In recent months, German, Swiss, Swedish, and Polish bids to hold the 2022 Winter Olympics have been withdrawn over concerns about cost. Munich and Davos-St. Moritz withdrew after voters rejected their Olympic bids. So did Krakow, where more than 70 percent voted against the idea in a referendum, despite the perceived success of the feel-good European soccer championships held in Poland and Ukraine in 2012.

While mega-events can involve colossal facilities of little use post-event, they can also provide reputational benefits and be seen as an investment in a nation's brand.

The national mood in Brazil is grim, following a year in which more than a million people have taken to the streets of major cities across the country to protest corruption, rising inflation and a lack of government investment in public services such as education, health care and public transportation, among other things. A new survey by the Pew Research Center finds that 72% of Brazilians are dissatisfied with the way things are going in their country, up from 55% just weeks before the demonstrations began in June 2013.

FIFA’s investigative report and related documents, which were obtained by The New York Times and have not been publicly released, raise serious questions about the vulnerability of the World Cup to match fixing. The tournament opens June 12 in Brazil. The report found that the match-rigging syndicate and its referees infiltrated the upper reaches of global soccer in order to fix exhibition matches and exploit them for betting purposes. 

The World Cup is just three weeks away, and Brazil has been accused of human rights abuse, people have been protesting in the streets for months and even the International Olympic Committee has publicly questioned the country's preparedness for the biggest soccer event in the world. Now even the country's biggest sports icon is speaking out - and he is not happy.

Is FIFA being shamed sufficiently to seriously consider moving the 2022 World Cup out of Qatar? Don’t bet on it, though the recent admission by FIFA boss Sepp Blatter that awarding the World Cup to Qatar was “a mistake” has renewed focus on the small Gulf state’s attempt to host the world’s premier sporting event. FIFA was quick to “clarify” Blatter’s remarks, saying the president’s comment only pertained to weather.

This week, a thousand homeless families in São Paulo reportedly moved into a site just two miles from the opening venue of the World Cup. They were bussed to the site by the Landless Workers' Movement, which says the occupation aims to highlight the failure of government promises to improve social housing.