxes in Vancouver have risen by $450 per household in Vancouver and $389 in Toronto to cover some of the costs;
• The head of FIFA in Toronto makes $340 million per year;
• The cheapest tickets in Toronto are $3K each, meaning the average family of four would have to shell out $12K to go to one match.  Not going to happen; and
• That $12K would cover a university education for one year.

FIFA's demands sound like Satan's to-do list.  Considering how many FIFA executives have been convicted of fraud and jailed, we're verging on mafia territory here.  Presuming Carney brought about 10 hangers-on, plus his mother, er, wife, means that his little junket to watch the Canada game would have cost about $30K -- not including accommodation and airfare.

Kids' soccer camps in Canada run about $250 per week, meaning that three million Canadian kids could have gone to soccer camp for what we're wasting on this ludicrous FIFA bread-and-circuses fiasco.

So, next time you switch on a match, or drive by lineups at the food bank, keep these numbers in mind, as Carney tells us to tighten our belts and make do with less.  

Any lights going on in the brains of his supporters yet?  The numbers always tell the tale.