Its important we work with our allies and we have to continue to do that. He not going to predict what issue will be inside japanese politics, but i think it is important that as allies, we Work Together. There are risks in the work we do every single day. We understand that going in and we want to prevent any of those risks, but sometimes, unfortunately, we have access. Reporter if you weeks ago, general hodges told reporters about a plan with the united train what is to the equivalent to the International Garden rack and theres a plan to train military forces in ukraine. Do you have enough data on that . Gen. Odierno we do have a plan but we have not made a decision on whether we have decided to move forward on that. If you had extra money to use, where would you use that . Gen. Odierno modernization and no lowern strength than 450,000 as our active component. We have to invest in readiness. Im going to take one more question and barbara, im going to let you let you ask it. I hope i wont regret it. [laughter] reporter i dont want you to walk away without asking about a decade of remarkable survivability of americas war wounded and veterans. This is something we know that you know an awful lot about. Finish up your service, what concerns you have that over the long haul because it does not go away, that americas war wounded in the last 14 or 15 years, really over the decades ahead, will get the care they need and there will be the money they need to get the care they need. Willodierno first off, i tell you that i do worry about that but i am encouraged by what im seeing. Have soldiers its not only about the soldiers, it is about caregivers and the sacrifice they make to ensure these soldiers can live a long, viable life. We have to make sure we provide the resources necessary. First, we have to be cognizant of that and we need a strong veterans affairs. We also have to ease the restrictions on easing those organizations that are out there , we are much better than we were five years ago. To help with defense programs, so that we come canther and make sure we combine all those resources and take care of these young men and women longterm. We have had some relaxation of those restrictions but we continue to watch it. I worry about longterm pts. I think we have to continue to invest in that. Beenenters that have donated to us play an Important Role in that. I worry about our senior leaders. In mye talking yesterday office. In 2003, someone who was a captain is now a kernel or brigadier general. They have probably had six or seven deployments over that time. Have in who were sergeants or private back then who have had 6, 7, 8 deployments. We have to make sure there are programs in place, so things like that that he cannot forget. One of the most important things, we cannot forget those families whose sons, daughters, husbands and wives dave our over the last 10 or 12 years. We have to remain connected to them. I have meetings with our families all the time and they involve just staying connected to the army and units their daughters wereor in and to me, thats incredibly important that we do that. We should never forget the sacrifices they made and the sacrifices their families made and continue to make because their dad or mom is no longer here. Thats something i will live with for the rest of my life, is thinking about that and the sacrifices they made. The reason its hard for me is we all understand why we do this and the risks associated, but i had the opportunity firsthand to stand sidebyside with these young men and women and they really care about what they are doing. They showed incredible selflessness and courage and what they did. We should be so proud of them and their sacrifice and it is important we remember that and we do that by taking care of their families and children as we go forward. Thank you very much. Ive enjoyed it very much. God bless all of you. Secondcarson is running to donald trump in the polls and i left. As reported on newsmax, ben carson does not agree with the twitter statement trump made in november about barack obama being the last black president. Ben carson says as i travel around the country, north am a self, east, west, humongous crowds, very enthusiastic, i dont get any indication color means that much to them. We will have an carson live this afternoon at five p. M. Eastern here on cspan. Then at 5 30, former governor George Pataki steps onto the soap talk stage here on cspan. Up next, a discussion of economic, political and social effect of russia as the nation prepares to host the 2018 world cup. Good morning, everybody. I would welcome you here for us and start off by thanking George Washington university for hosting the event this morning. And behalf of the center of global interest, my name is mike to sell. I will be very brief so we can get to what turned out to be a fantastic set of speakers. The attendance has kicked off a project that we thought up in anticipation of the 2018 world cup in russia. We started with the premise that everything is connected, that sport is not disconnected from history and politics and anything else. If you dont agree with that, it is not up for debate today. You will have to live with it. The program will include additional panelists and publications in collaboration. It is an opportunity to look at the social, Economic Issues through sport. That is good for two reasons. One, we have all been invited to russia in 2018 effectively. These are rough times for u. S. Russia relations. A rough time for the russian people, increasingly isolated in many respects and an opportunity for something sort of good to happen. The debate over whether russia should host the cup is effectively over. The world cup qualifying draw took place in c petersburg. If you are a in saint petersburg. If you are a soccer fan, it is over. We can have a discussion on how the cup was awarded and the story behind that, but that train has left the station so to speak. Im going to now introduces the speakers briefly. We are fortunate. Everybody we wanted to come to this and talk agreed to it. So i appreciate you coming. I think you will be happy with it. So mainly to my left, professor marlee leroux, assistant director of the institute for russian and eurasian and dependent studies. Independent studies. Her research focuses on nationalism and that works very well for what we are going to do here today. Lori lindsey was described as the title was totally awesome. She is a fantastic player, a twotime acc player of the year at uva, which is an honor she shares with mia hamm. She is also a fan favorite. Those of you who know her know why. She is also very articulate and an energetic advocate for gender equality in sports. We are happy to have you here. She is respected as an athlete importantly. At the end of the table to professor lisa dealt in writing. She has been a professor here at georgetown from us to quarter of a century. I think its good. George washington. I am a George Washington student myself so i am ashamed. She is an expert in mega sports. Her Research Falls along the lines of Sports Tourism and management must specifically on Space Affairs on spectators, how they interact with the event. Finally, we have manuel vest. What is interesting to me is he is doing his dissertation on football in the soviet space. He did a fantastic job putting together a website. I found the website and started reading it and said let me call him and see if we can do this together. He has flown down here from victoria, canada. We are going to Work Together for the next three years. Ultimately, we hope to be spectators together somewhere over there. With that, manuel will moderate today . Then we will save time for questions and answers towards the end of the session. Mauel thanks. Thank you for having us today. I think that this is a really fantastic event to sort of just highlight some of the issues that will be with us for the next three years as russia gears up, not just to host the world cup, but what will prove to be a pivotal year in russia in 2018 as putin seeks to be reelected for another term. About myself, i did my dissertation on the transition of football, commented some to capitalism. I looked at the period from 1987 to 214. I would have liked to go further but i couldnt because it is a. History paper you have to stop at some point. But what it made me realize was that there are many issues going on right now that are very fascinating that do not fit into a phd dissertation. Some of these issues you are familiar with and will have seen those issues. Since 2013, we have been having conflict in ukraine, which was kicked off by the events made. Events have some commentators saying that we are in the state of a cold war, which is a comparison i dont like very much. But what i think is that we can learn a lot from what is going on in football and what is exley going on in russia right now. There are certain things that, when you look at the way football is structured, the way football operates, that it reflects things going on elsewhere in society. I give you a few examples. When youre a meeting kicked off, when euro maiden kicked off, in an economic base, we had the sanctions on russia which affected the ruble last christmas immensely. That ruble crisis had a deep impact on the way football is being played right now in the country because, as the ruble crashed, players and kosher and coaches and specialists playing in russia all got paid in rubles and dollars. As a prism on how the rest of society and the rest of the economy sort of deals with this issue. Another thing that has come a very recently is the fact that they Russian Football Union has fired Fabio Capello and has replaced them with a russian coach. The way that comes about shows us the way russia deals with the kind of problems that come into the state apparatus to reform the ways there are tough time reforms in the football system. What i really want to say is that football gives us this really unique opportunity to understand some of these issues and gives us a wide audience. When you look at how many football fans there are around the world, it is a lot more than people who follow daily politics. So what football is for me and what football grad is for me, it is a prism, a window into understanding how russia, really the entire region, operates. To understand a region that is widely misunderstood. Thank you. With that, i give you over to lisa thank you. I have had five opportunities to visit russia serving in 1988 so i have seen quite a bit of change over those years. My last experience was in sochi during the winter Olympic Games. Of my 17 consecutive Olympic Games, sochi ranks very high. It was extremely wellorganized. It was a beautiful city. The people were great. The volunteers were super. And despite what everybody may have read in the mac and press, in the american press, i think the games went off fine. Im not talking about the politics behind it and the money spent. I am just saying about the games itself. And i think they are going to do a great job as well with the world cup because they know how to organize. Maybe not leading up to a crisis situation, but during the games, during the tournament, it will be fine. I heard the same thing about the 1980 games, that they were one of the best. I was not at those. But i just wanted to put that all into perspective. In terms of the financials, that is another situation. We have heard the reports and actually some of my contacts who work for the organizing committee did confirm that, of that 50 billion a year that was thrown out for the winter Olympic Games, about half of that was probably not really spent on the venues. But you also have to put into perspective into that 25 billion that was officially spent. That was to build a city. That wasnt for the lipid games. So that was a for the Olympic Games. So about 5 billion of the 25 billion i am just going to say that is the real figure was on organizing the games. The rest was to build of the train system, the hotels, the rose, everything else. I am using the winter Olympic Games to get perspective. Because when we go to the world cup and the figures right now are about 12 billion. They cut half 1 billion out recently because of the financial situation. But you cant blame all of that money on the world cup. A lot of it has to do with the National Government that decided to build 12 stadiums versus the minimum of eight stadiums. Fifa has a minimum of eight stadiums. Most countries, once they get the world cup cant figure out who to leave out. They want to please the whole country. So instead of just saying, ok, we are going to go with the ones that we already have and build three extras, they have decided, well, we cant leave that one out because that is politically important. And that when we need for this reason. So they chose to spend all this additional money on stadiums. Those come after you build the stadiums, you have to have all the effort structure as well. Because the sponsors and the officials all need nice hotels to stay in in these areas where the stadiums are. And the spectators. So in some of these instances, i have never been to many of these cities that these stadiums are going to be built. But i can imagine that they dont have all the tourist infrastructure as we do have in moscow and st. Petersburg. So that is where this extra money goes to. Putting on the tournament itself is about between 600 million and a billion dollars. Just the local organizing committee. And that money is actually paid by fifa money. So it is the other 11 billion that goes into the infrastructure. And half of that is being paid by the federal government of russia. Now, in russia, it is a little bit different because the other half comes from sponsors and other private citizens. But from what i learned in sochi, many of those private companies that sponsor were actually governmentbacked. So there you get a little bit unlike in the United States or germany or others, where you have true commercial entities, i find that many of these private companies have some Government Support in the back. And also what happens is, what i again learned, and correct me if im wrong here, is that many of those hotels were built in sochi and maybe this will happen for world cup. Maybe of those hotels were built based on loans guaranteed by the federal government. So if they default on those loans, because those hotels are not being filled up and they are not making revenue, who is really paying that . Its the federal government. So although it is a privately funded hotel they are saying, it ultimately may end up as a federally banked hotel or venue. So just kind of try to understand. I can give you the figures that i have gathered. But, you know, how much is really private versus federally supported and federally backed is a different situation. Besides these hard figures here, i also want to bring up that there is a lot of intangible benefits that are rarely discussed. The russian citizens, there are 50,000 volunteers that participated in the so chill a bit games. Part of my said part of my research is to view spectators as volunteers. A lot of volunteers that i spoke to, and these are in bars and other random places, so i do not think they were politically motivated statements that these volunteers were making. They said it was one of their best experiences of their lives. What they did was brought Young Russians from across russia, not just in the sochi region. And they trained them and brought them in. So volunteering is a new kind of activity that hasnt been introduced in the society before. I think it was a great opportunity. It is hard to put a price tag on it. So like the mastercard, its priceless. I want everybody to consider certain intangibles, also the education they received. So service quality, most people, from what i understand, they havent had their chance to really understand quality service. Going through an olympic experience or world cup, they get a letter training on service. Also on media and commercialism. I think these are rather intangibles. Lisa manuel thank you, lisa. I want to handover the discussion to marlene thank you. I want to discuss the political situation. It is really a different way for russia to position itself. Domestically, things have been changing a lot. They bid was made also between before the antiputin event before 2013. What seems to me very interesting is, if we look at the International Aspect of that, during the last 10 years, russia has been really successful and promoting kind of russia this one will be the first time where russia has to display self power after the ukrainian crisis. We will see how it works or how it doesnt work. That is kind of uncharted territory where they will be going. Probably at that time, they couldnt even imagine the situation would be like that five years after they made the bid. They will probably have to face the ukrainian situation is not resolved. There will have to be discussions going on. They will also have to manage street violence, something relatively usually in russia. Usually, the russian Law Enforcement is good in managing this situation. But an aspect that will be given that publicity for the way russia handles this kind of tension. It will be interesting to see how just how russia does this in such an intense political context. And in the years to come how russia manages this Incredible Opportunity to promote itself abroad. All these kind of megaprojects are really putin projects. You really have a highly centralized dynamic going on for all these big megaprojects. It is really centralized around putin and all his associates to make sure all the processes are going well. The second point i want to make, domestically, russia changed a lot also. It will be the year of putin reelection. There will be an intense political atmosphere in russia. Managing election is something very important for the political legitimacy. It has to be successful. You cannot show and display the success or the popularity of the leader. That will also be a moment where putin will also have to be sure all the oligarchs are well around him and to be sure that works. And a couple of all our debts oligarchs are personally involved in managing and financing some element of the world cup. That may be some moment where we will see some tension. So all these elements will be the political weight important. What really will be a critical element for the russian authorities is to make sure that they will not give out a public narrative of the cup being a useless and crazy spending at a time of economic crisis. It is becoming more difficult. The sochi games came at a time when the crisis was not indivisible. And the difference is that sochi was centralized. It was a huge project for the region. It was highly centralized. It is more difficult to manage this kind of narrative, the public spending made for the world cup useless or useful for the population because we have the economic crisis now and the russian authorities themselves dont know how it will be next year and the year after. If you just kind of slow down if it is a structural economic crisis, it will be difficult to manage the political impact. Its not in one place. It is in several cities. Which makes that they centralized mechanism to help control the way the money is spent more difficult to do because it will be decentralized in many cities. So it will be important for the russian authorities to be sure you dont have a huge scandal around team issues, but also to be sure that there is not a big scandal of corruption in some of the cities that are receiving this stuff or that you have a big all the selected cities will get their own stadium. But they will have hotels, roads and improvements, railways. Not all of them will get the world package. So you will have to manage a local discontent. All these elements make up the political aspects of the preparation of the cup very sensitive. Just to conclude, i think what is really important is russia managing its image abroad, voting and avoiding scandal at a time of economic crisis and also being sure that russia is able to avoid showing publicly economic deficiencies or administrative disruption elegies that will suddenly administrative dysfunctionality that will suddenly come up and lose credibility and visibility. So i will stop here. Manuel we will go on with lori and some of the social issues of the world cup. Lisa it is a pleasure to be here. Thank you. I am not a next for it on russia at all so i dont know if i have much to say. But i do know, within the leading environment, we can often feel as if you are in a bubble. Whether it is leading up to a competition or if you are in the competition, whether it is the only bexar the world cup, so to speak. But for me come in my position as an athlete, it is always important to maintain the awareness of what was going on outside of the athletic environment. So hopefully today, as we get into some of the questions on stuff, i will be able to give some insight on what it is like for an athlete. Socially, whether it is racism or most specifically to me the lgbtq issues, while participating in a world event like the world cup. So thank you. Manuel grade. We will continue with the moderated questionandanswer session. I am going to start with you, lisa. What can you tell us about the negotiation process with regard to agreements with infrastructure requirements, taurus travels, risen, etc. , just your past expenses. Lisa as a mentioned before, it was up to they had a minimum eight stadiums. 30,000 is the minimum number of seats in a stadium. With those minimums, it was up to the local organizing committee, the loc, to determine how many stadiums they wanted to build and having they were. Not much negotiations there. They set minimums and russia to go a little bit above those minimums. And terms of the requirements, there is a certain number of hotel rooms that the organizing committee has to secure for a minimum amount of money. And all of those, most were already secure before they bid. They had promised, ok, these hotels will be for fifa and this is the price that they are going to be at. And there is an escalation clause over the years. So all of these points are already well laid out in the host contract. There is not so much negotiation. In terms of the spectators, fifa says, well, wed like x number of hotels, but they dont really care about spectators. This is really a tvmade event. There is a billion i forget the numbers 10 billion come i think, people watch the world cup. And only 200,000 show up to it. So really, spectators, good luck. And that is what really got me involved in doing research on spectators. Why do they come . How long do they stay . Where are they staying . How much are they spending . I have some students in the room here who have actually gone with me on some of my trips and have been out there bank collecting data on these spectators. Whether it is home stays or in hostels. Most of the spectators that are not on corporate packages kind of go on the backpack style. They just find a place because they are true fans and they will stay wherever they can. Manuel just to followup on that real quick because of the ruble crisis, russia decided to downsize to of the stadiums two of the stadiums. How does this work . Why do people not suggest cut these stadiums altogether . They are already four over the requirement. What kind of negotiation process goes on when this kind of stuff happens . Lisa i can tell you in brazil, fifa continually told brazil you dont need to be in 12 stadiums. You really need to be innate. The country you need to be in eight. The country is too large. Im sure they said the same thing to russia. But its their money. They are spending it. So im going to refer back to athletes. How many are broke after they are playing . Their agents tell them, put money aside, dont spend this money. But in the end, it is the countrys own money. And if they want to spend it, they are going to spend it. Manuel it is an interesting comparison. Its like serving alcohol to someone who is an alcoholic. Lisa they are using it as a showcase and they are also using it for political reasons. So putin may want this region to be happy and to vote for him. Marlene if i may join in that discussion fifa is not the one deciding what is a domestic discussion, the discussion going on between the ridge and now it is and the regional elites. It is putin and the oligarchs who are influencing the local governments. It is politically so important for creating the unity between the different regions. Making a political, not financial. Lisa right. You can downsize. But that city got 4000 or 50,000. Why dont i get 50,000 . So it is also that. Everybody wants with the other person has. Now people are, like, why did manaus get it . Because that is a large area in northern brazil that somebody wanted to satisfy. But one thing i wanted to talk about in terms of centralization, in sochi, it was the most unique situation and where the organizing committee was located in moscow. Not until the very last year, really nine months, did most of the people moved down to sochi. From an economic perspective, i thought that was really strange. I had gone over to sochi and all the local people cap say, oh, all of the decisions are being made up in moscow. This is your event. But in fact, it really wasnt there event. It was all run through headquarters. So you talk about centralization obviously, because there is a headquarters for world cup and it is usually held in the biggest city. For brazil, it was always in rio, the headquarters for result when he 14. I thought it was verys headquarters for 2014. I thought it was very strange for sochi. Manuel marlene, one of the questions, i mean, the world cup is hosted from moscow. That is the center of it all. But what kind of effect do you think has a tournament like that on a nation . Where russia represents its nationalism sort of through this big event . Why do you think an event like this means in a country like russia . Marlene globally, it means a lot for every country receiving this kind of event. I think we should think very carefully that what is happening in russia is so specific. All these issues are happening in all these country all these countries. But in russia, the fact that the marginalization on russia internationally is very much visible on the way the russia nvidia is speaking to that one population. I went to russia last month and you could really feel people feel misunderstood. So you can see already the political authorities will try to lock consensus and get Popular Support for their own population in trying to make the cup a big event that really shows again, as sochi, the legitimacy of russia to be a great power and to be recognized. I think it will be a highlevel Popular Support. And if you look after surgery, there is a general point of view among the russian population that the surgery games were positive the sochi games were positive not only for the russian image abroad, but the dynamism in russia. It hasnt really demonstrated for the region. But the Mainstream Media pushing for telling the population that everything is an economic success. You can see already in the survey we have that the population hopes a lot that things will have changed a lot by 28 by 2018 and that russia will be recognized internationally and the financial benefits for each city receiving the cup will be very visible. You have popular pressure in each of the selected cities. You can really see how people hope it will help improve the wellbeing of the population. The big issue being, of course, the future of the economic crisis and how we could impact russias strategy globally with this kind of showcase. Manuel i will direct the next question to you, lori. What is the what is it like to be in event like the world cup . We have a cup of pointers here with the infrastructure, etc. You played in germany. What does it mean for the athlete coming to a country like russia, playing a new facilities . What effect does it have on the football infrastructure on the ground and what is it like for the athlete playing there . Lori thank you. And a time when you are in an international competition, it really helps offer an opportunity to bridge cultural differences, which can aid in more awareness and appreciation in differences and diversity. I think it really depends on the athletes. I have had you know, in germany, we didnt have many issues. It was a spectacular event. Canada put on a Wonderful World cup for the women. So specifically for russia in 2018, i know i have had some teammates play over there, go over there and play. I played a little bit in germany, in their legs. They have a professional league, but there wasnt an infrastructure to really play the players. So there was some corruption in that regard as well. But in a social aspect, i think it will be interesting to see you know, 1. I like to bring up prior to the sochi olympics, one organization i am involved in is athlete ally. About a hundred. A hundred professional athletes can together to basically bring up the draconian antigay law that they had in place and put pressure on the ioc to force them to modify their olympic charter deliver six. And principle 6. The did have them. There is a way to inspire athletes not just within their sporting event that they are participating in, but also to inspire change and bring these cultural differences outside the sport. I think you see that again prior to the sochi olympics. But that is also within a lot of the u. S. Athletes. Within the world cup that just took place in canada, you saw the nigerian athletes cant speak out about lgbtq issues or even the russians in fear of persecution. With my friends who played in the league in russia, they can bring those Lessons Learned that they experienced over there back and how we can implement and help change going into the 2018 world cup. If that make sense. Manuel yeah. Marlene, i was wondering if you could comment on these things. Especially what kind of out impact do you think athletes all over the world coming to russia, what kind of impact will that have on russians themselves and also on the image of russia in general . Marlene two things. On the antigay legislation in russia and the lgbt issue, of course, the preparation of the cup, it is fully open in russia. But if you can consider that you have the media pressure coming from the political authorities on this issue, it is a very conservative society where these issues are very difficult to be discussed. We should hope that everything will change faster in russia around this issue. You really can see the ovulation for all these they population for all of these antigay to have an open discussion on this issue, minorities have friends who are suffering athletes and try to open the discussion. But that is a very sensitive issue that is really played out by the authorities. So that is something that will be visible in two or three years when we are close to the days of the cup. Globally, and other important issue, the results of the cup could be more positive. Everything related to the high level of xenophobia in russia, on that showing on Tv International group playing together and so on around sport, i think that is a good message that will probably impact more, especially the young generation of russians who are kind of xenophobic just because they dont know the other and they dont have a narrative or they dont know how to learn to discuss these kind of cultural differences. On that, i am more optimistic that the couple have than on the gay lesbian issue that is really difficult right now. Manuel ive been working very closely with a Company Called fair in russia. I recently visited moscow for an event that had to deal with racism and xenophobia in russian football. One thing that really struck me was the fact that the dialogue had finally started. One thing that i repeatedly wanted out to journalists in russia was sort of at this point, why the west is targeting u. S. Targeting us because of the racism issue. For you guys to address issues, such as racism, xenophobia or even gender equality, do it now. If you do it now, he still have three years which is of course not enough to fix the problems, but if you do it now and you show good faith and addressing it, i think you will be in a much better situation than you with then if you just let it go. It would be really similar to what ukraine did and it blow up lastminute. But you say is interesting, i think we are a long way from actually resolving a lot of the issues. A couple other points that i wanted to make in terms of spreading the world cup across the country, it does force people to go to other cities in russia other than moscow and st. Petersburg. Volgograd, places that most americans and europeans wouldnt even know existed. Similar to brazil, everybody just goes to rio or maybe sao paulo, but they really push people to visit other places. Those citizens in those locations get to meet foreigners as well. Even torino, italy, im surprised how many of the locals said, this is great. And thats italy. Think what this is going to do to russia. One other thing is that ive heard over and over how german football has improved since posting the 2006 world cup. And what impact will that have on russia now that theyll have some infrastructure . They do receive some money. About 100 million or more from fifa. Not saying that is going to go far because of corruption, etc. What does this do for football . You would be better able to answer that . Manuel as i said in the opening remarks, one of the things that has happened recently is that the italian coach who made millions and millions of dollars was fired by the Russian Football Union. He was more to blame for having very poor results, but he wasnt given very much to work with in the beginning because the infrastructure that he was given, the training grounds, everything, they match up to what german and english have, but he wasnt given that kind of infrastructure and he wasnt given the material. The players were old and russia has missed that playing development step. There is a bright spot. The u17 just two years ago won, which is a big deal, and the 19 finished second at this years euros. I was skeptical that these players would be ready in time for the world cup, but i think what you are saying in regards to germany, germany take started their project. The goal was actually to win, which they failed to do, but it brought up the current generation that won the world cup in 2014. I think you are right. A tournament like that can go a long way to reunite football in a traditional football country especially. Lori, if you want to maybe comment on that as well and what kind of impact a world cup can have on players in that country. As a canadian, i wonder what it will be like for canada in the upcoming years. Lori great example, the 1999 world cup, just how electrifying that can be and really ignite a country and get them excited about the sport, and encourage and propel other youth athletes to get involved in that sport as well. 1999, we had a little bit of a lull afterwards between our professional leagues in the early 2000s to the late 2000s, but i think what happened in germany happened here. It excited players like myself who were coming up the ranks to get involved and to play more often, and you see that group with the world cup. We hadnt won the world cup since 1999. Just like germany, it can get people excited. It also empowers, specifically with the females, to speak out about issues. In this world cup, not only did we win, but you saw quite a few more athletes who spoke out, came out publicly, and arguably in my opinion at some of their best world cups. I think that inspires and creates a freer level of play. To play at a level that, when you are playing in an environment where you are free and being your true self, i think you saw that. Being a wonderful role model for upcoming female athletes as well. Manuel one image that stood out for me was [indiscernible] hugging her partner after the u. S. Won the world cup in vancouver. Three years away, we have Robbie Rogers who is openly gay. He could be at the world cup maybe. Do you think in three years time, we might have a male gay athlete playing at the world cup . [indiscernible] do you think we could have Something Like that in russia or is it still too far away in terms of gender equality . Lori it is tough to say. It is exciting for me to talk about abbi wombak hugging and kissing her partner, having one of the best tournaments of her career so far. I think that was inspired by her coming out and being true to herself. The unfortunate thing is, we still have a ways to go in terms of, as i mentioned earlier, nigeria and russia, fear of persecution if they come out, speak about being gay, or so i think we still unfortunately have a way to go. Im only speaking about my experiences. It really is a platform which a bunch of us players in the u. S. Team are involved in. That is a platform to speak about advocacy and a quality. But you dont see that in a lot of other countries. Even though thats exciting on one end, it is still quite unfortunate on another. I think it is hard to say. I would say it is a little too soon. Lisa there is a move both within the Olympic Movement and fifa to better educate the National Football associations on Good Governance and fair play and equality and situations like this. It will take time. Just look at our country. We still arent racistfree. We have our challenges too. And i think we are all growing. We are all trying to improve. It is not going to happen overnight because you are bringing the world cup here. A lot of people think, the world cup is coming, everything is going to be wonderful now. It just doesnt happen. I think it can move the needle and that is what we are trying to use sports four. If we work hard enough and use the media and players, we can move the needle a little bit, but it is not going to move you forward 50 years. Lori specifically for this womens world cup, it could be a Good Platform for that. Move the needle a little bit. Manuel yeah. Lisa this goes back to the 1936 Olympic Games, jesse owens, hitler. There is example after example of how sports has had an influence on society. Lori you mentioned manuel you mentioned the influence on society. Im going to ask this question to marlene. How do you think how important is the world cup as a soft power for a country like russia, and when you take the example of the sochi olympics, where it was very much a display of, they were called putins games, how do you think this will play out in the world cup 2018, especially with regards to the election held three months before the tournament kicks off. Marlene thats the kind of hard balance game. It will be a difficult balance game for russia. They will be under the media spotlight for their president ial election a few months before. They will have to manage the soft power. As i said in my introduction, that will be the first major soft power event after the ukrainian crisis. That will be interesting to see. It can still work well as it works for the soft power that russia displayed or it will not be so successful. What seems to be so important is that it will be the last putin will be in his fourth mandate, and officially the last one. So that is something where, at least if he hopes to stay until the last day of the last mandate, it will be a very symbolic importance for him in a kind of way of showing that he has almost 20 years of political presence in russia. In terms of soft power, the Olympic Games are all the sports. This is the soccer cup. Summer is so much linked for russian population to europe. It is a european sport. You really want to play with the big european countries. In a sense, it makes that kind of symbolism of the world cup even more visible. You really have to interact with countries that russia consider as its equal, or the ones she wants to partner with, the u. S. And european countries. I think that will be a kind of very highlevel focus for russia and for the population. That is the narrative around this kind of reconciliation. That will be a kind of interesting moment to see how they will suddenly have to display a very positive narrative about western culture. They will have to make the shift before the cup arrives. Lori you want to add to that manuel you want to add to that . Lisa most hosts of major events want to bring visitors in. Im a little confused on the russian visa process. There were so many people who did not go to sochi, one because of the fear the u. S. Media put in everybody, but also the process you had to go through to get to sochi. All the visa requirements and all that. Also, i was brought over to sochi nine months in advance and i supposedly was doing a Sports Tourism session. I said, wheres the tourism people . One of my specializations is how to leverage major events to increase tourism and Economic Impact in the future. And they are like, we dont have any Tourism Development here. I said, this is your chance to do that. So theres a missed opportunity if russia maybe this could be their platform, talking about building a tourism infrastructure, doing a plan, building their image, then more people would go to russia as a tourist destination. Again, im not sure they really want that to happen. Manuel just to intersect, i believe russia will actually get rid of the visa process for world cup ticket holders. That will already make it a lot easier. If we get any indication from brazil, i believe 40,000 americans traveled to brazil for the world cup, and brazil had a visa process for americans as well. That gives us an idea where we go with this if you maybe want to comment on that. Lisa brazil waived the visa fee for americans if they showed they had an actual ticket. I have not yet heard that for russia. It would be great if they waived the visa, but on top of the visa, we had to get a tourist or olympics spectator card in sochi as well. There was two things we had to go through. Manuel wouldnt it be in the best interest of a country like russia to bring in tourists to say, we are an open society . Isnt that in the best interest of a host country in general . Lisa that is what they should be doing. Everybody says the olympics in greece were the fault of the economy right now. I dont think it was. It was poor planning. I got a call six weeks ahead of time, what can we do to leverage the games you are late. If you go to fifas website, they have each city listed and a description of the cities. But it is kind of old. You have to spice it up a little bit. They are just not used to marketing and Tourism Marketing especially. I think they need some help there. Manuel my last point, maybe i hope for russia that the next big event in football is the euro 2016 in france. I think traditionally the world cup kicks off after that. Then it is one year to the confederation cup, two years to the world cup. I think that will be sort of the deadline, wouldnt it, for a country like russia to get ready and say, this is what we are doing. Lisa no, they should start now. [laughter] lisa because now, you start working with sponsors. After the last world cup, everybody starts looking at the next one, doing other plans, and now is when they need to start. So you have it all planned, you kick it off during the euro, but if you dont start planning until euro, you are not going to be ready in 2018. Planning takes a while. Manuel thank you. One last question, and this is for everyone. With all this in mind, and maybe we start with marlene on the right, do you think it is worth hosting the world cup . Marlene yes. Manuel why . Not letting you off the hook that easy. Marlene i think it is very important for a country like russia to get this kind of recognition. That is an important tool. We have been discussing how russias soft power will be playing around the cup. That is also our own soft power that we can use on that occasion. I think it is a nice way where we can celebrate what we share together with russia and try to put everyone at the table of the discussion. I think it is a wonderful opportunity on both sides. We can also flavor it. We also have to [indiscernible] the population will be very much interested in sharing more stories about their experiences. I think everything makes sense. Lori i would agree. I think it just provides an open dialogue for some of these social issues, whether it is racism or gender equality issues. Anytime you can bring some of these issues to light, it can be always positive. Lisa i think theres a lot of misunderstanding in media about the money and how it is spent and all of that, like the boston situation. I think the bostonians lost a great opportunity to host an event that would probably change their city. But maybe a lot of people in boston dont want their city changed. In terms of russia, it is as we discussed before, an opportunity to open them up a little bit. The world cup has never gone that way in that area. I think that is what fifa was saying. Open up and get more people excited about football and give them some infrastructure. Overall, i think theres a lot of tangible and intangible theres the leaders, and people will make money off of it or do it for their own reasons, but lets look at other reasons too, like the volunteers and the youth. Manuel my final remarks, i think that russia has a fantastic opportunity with this world cup. This world cup is, in my opinion, long overdue. Russia is the oldest and biggest european country to have never hosted the world cup in the past. There has been a lot of debate on the process. I want to take that aside and leave it open. We can probably agree that everyone who did on that world cup probably has some dirt on their hands. I think russia 2018 is a huge opportunity, not just because putin, but because it will open up a dialogue as you said. I think that this point where we are in u. S. Western relations, that is probably the best thing that could happen to us right now. Thank you. We will do question and answer now. I will take the opportunity to ask one question myself. We are here in d. C. , in virginia, we have a proud tradition of womens soccer. If you could just talk to us about our soccer scene here in d. C. And the United States. We are getting a new stadium for united. Look back at the u. S. Right now. We now have premier league on nbc and the womens cup was very successful in terms of television. Talks u. S. About that. Lori extremely exciting time for women soccer. And i would argue womens sports in general. I dont know how many people know we actually have a professional Womens League and a team in d. C. I dont know why we call ourselves d. C. When it is an hour away, but that is beside the point. Since the world cup though, we have nine teams in the league and every stadium up until i want to say last weekend was sold out for the most part. Theres an exciting time for fans, players, to speak out just in regards to promoting the game, promoting womens sports in general. So if you do live close to germantown, you should check out the washington spirits. We do have one of the best stadiums in the league, at the germantown soccer plax. It is an exciting time to get behind women soccer and remote and promote gender equality in that regard too. Anything else i should speak about more . We are entering the last few games, last month of the season, so it is pretty tight playoffs. We talk about a threeweek break in the middle of the season. Now, the world cup players and the National Players as well are back playing with their teams, which has sparked excitement as well around the league. I would argue it is the most Competitive League around the world. Definitely athletically. It is a wonderful product, familyfriendly environment. I should be a spokeswoman for the league. Definitely check out a game. Unless something goes terribly wrong, we should make the playoffs. [indiscernible] thank you. This question is for marlene. I fully appreciate the social soft power economic benefits of russia hosting the world cup. Im of ukrainian descent. I have a completely different perspective on this, a biased perspective obviously, because i see the analogy drawn between hitler hosting the 1936 games, i see putin as being the 21st century hitler, getting more emboldened by showcasing again after sochi, i cant fathom i think there are two big elephants in the room here. Fifa is undergoing its own investigation here for corruption. I question how this process occurred, why russia was awarded hosting the games, whether bribery was involved. The second elephant in the room is, russia invaded ukraine. We are showcasing russia again . He sees this as a coup in his head. Hes a dangerous man. If you could comment on that, please. Thank you. Marlene on the corruption issue, that is a huge elephant in the room, but russia is not the elephant of the room. I think it is a general debate over the label of corruption. Globally in sports and in fifa. Of course, being an oil country has you being easily corrupt and corrupting because money was easily especially at that time. For me, it is kind of a general discussion. I hope the investigation will go on. If they demonstrate that they have evidence that russia and qatar really won because of corruption schemes, then i dont know what would exactly be the process, but i think we can develop on that issue. For me, it is a general issue where russia is one element among many others participating globally in this corruption scheme. On russiaukraine relations, that is something very specific. My only argument, and i understand you would be unsatisfied with it, is that it is not through the world cup that we will stop that issue. If we are solving the issue politically, then what else can we do . The west has been failing in securing ukraines security since the beginning of the crisis. It is more about our own general inability to find a solution to secure ukraines integrity. It is a small issue for us. It is a big issue for russia. On that, we have been a little bit naive about the capacity of the west to resist on something where globally, the current context for the west and europe is not the major issue. Russia, the capacity to do whatever it wants almost in ukraine because it is mr. Putin and he has the Popular Support. Trying to block russia having the cup because of the ukrainian issue doesnt make any political solution and doesnt send any good message because we dont have the political or military or Financial Institutions to help ukraine. It is just that we dont have any kind of good solution. Fifa could be the last element. If we try to focus on that, we are avoiding saying that we dont have the real longterm solution for the country. I understand that doesnt solve anything for the ukrainian people. I dont know how the Ukrainian Team will be playing and so on. That would be a political issue. [inaudible] between the antiwest sentiment that exists and putins russia, theres a very real issue. It really is. Giving him the games again is another feather in his cap. It just emboldens the man. Manuel he was given the games way before this issue actually came up. To answer your question about corruption, it is likely. We dont know. It is allegedly option a legit corruption. The issue is that everyone has dirty hands. The only proven case of corruption was england 2018, where they have found cases of payments being made. Most likely, there was corruption involved. Yes, probably. That is how these games are awarded. But the train has sort of left because the tournament is set in stone. The same issue can be said about qatar. Im not sure if this world cup is really another feather in putins head, because im not sure it is going to be as beneficial for him as he thinks or as the west thinks. It is going to open up the country. It is going to open up dialogue. It is going to show certain elements of russia that are probably not always welcome to the people in power. I think having the world cup there is going to do much more in terms of resolving current problems then taking it away. The moment the west takes it away that is how it will be perceived in russia, the west taking away the world cup. They are going to completely isolate themselves and the situation will probably deteriorate even more. Ive lived in ukraine myself. I get that. But i think taking the world cup away from russia will not solve this issue. People involved in the game in ukraine want to go if they qualify. I think that shows some of the problems. Lisa i think that in terms of the bidding process, it was russias time, just like it was brazils time. I think, whether the payments were made or not, they were lined up. The difference is qatar. That is a whole different story. [indiscernible] just a brief comment regarding how germany succeeded is really a trifecta. Investing in youth, developing the youth, and marketing it. It is a clear formula. It was a 1012 year process. The formula exists. Fifa in fact is planning to help russia that way. Ive been in touch with the medical director of fifa. They will be starting socalled fifa 11 that will be taking place throughout russia in the german model. It requires a commitment. Fifa will try to capitalize that process that worked for germany to do it for russia. As you can imagine, as a Soccer Player and physician, russias Health System is completely down. Who will ensure the wellbeing and health of the athletes at this world cup . Lisa i know what they did for sochi. Id like to hear more, because this is across 12 different cities. They bring in ge divided all the medical equipment. They built new clinics. They had helicopters. They brought in the expertise if they did not have it locally. Marlene russia, you know in the russian system, it is more complicated than just being kind of collapsing. You have a system in provincial cities that is in bad shape. You also have a private system which is growing. You have they have more an issue with having good people trained, skilled surgeons and so on, then not having that kind of equipment. I think they will advance what they did for sochi. When you cannot modernize the system, you are just creating parallels. A centralized system that is really where the state is putting a lot of money has to make sure it works. They will open new clinics. They will have the right equipment. That will cost a lot of money. That will be very well functioning during the cup. It doesnt mean that once the cup is over, the system will bring a lot of new positive elements for the population, which will continue to go to the public sector. But i think they will manage that well. They will have enough money, and even if there is less money, they will still be able to manage this element of the system. Manuel lori, i assume the teams bring their own doctors to these events. Lori for the u. S. , we have a couple doctors that travel with us. Im pretty sure the majority of the teams will travel with their own doctors. Lisa id be curious for those people studying russia, what happened to all the equipment . I know ge and the other suppliers left all the equipment, the xray equipment, in sochi. Id like to see if it is being used. Even in london, ge putting a new unit on top of their olympics sponsorship, and the results are that it is saving i forget how many thousands of babies each year. So im hoping that the Imaging Equipment and everything that was left is doing some benefit to the people in the sochi region. Lets suppose worst came to worse. Some countries boycotted the games. Are there any rules in fifa that would cause them to penalize those countries . Lisa no. Any team is allowed to say they dont want to participate. And the other countries will be happy to go. Manuel to be honest, even in ukraine, they are saying, we are going. I have a very high doubt unless some kabbalistic event happens some cataclysmic event happens, i dont think we will see boycotts. I think the u. S. Will definitely go. [indiscernible] manuel that is a very good point. First, you need to qualify, which i think you will. Lisa we learned our lesson from 1980. It didnt solve anything. Thank you. This is a question for manuel and lori and whoever else might be able to chime in. I take the example of france hosting the world cup in 1998, a traditional football country, but one in which football is not played by many french women and girls. That changed after hosting the world cup. There were considerably more women in the stands in french stadiums. There was what they call the world cup bump, increase in girls in youth programs. It was definitely seen as a catalyst and coincided with a real dedication to growing the womens game in france. Im curious to hear what kind of insight or thoughts you might have in terms of whether something similar might be the case with russia and female football there and whether this might be a catalyst to help it grow and give it perhaps more wings and backing. Manuel russia is very far behind when it comes to gender equality in terms of womens football. They have a leak. They have a competition. They participate in the womens championship. That said, i think, in general, a world cup always sparks attention and always gets people to play. I would say that it will definitely increase and help the womens game just as much as it will help the mens game. People will see it on tv and aspire to be these athletes they see on tv. I would say yes, it will have a tremendous impact. Lisa the other thing is that there has been history, once a country has hosted a mens, they host a womens. Im not saying they are going to get it for sure, but it could be something down the line. Lori just to piggyback off of what manuel said, i think this world cup was an exciting time for other Womens National teams, like nigeria. Because of social media as well, we went from, in 2011, we had 16 teams in the womens world cup. This year, there was 24. Eight new teams participating. Some, which some would argue shouldnt have been there, like thailand must to germany 100, but in my opinion, i think it opened up some dialogue and brought awareness and put some pressure on fifa to mandate that these countries put more money into the womens grams. So if we are going to have 2014s, they need to start spreading to have 24 teams, they need to start spreading. Hopefully, this will spark and create a little bit of a bump in pushing and giving more, developing the womens side of the game as well. Hopefully that will be the case with russia as well. Anyone can answer who feels like it. Coming from georgia, the country, ive seen russia occupied georgia. Ive seen russia occupying ukraine. Ive seen russia adopting laws that outlaw homosexuality and racism flourishing in the country. Recently, ive seen russia destroying western food. It sounds to me a little bit naive when we are speaking about these games opening up russia. If you are saying so, let me give you this question. What was the benefit of the olympics . How did it change russia to a better country in sochi in sochi lisa we were still discussing that before the panel. Those of us that attended really fell in love with russia. Unfortunately, the week after, all of our opinions that we had formed changed again, back, even worse, because of the invasion of ukraine. So all the goodwill that they built up, unfortunately, i think, went away. It was unfortunate for russia. But i do think during the games they had an opportunity to change a lot of peoples opinions and move forward, yet they chose to revert. Many people said it was already in the planning, that they knew they were going to do this after the games. I dont know about that. To your question, we can only hope. We have no scientific proof that it is going to help any, but is it worth trying . Is it better to just close it off and say, we are not going to deal with these people because they are going to keep going . I dont know. [inaudible]
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