FIFA and the Corruption Scandal
The Federation Internationale de Football Association, more commonly known as FIFA, is the governing body of world football, or as Americans put it, soccer. FIFA was founded in 1904 to oversee international competition among football leagues in Belgium, France, Germany, and many other European nations. They are responsible for the organization of all the major international tournaments, including the World Cup. Over the past 25 years, FIFA has become a corrupt and arrogant organization and it needs to stop. FIFA is ruining the great sport of football and it is time to start over.
One of the big question marks regarding FIFA is profits, considering that FIFA is a not for profit organization. According to FIFA’s website, “FIFA is an association of associations with a non-commercial, not for profit purpose that uses significant funds in the pursuit of its statutory objectives, which include developing the game of football around the world, organizing its own international competitions, and drawing up regulations for association football while ensuring their enforcement.” Well, that answers that question. But what does FIFA do with the profits from major tournaments like the European Championships and the World Cup? Well FIFA answered that as well. “In short, all 209 member associations will benefit in equal measure. In fact, FIFA spends $550,000 USD on worldwide football development – every single day. What is more, we also spend nearly $2 million USD on organizing international competitions – every single day.” An investigation by ESPN took a closer look at the 209 members of FIFA and the profits they received from the World Cup and found some interesting statistics. FIFA did distribute the profits from the World Cup equally to all 209 members, no matter the size or population, but some members are not actually countries, even though the World Cup only has 32 teams (countries) in it. “Liechtenstein (Pop. 37,000+) gets as much money from Germany (Pop. 80 million+), Andorra (Pop. 79,000+) gets as much money as Spain (Pop. 46 million+), and Montserrat (Pop. 5,000+) gets as much money as the United States (Pop. 320 million+).” Just to clear things up, Montserrat is not even a country, but a Caribbean island British territory located near the Dominican Republic.
Comedian John Oliver summed up FIFA’s distribution of profits perfectly when he said “America, a country with over 320 million people, gets just as much [money] as an island with a headcount matching that of a slightly overbooked Caribbean cruise.” The reason behind all this madness is because of one man and a ton of money.
Sepp Blatter was the President of FIFA from 1998 to 2015. Under his rule, FIFA increased a football presence and sought expansion in Africa and Asia. He has also overseen a huge influx in revenues generated by the World Cup. However, he has been questioned about the collapse of the marketing company International Sport and Leisure and has been linked to allegations of corruption in the bidding processes for the awarding of FIFA tournaments. During his tenure, Blatter has made inappropriate and sexist remarks about women’s football and has constantly gotten away with it. When he was asked how FIFA could improve the women’s game, he said this:
“Let the women play in more feminine clothes like they do in volleyball. They could, for example, have tighter shorts. Female players are pretty, if you excuse me for saying so, and they already have some different rules to men – such as playing with a lighter ball. That decision was taken to create a more female aesthetic, so why not do it in fashion?” –Sepp Blatter
What CEO would be able to get away with saying those things about women and still have a job? Sepp Blatter was an exception since that remark was made all the way back in 2004! He was scrutinized by the United States and many European nations but was loved by the small nations because of the profits they were making. Sepp Blatter was so popular by the smaller nations that he ran unopposed in the 2011 FIFA Presidential Election. So what finally cost him his job? The United States, along with Swiss authorities, opened a full-scale federal investigation into FIFA and raided many FIFA offices to try and find evidence of corruption and bribery. On December 3, 2015, the investigation paid off, as Swiss authorities arrested sixteen people and were sent to the United States where they were all indicted on corruption charges. Sepp Blatter tendered his resignation, but FIFA’s own ethics committee had had enough of Blatter and subsequently banned him from football for eight years. Blatter’s right hand man Michel Platini, also received an eight-year ban from football. In the past few months, at least twenty more high ranking FIFA executive have been indicted by the United States and are all facing extradition to the US to stand trial for their past actions. This is a big step for world football as the investigation has jump-started a much-needed reform in FIFA, but will it be enough to change everything?
If you given a map and were asked to find Qatar, most of you would have no idea. Qatar is a small nation located in between Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf and has a population of about 2 Million people. It is also hosting the World Cup in 2022. That is correct, a country in the Middle East, whose population is the size of Houston, Texas, will be hosting the worlds biggest sporting event in the summer of 2022.
Right after Qatar was announced as the host for the event, corruption allegations started getting thrown around left and right. Qatar, would be the first Arab nation to host the World Cup, but has never had a team qualify for it. At the same time, the United States finished second in the voting, which made them even more upset at FIFA than they already were. Awarding a summer event to a country in the desert seems like an awful idea. Well, at least was the case, until FIFA decided to change things up.
“FIFA’s executive committee has decided that the 2022 World Cup final will be held on Dec. 18, world football’s organizing body confirmed on Thursday. The climax of the winter World Cup will take place a week before Christmas. The final, set for a Sunday, is also Qatar’s National Day, a celebration of independence. The 2022 World Cup is to be played in the winter to avoid the fierce heat of June and July, and it will be a shortened tournament over 28 days instead of the usual 32.” –ESPNFC
FIFA decided to change the 2022 World Cup to winter because the average temperature in Qatar in June is 120°F. By changing the World Cup to the winter months, clubs leagues will have to stop their seasons for a full month because their players will be player for their respective countries in the World Cup. Big leagues like England’s Premier League, home of Manchester United and Spain’s La Liga, home of Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, will have to take a break from their season in order to accommodate this ludicrous idea. Imagine the uproar if the NBA season took a month sabbatical in December so its players could play in the Olympics. The same reaction needs to happen with the changing of the World Cup. The World Cup is a summer event and has to stay that way. If a country cannot host the event in the summer months, then it should not be allowed to host the World Cup.
The World Cup is the most sought after event in the world, and numerous countries have bribed FIFA officials in order to secure the rights to host it. According to FIFA, the benefits of hosting the World Cup include, A catalyst for new and improved facilities to support the development of the game at all levels, increased number of and higher quality football development programs for both the elite game, talent identification and grassroots, an increased cooperation and goodwill between the various stakeholders – the member association, the government and other bid stakeholders such as the bid host cities, commercial partners, the media and the community at large, and a whole list of others. Because of these reasons, countries want the best odds to host the World Cup; therefore they bribe FIFA officials in order to gain their vote. In 1998, Morocco gave out $10 Million worth of bribes in order to secure votes from FIFA executives, and still lost out to France. Germany secured their World Cup bid in 2006 when they spread $8 Million to numerous FIFA officials while South Africa gave FIFA President Sepp Blatter and members of his cabinet excess of $10 Million in order to host the 2010 World Cup. The 2018 World Cup is being held in Russia, and while FIFA has stated that bribery was involved in the voting process, they announced that they would not vote again.
Gianni Infantino was elected President in February of this year, marking the beginning of a new era in FIFA. He was elected President easily and was backed by the United States, England, France, and many other European nations. He was elected for a three-year term and is a big believer in reforming FIFA. He helped write a 200-page reform package and plans on implementing it over the next year. He seems like the right man to turn FIFA around, but when we take a closer look, things do not seem as great. When 11 million documents were leaked in the “Panama Papers” a few weeks ago, Infantino’s name was mentioned. It states that Infantino sold television rights for the 2006 UEFA Champions League to a third party before they sold them away for nearly three times the original price. The agreement for the television rights was signed off by Infantino, who the director of UEFA at the time. It only gets worse for the current FIFA President as he recently added Philippe Blatter to FIFA executive committee, the most powerful committee in all of soccer. Philippe is the nephew of former President Sepp Blatter.
Just when we think FIFA is beginning to change and clean up, it takes a step backward into the past. The past year has been a disaster for FIFA, as many high-ranking executives have been arrested and thrown out of world football for years. While all of that is good, there is still an underlying issue; the structure of FIFA has to change. Corruption and bribery is going to continue unless the entire organization starts over. The 2026 World Cup vote, which is coming up in two years time, is going to be the first big step towards FIFA’s new future. The United States is the favorite to host the event, and if they lose out to Morocco or Azerbaijan, then we will know that FIFA has not changed a bit. It is time to start over FIFA, stop ruining the great game we all love!