What is the problem of sustainable development in Mega sporting events? : A WPR-analysis of FIFAs Sustainability strategies

Human rights violations have been connected to several FIFA World cups. In 2010 the first article published by Amnesty international on human rights violations of the South Africa World cup. The impacts of mega sporting events such as human rights violations and environmental impacts have been under scrutiny in literature of sustainable development and legacies of mega sporting events, such as the FIFA World cup. Prior to the FIFA World cups, sustainability strategies are published which consider the issues and impacts of the World cup. These strategies will be analyzed by using the framework of Carol Bacchi’s “what is the problem represented to be '' approach. Additionally, the problem representation of the strategies will be compared with Graham Houghton’s theoretical framework of Equity principles. With this the aim is to understand what the problem is represented to be in the sustainability strategies and regard the similarities and differences of the strategies. It can be concluded that throughout the strategies the social issues dominate the problem representation. Also, the strategies come closer to Houghton’s idea of sustainable development through time where the Qatari is closer to the idea of sustainable development than the two predecessors.