How FIFA turned the World Cup into a giant cash cow

Billions of dollars are streaming into the Swiss-based organisation from broadcasting rights, advertising revenue, and ticket and hospitality sales, but have the fans been left high and dry?

Abdulfattah Khattab

Putting Economic Sustainability First

[caption id="attachment_55240043" align="alignnone" width="620"] High-tension electrical power lines dot the desert landscape in this cityscape photo of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, taken in 2008…

Justin Dargin

MENA Enterprise

[caption id="attachment_55239615" align="alignnone" width="594"] An Iraqi boy wearing a Manchester United jersey looks at a toy made by students for a science project exhibition at Al-Mutamayizin…

Mehrunisa Qayyum

Stuck in the Middle

[caption id="attachment_55239097" align="alignnone" width="620"] An Iraqi worker adjusts a control valve at the Daura oil refinery on November 5, 2009, the day Iraq and a grouping of US and European…

Mina Al-Droubi

From Humble Beginnings

[caption id="attachment_55237897" align="alignnone" width="620"] Source: MARWAN NAAMANI/AFP/Getty Images[/caption] In the year 1963, Egyptian economist Ahmed El-Najjar started a quiet revolution in…

Afshin Molavi

Strange Bedfellows

[caption id="attachment_55236802" align="aligncenter" width="619"] Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (2nd L), the first Turkish premier to visit the autonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq, and…

Keily Miller

The Merchant's Plight

[caption id="attachment_55236778" align="aligncenter" width="616"] Damage in a section of the souk in the old city of Aleppo after the area was shelled by Syrian regime forces on September 30, 2012…

Stephen Glain

Political Spring, Economic Firestorm

[caption id="attachment_55236398" align="aligncenter" width="619"] Dr. Nasser Saidi (Source: KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/Getty Images)[/caption] The downfall of Mubarak and Ben Ali and the explosion of…

Alex Edwards

Confronting the Gas Revolution

[caption id="attachment_55236336" align="alignnone" width="620"] A general view shows burning flames from a gas well in Sailiya, 40km north of the Qatari capital Doha. Source: AFP/Getty Images[…

Keily Miller

Can Morsi Bite the Bullet?

[caption id="attachment_55235489" align="alignnone" width="594"] A boy stands next to a stall at Magra El-Oyoun market on January 24, 2012, Cairo. Getty Images[/caption] Egypt’s worsening economic…

Sophie Anmuth