Denials Recriminations and the Bloated Fat Cats of Fifa

Sepp Blatter, who was once reluctant to incorporate goal line technology into football despite already being an established and successful addition to other sports including rugby and tennis, was quoted as saying, “Other sports regularly change the laws of the game to react to the new technology…we don’t do it and this makes the fascination and popularity of football”, appearing to suggest that the drama and chaos this created was somehow good for the game. Which is ironic really because drama and chaos is where he finds himself right now.

As 7 Fifa officials were arrested in Zurich, Switzerland by the FBI, and 14 indicted, and could now be extradited to the United States to faces charges of bribery and corruption, it has become apparent that Sepp Blatter was presiding over an organization that is no longer fit for purpose in its current state, as he incredibly claimed to have been blissfully unaware of the fraudulent activities of the officials within his ranks. With former Fifa executive committee member and now whistleblower Chuck Blazer and former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner, the two key players currently in the spotlight, only adds weight to these allegations.

Uefa president Michel Platini had advised Blatter to consider his position as Fifa president, and clearly still smarting from their failed bid to bring the World Cup to England, Prime Minister David Cameron and Prince William also waded in. With the FA and other football organizations also threatening to boycott future competitions, Blatter was coming under increasing pressure to relinquish his grip on the Fifa presidency and finally succumbed, sensationally falling on his sword just days after his re-election as Fifa president.

A politically motivated smoke screen?

Few could fail to notice the timing of the arrests, the very week of the election for Fifa president, despite corruption in Fifa being muted for several years, and was the subject of a BBC documentary in 2010 entitled, ‘Fifa’s Dirty Secrets’. Could this be another opportunity for the US government, as some are suggesting, to target Russia yet again, the winners of the 2018 bid to host the world cup, and hurt Putin? Whatever the motive, the Russian and Qatar bids will no doubt be heavily scrutinized as well as Blatter himself in due course, with more revelations expected.

Regardless of the political wrangles that ensue over the coming months, spare a thought for the vast amounts of money squandered at the expense of the poor and destitute. In the case of Africa and Brazil, the hosts of the 2010 and 2014 World Cups respectively, it was considered unethical and inappropriate by some observers when so many necessities such as hospitals, schools and basic sanitation were being neglected. Meanwhile, the bloated fat cats of Fifa are transported by private jets, dine in the best restaurants and reside at the very best hotels around the world. Fifa, entrusted with upholding the virtues of decency and fai
ess as an ambassador of the game appears to have faltered in the intervening years.

The words of Frederic Bastiat, a 19th century French economist, has added resonance at this time when he commented, “When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves, in the course of time, a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it”.