Our group FIFA report pitch for uni

1. 2026 FIFA WORLD CUP BID
REPORT: THE NETHERLANDS
Andrew Jackson
5888549
Jasmine McCulloch
100589596
James Tivendale
100600866
Inge Wessels
101273337
Unit Name: Advertising Issues:
Regulation, Ethics and
Cultural Considerations
Unit Code: ADV20001
Tutor: Nagia Centurion
Date: 28/10/2016

2. 1
Table of Contents
Introduction…………………………………………………………………...p.2
Attitude towards the LGBTQ community…………………………………....p.3
Position and treatment of women…………………………………………….p.4
Equality and inequality in the workforce……………………………………..p.5
Attitude to advertising to children……………………………………………p.6
Treatment of immigrants and foreign residents……………………………...p.7
Consumer Culture……………………………………………………………p.8
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………...p.9
References…………………………………………………………………...p.10-12

3. 2
Introduction
This report will assess the Netherlands as a possible host for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Consisting of almost 17 million inhabitants with over 200 different backgrounds (ANP 2015),
the Netherlands is a tolerant, open minded country that is dedicated to bringing diverse groups of
people together through sports. International requirements with regards to transport
infrastructure, information and communication technology and safety and security standards are
very likely to be met (FIFA 2010). As part of the bidding process, the report hereby provides the
necessary information with regards to the country’s cultural attributes, values and ethics.
Specifically, it focuses on the treatment of minority and vulnerable groups in society, in
alignment with FIFA’s commitment to protect all internationally recognized human rights.

4. 3
Attitude towards the LGBTQ community
For any international event, it’s
important that both the hosting nation
and the event itself represent and value
basic human rights with regards to all
demographics, races and genders. The
Netherlands is the perfect candidate to
hold the World Cup, because it
embodies the values of humanities
fundamental human rights, as well as
the values that the FIFA see as
invaluable. “The Netherlands with a
population of approximately 16.3
million respect the human rights of its
citizens, and the law and judiciary provide
effective means of addressing individual needs” (U.S. Department of State, 2007).
The Netherlands is a nation that respects and enforces laws regarding human rights, specifically
by appropriately accommodating the LGBT community. In doing so, it creates a desirable
environment for the FIFA World Cup and accurately represents the needs of a broader
demographic and community. The Netherlands has specific laws and protected rights in place to
avoid discrimination of the LGBT community, ranging from the basic right to marry and adopt
children, to more extensive civil liberties. These include protection in the military, the equal age
of consent, anti-employment discrimination, and anti-housing discrimination (Equaldex, 2016).
It should also be noted that many countries do not have these protective laws to the extent that
the Netherlands does, which reflects a culture which is very accepting and open minded. It is
extremely important that the host nation of the FIFA World Cup provide and protect these rights,
as nations have failed in this regard in the past (specifically Russia and Qatar). This has led to
controversy that inevitably takes away from the worldwide experience of the FIFA World Cup
and merely creates a bad reputation for the event as was as discriminating against possible
audience members. (Buzinski 2015).
LGBT rightsinthe Netherlands(Equaldex2016)

5. 4
Position and treatment of women
As football is a sport which is watched and enjoyed by both men and women, it is very important
that the country hosting the FIFA World Cup has a positive representation of women in all
aspects of life. The Netherlands surpass many other countries in this regard, as the “government
has been a prime mover in empowering women as co-agents in decision-making” (Leijenaar
2004, p.184). This involvement has led to an increase in female participation in typically male
dominated areas. For example, there is almost double the number of women in the “European
Parliament (32 percent) compared to the UK (18 percent)” (Odekerken-Schroder, De Wulf &
Hofstee 2002), and this admiration and esteem is reflected throughout all parts of Dutch society.
In advertising, it has been found that women are less likely to be portrayed at home than in
comparison with a more ‘masculine’ country, and are less likely to be portrayed as sex objects
(Odekerken-Schroder, De Wulf & Hofstee 2002). These statistics give an insight into the culture
and values of the Netherlands, as culture plays a huge part in shaping communication (Conway
& Schaller 2007). It highlights how women are respected and treated like equals, which is such
an important factor when organising any popular global event. Logistically, this positive
treatment of women will make it significantly easier to organise and run the FIFA World Cup, as
well as making it a more enjoyable event to attend. Any tourist, regardless of gender, will be
given the chance to experience the real Dutch culture, as well as being welcomed with open
arms. This will contribute to the FIFA’s reputation as being an exceptional and inclusive sporting
organization.
Figure Government-ownedorganisationsandschemestoempowerwomen(Yourstory2015)

6. 5
Equality and inequality in the workforce
In the Netherlands, increasingly more women attach
value to a career (Kracht on tour 2016) and financial
independence. However, they are still met with a lot
of inequality in the workforce. Considering the
number of people working full time and the salaries
earned, it is clear that there is a big gap between men
and women. For one, men hold two to three times as
many full time work positions as women (Hoeffnagel
2016). The women that are active in the work field,
mainly work part time and do not earn enough money
to be financially independent. Another issue concerns
the wage discrimination. Dutch women earn around
16% less than their male colleagues (Kakebeeke &
Molenaar 2016). In comparison to the rest of the
European Union, they are slightly below average. In order to help women achieve equal rights in
the work field, the Dutch government has set up a program called Kracht on Tour (Rijksoverheid
2016). This approach should empower women to become financially self-reliant. The
government want to make it easier for women to combine their family life with their career and
pushes companies to be open to flexible working times for women and financial compensation
for the costs of childcare. Furthermore, the government values a balanced distribution of top
functions in companies and has thus set up a quota. 30% of the people in the boards of directors
and supervisory boards of larger companies should comprise of women. This is a statutory target.
It is evident that there is still a lot of work to be done. However, the elaborate measures of the
government show that the Netherlands is motivated and well on its way to become a country
with decent equal rights in the workplace.
Own image

7. 6
Attitude to advertising to children
Every sporting competition in the world has a
responsibility to promote health and wellbeing,
particularly because of the number of children who
will be watching. The FIFA World Cup is no
different. Young children and teenagers are still
learning the difference between good and bad
lifestyle habits, and are very vulnerable to fast food
promotions and advertisements. Therefore, during widely broadcast sporting
events such as the FIFA World Cup, the promotion of healthy food and regular exercise must be
highlighted by all partaking in the competition. It has not gone unnoticed that large unhealthy
corporations have increased sales by targeting their advertisements at children. These
corporations, such as KFC and McDonalds would be very eager to flood the FIFA World Cup
with advertisements for their various unhealthy products. This is the reason why it is important
for the host nation to have strong guidelines in place to regulate advertising towards children, to
help prevent children developing bad eating and lifestyle habits. The Netherlands is heavily
invested in the protection of children from manipulative advertisements, with increasingly
stringent regulations and stricter guidelines.
In the Netherlands, advertising is reviewed internally, in a self-regulatory manner. Self-
regulation refers to a system by which companies set voluntary rules and standards of practice
that go beyond legal obligations. Self-regulation has many benefits due to its flexibility and low
maintenance costs. The Netherlands primarily operates with a self-regulated code of ethics but
also has a watchdog, known as the Dutch Advertising Code Authority. The Dutch Advertising
Code Authority are responsible for logging and reviewing of complaints by the public in relation
to advertisements, which includes breaches of the regulations in regards to advertisements
towards children (Dutch Advertising Code Authority 2012). The Netherlands has strong policies
in place and has advertising codes of ethics that are more than sufficient enough to be considered
as a host country of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Oaklander 2015

8. 7
Treatment of immigrants and foreign residents
How a country receives foreigners or immigrant is perhaps one of the most important points
when organising an event which is the “biggest single-event sporting competition in the world”
(FIFA 2015). The Netherlands has a wide range of nationalities that co-exist peacefully with
each other, including Turks (2.4%), Indonesians (2.2%), Moroccans (2.2%) and Surinamese
(2.1%) (Central Intelligence Agency 2016). This means that fans wanting to attend the FIFA
World Cup 2026 won’t have to worry about how their religion or culture will be perceived in the
Netherlands, or that they will be discriminated against.
This is an important characteristic of a host country to
have, as it demonstrates a fair and open minded society
which represents the FIFA values. If any country hosting
the FIFA World Cup were to have negative action based
on racial or cultural, it would a very unfortunate,
unnecessary reaction which might have the capacity to
overshadow the whole event.
In 2014, 14 million tourists visited the Netherlands (The Netherlands pulls in 14 million tourists,
Amsterdam 2015), which is a staggering amount when one considers that the entire population of
the Netherlands is only 3 million more than. This is significant when it comes to a global event
like the FIFA World Cup as this enormous amount of tourism has allowed the Netherlands to
become accustom to a change and large amounts of travellers. Not only that, it reflects the large
amount of viable accommodation and other entertaining activities which foreigners can explored
between football matches, which would make the Netherlands such an exciting and tremendous
host for the FIFA World Cup in 2026.
LifeHacks2016

9. 8
Consumer Culture
Consumer culture refers to
human values that have been
“grotesquely distorted so that
commodities become more
important than people or
commodities become not ends
in themselves but overvalued means of acquiring love and friendship”
(Schudson, 1984, p. 7). A simpler definition is that consumer culture
refers to how a local communities culture heavily persuades the purchasing habits of the
population, both positively and negatively. Consumer culture and consumerism can have
disastrous effects on populations, by creating false realities that people, both young and old,
strive to achieve. Due to the widespread nature of consumer culture, governments hold a large
responsibility to regulate advertisements, to reduce any negative themes that various advertising
campaigns may showcase. An example of this would be how alcohol companies promote their
product as a great way to socialise, whilst binge drinking is at epidemic proportions (Reid 2016).
Due to the Netherlands strong policies and codes of ethics relating to advertising, the country has
a positive consumer culture. Regulations; which prevent tobacco advertisements, heavily reduce
alcohol and reduce drug advertisements. Due to this, the Dutch spending habits are quite modest
and healthy. The Dutch, also have a taste for high quality products, and have no issues ignoring
novel products (Netherlands: reaching the Dutch consumer 2016). The Netherlands handles the
possible issues that may arise from negative consumer culture well. Through smart advertising
regulations and various advertising codes of ethics, they manage to keep a positive consumer
culture.
Shoppingbags2013

10. 9
Conclusion
Through extensive research this report has established and evaluated the extent to which the
Netherlands appropriately represents the values and rights of its population and in doing so we
have drawn a correlation between these rights of the Netherlands and the values that the FIFA
world cup both as an organisation and an event will see as invaluable. Therefor we hope the
Netherlands can be seriously considered as a candidate for the 2026 FIFA world cup, bringing
nations together in a thriving environment of acceptance and equality to relish in the greatest
sporting event worldwide.

11. 10
References
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<https://yourstory.com/2015/03/empower-women-schemes/>

12. 11
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13. 12
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