By Joel D. Joseph
Founder, Made in USA Foundation
Everybody is all excited about the World Cup, especially the United States who made it to the round of 16. FIFA, the Fe'de'ration Internationale de Football Association, controls the World Cup and licenses all uniforms worn by participant countries. Nike, Adidas and other companies bought the rights from FIFA to produce uniforms as well as souvenir uniforms. Countries making it to the World Cup are required to buy uniforms from Nike, Adidas and other "approved" suppliers.
Made by Slave Labor
The U.S. uniforms, made by Nike, were manufactured in sweatshops in Indonesia. The current minimum wage in Indonesia is $298 per month or about $1.50 an hour. It takes about one hour of labor to make a jersey. Nike sells the jerseys for $90 and more. Not only that, the U.S. uniforms have Nike logos on them giving Nike the imprimatur that they are a genuine American company. They are not.
Nike is the poster child for outsourcing production to third-world countries. It is also known to have a hostile work environment for women. In 2018, 14 Nike female employees sued the company for sex discrimination. The case is still pending.
The Financial Times, the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Buffalo News, the Oregonian, the Kansas City Star, and the Sporting News all reported that in the factories where Nike products are made, workers were paid less than the applicable local minimum wage.
Nike produces soccer uniforms for 13 World Cup teams including the United States, England, Canada, South Korea, Brazil, France, Poland, Qatar, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Netherlands, Canada and Croatia.
Adidas's uniforms are made in Myanmar where workers earn less than $3 a day to produce soccer apparel. Myanmar's ruling military junta, which took power in a coup d'etat in 2021, is looking to dismantle democratic structures there. Adidas uniforms are required for teams representing Japan, Germany, Chile, Argentina, Algeria, Mexico and Spain.
Some Adidas workers were fired after asking factory owners for a raise. In the case of 7,800 workers at the Pou Chen Group factory in Yangon, Myanmar, a supplier of soccer shoes for Adidas, the answer is 4,800 kyat, or $2.27, per day. After workers began a strike in October of this year demanding a daily wage of $3.78, factory managers called soldiers into the complex and later fired 26 workers. They included 16 members of the factory's union who led the strike of more than 2,000 employees.
2015 World Cup Scandal
In 2015, U.S. federal prosecutors disclosed cases of corruption by officials and associates connected with the Fe'de'ration Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the governing body of the World Cup. The 2015 arrests focused on the alleged use of bribery, fraud and money laundering to corrupt the issuing of media and marketing rights for FIFA games in the Americas, estimated at $150 million. There were $110 million in bribes related to the Copa Ame'rica Centenario, which was hosted in 2016 in the United States. The indictment handed down by the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York, alleged that bribery was used in an attempt to influence clothing-sponsorship contracts.
Fourteen people were indicted in connection with an investigation by the United States FBI and the IRS Criminal Investigation Division into wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering. More than two dozen FIFA officials and their associates were implicated in a 24-year self-enrichment scheme that reached the highest levels of FIFA management. Central to the scandal were accusations of bribery connected to the awarding of hosting rights for the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. According to the U.S. Department of Justice the defendants pleaded guilty under seal and agreed to forfeit more than $40 million.
FIFA is At It Again
FIFA is corrupt. Nike, Adidas and other companies pay FIFA hundreds of millions of dollars to be the official suppliers of World Cup jerseys and other apparel. Poor countries, like Algeria, Argentina and Mexico, are forced to wear imported uniforms even though they all have vibrant apparel industries. The United States and the other advanced countries all can manufacture their own uniforms. Why should FIFA get hundreds of millions of dollars to authorize these souvenirs to be made in third-world sweatshops, including one run by leaders of a military coup? And where does the money go, to the same corrupt corporate thieves that stole millions in 2015?