The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is the world’s governing body for the most famous sport in the world, and also the organizers and overseers of the singular most watched tournament in the world, the FIFA World Cup. Football is a multi-billion dollar sport, and FIFA is a billion dollar conglomerate. And after years of suspicion, it has finally been charged with shady dealings, and corruption, the type crime syndicates can only dream of.
For as long as I can remember, FIFA has always been suspected of being less than transparent in their dealings, with rumors of money exchanging hands in return for tournament scheduling and marketing rights bias. These allegations reached a climax when the almighty FIFA willed the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosting rights to Russia and Qatar respectively. The law finally caught up with officials of this overly corrupt enterprise last week when officials of the U.S Justice Department, working hand in hand with officials of the Swiss Law Enforcement swarmed on the Baur au Larc, the expensive, posh hotel where the FIFA elections ought to be held on Friday, and arrested 14 people, citing a 47-count indictment, on charges of racketeering, wire fraud, and money laundering.
US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who led the Justice Department team, said those involved had conspired to bring the world’s most popular sport to disrepute by receiving bribes in exchange for exclusive marketing deals, hosting and broadcast rights, to the cumulative tune of more than 150 million dollars. That’s enough money to start, and win a small war. These shady deals according to Lynch dated back to 1991, more than 20 years ago.
The list of the indicted executives includes: Jeffrey Webb, Eduardo Li, Costas Takkas, Eugenio Figueredo, Rafael Esquivel, Julio Rocha, Jose Maria Marin, Jack Werner, Nicolas Leoz. The list is completed by four marketing executives of some of the biggest brands in the world, and one broadcast executive.
When the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosts were announced, the entire world cried foul, and FIFA, being the grandstanding show masters they’ve always been, invited a former US Attorney Michael Garcia to investigate the bids leading to the selection of the two host nations. After 19 months of intense scrutiny, Garcia produced a 350-paged report, which he submitted to FIFA. FIFA, like every corporate criminal ring with secrets to protect, doctored the report, shrank it to 42 pages, and then cleared itself of any wrong doing. Garcia on hearing what FIFA had done with his detailed work described the released report as “inaccurate and erroneous”.
Everything started to unravel when IRS arrested Charles Blazer, former general secretary CONCACAF, for hiding 11 million dollars. Not willing to face jail term, he agreed to become a wire-wearing informant for the FBI in 2013. He provided documents and recordings to the FBI, which blew the FIFA Syndicate ring wide open.
To be honest, the powers that be at FIFA probably grew arrogant to the point where they decided nothing could touch them. How else do you explain asking the entire world to suck it up and watch the 2022 World Cup during the November/December period? This was utter disregard for the major clubs in Europe, and most of the world, who would have to reschedule two football league seasons to accommodate the wishes of the great FIFA. It was only too likely that some influential people in FIFA had received money from the endless coffers of the Qatari, so much money that they didn’t care who or what got in the way of hosting the world’s showpiece event at a time that favored nobody but themselves. The hosting rights of the 2016 edition of the Copa America, the South American Nations Cup, went to the United States, a country in a different continent. Kudos to FIFA for the subtlety.
It is important to state that the man at the helm of affairs at FIFA, Sepp Blatter is said to be oblivious of all that has been going on at the enterprise he has been head of since 1998. First, I don’t believe he’s not been part of all the fraud that has been going on in his time there. I believe he has just been smart enough to keep at least one person between him and the money. Secondly, it is irresponsible for the CEO of an organization to be ignorant of the blatant corruption going on under his nose. The proper thing would have been for Blatter to resign, and remove his name from the ballot paper for the election scheduled for Friday, but Blatter is a dictator as power loving as he is, this honorable gesture is beyond his station.
Hopefully by the time this investigation is done, the governing body of the most followed sport in the world will be rid of all the corrupt, money grabbing personnel bringing disrepute to the sport.
Adedamola Obisesan
