The 2015 FIFA corruption controversy shook the sports world recently. ANIKET MISHRA explains in detail the situation and future prospects
Football provides us with a tantalising case of mass hysteria and hoopla globally; for arguably no other pass-time, is a more constant preoccupation in the lives of people around the world. like other profoundly discussed topics, the sport is obsessively written about and created through the imagination in all sorts of narratives to feed into the main circuit of our lives.
Administration and governance thus get neglected as we try to approximate the exhilaration or freedom our bodies feel at play, while we also tally through sport the body’s wondrous evanescent victories and shattering defeats. While on topic, it’s worth mentioning that the game’s governing body FIFA has more members than the United Nations (209/192).
While today’s following of football is mostly based on the matches telecasted on TV or written about on the internet, it came as no surprise the surplus publicity of FBI’s investigation and subsequent arrests of top officials of the aforementioned body over the last month or so. Here is an attempt to sum up the same and foresee what lies in store for the beautiful game.
preliminary arrests
In the last week of May, the United States Department of Justice arrested seven officials from FIFA in Zurich. The allegations mainly revolved around the meting out of broadcast rights in the CONCACAF region (North and Central America). Investigators believed officials accepted bribes from top marketing executives in return for broadcast rights to the World Cup and other tournaments, which they then sold to other parties.
The guilty parties concerned apparently paid more than $150 million to FIFA officials.
What’s exemplary though is that during the investigation, evidence was found of other sorts of bribery. The most startling revelation of all was former FIFA executive Chuck Blazer admitting to being an informant and accepting bribes during the bidding process of awarding the 1998 World Cup to France and the 2010 World Cup to South Africa.
Further investigation
less than a day later, officials from Switzerland followed up on this and opened a parallel investigation concerning the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
These editions were awarded to Russia and Qatar respectively after the customary vote by the executive committee in 2010 — which Blazer was still serving on. Even then the bidding process was marred by allegations of corruption, with heads of national federations reporting bribery and widespread discrepancies in voting.
Investigators are now interviewing all executive committee members who were part of the process five years ago. With files and banking records behind dissected, it seems likely that they will soon land more dirt and concrete proof regarding misdoings of more officials and malign the federation as a whole.
The curious case of the Winter World Cup
FIFA has approved the winter World Cup for Qatar despite persistent allegations of bribery and discrepancies in the voting procedure, the death of migrant labourers from the Indian subcontinent in Qatar, and the developmental difficulties posed by having the event in winter to avoid the country’s sweltering heat.
If the US Department of Justice finds direct evidence of bribery during the bidding which ensued in 2010, though, FIFA could be forced to reconsider.
Blatter’s resignation
What followed was exemplary though — after winning the FIFA presidential elections, Sepp Blatter resigned just days into his fifth term in response to the escalating unrest and public criticism of him and the federation. Surprisingly, the veteran Swiss football administrator wasn’t charged of any misdoing recently. However, ever since the 1990s, he has been at the centre of many ‘scandals’, ranging from buying votes to money laundering within and outside the federation.
In his resignation speech though, he pledged no wrongdoing and resented that a major chunk of the media and the followers of the game deemed him unfit to lead an organisation of such stature and authority.
However, there are reports that evidence has surfaced that Jerome Valcke — the secretary general of FIFA and Blatter’s supposed go-to guy — made wire transfers involving $10 million in bribe money. It’s thus plausible that this investigation could soon enmesh Blatter himself.
What next for FIFAIJ
Needless to say, the resignation promises a change of leadership within the federation for sure and a substantive change within isn’t far. On his way out, the veteran Swiss administrator also announced newer measures aimed at reducing corruption, like putting a cap on the times they could be elected to office and corresponding integrity checks for all FIFA executive committee members in future.
What makes them sound hollow though is that he has talked about such reforms and made such promises many times earlier and nothing much has come of it.
FIFA’s dynamics and way of functioning has remained unaltered and contrary to its claim of being a non-profit making organisation, the culture of being capital-centric has persisted. Maybe more concrete reforms are needed to alter things over a sustained period.
Most importantly, it’s possible that these investigations will trap more officials, with the US Attorney General loretta lynch promising in a statement last week that the 14 indictments released last month were “only the beginning” of the procedure that the FBI is looking to undertake.
Regardless of what the subsequent investigations reveal, it has been tough to see the game we love so much lose its credibility amongst the masses. Here’s hoping that it will be restored soon.