I would say it's a very pragmatic choice. Simply organizing the candidate tournament seems to be a problem for FIDE when sponsors and money are not readily available. Many countries would not be interested if no local player is involved, this gives you two problems: any country would disappear from the organization race if their flagship player was not qualified and organizing committees would have difficulties securing funding or starting negotiations before the lineup of players is qualified.Graham Borrowdale wrote:Personally, I find the idea of a national federation 'buying' a candidates slot dubious to say the least. It means players from countries with heavy state involvement (funding) in chess have an inbuilt advantage. As Radjabov is so highly rated nobody seems to be objecting, but if Adams (for example) were rated 5th in the world he would still most likely not get a place.
Having the 8th place assigned as wildcard is not ideal, but at least helps making sure the other 7 qualified players get better conditions.
Many other sports grant wildcard entry to the organizing country, like the football worldcup if I'm not mistaken.