From June 14, all eyes will be on Russia for the World Cup football. However, a day before that Federation Internationale de Football (FIFA), will have its Congress to help award the 2026 World Cup to one of the two bidding groups — United Bid of United States, Canada and Mexico, and of Morocco. There’s already drama building up to the Congress and big lobbying going on to prevail upon the affiliated 211 countries.
Since the arrest of many FIFA officials and the ban on its president Joseph (Sepp) Blatter and former top French international Michel Platini in 2015 for eight years by the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS), though the ban was reduced to six years upon appeal. Platini made another appeal and got the ban reduced further by two years.
Both were investigated for corruption with Blatter paying Platini two million Swiss francs ($2 million) for what the ethics committee said, “Mr Platini failed to act with complete credibility and integrity, showing unawareness of the importance of his duties and concomitant obligations and responsibilities.” It was the payment done in 2011 by FIFA to Platini, the then President of Union of European Football Association (UEFA) and international advisor to Blatter for rendering his services. The investigation was launched by the Swiss Attorney General Michel Lauber. As for Blatter, he sportingly said, “I have to accept this decision. I have experienced much in my 41 years in FIFA. I mostly learned that you can win in sport, but you can also lose.” Blatter was in FIFA since 1975 and president since 1998.
In an investigative book, The Fall of the House of FIFA, journalist David Conn provides mind-blogging details of what he calls “endemic corruption” at the top level of the organisation which is housed in Zurich. He says that the financial arrangement between FIFA and Platini “blew both men up and out of football, seventeen years later.” Earlier, top FIFA officials such as Jack Warner, president of Concacaf (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football), and its American FIFA chief Charles “Chuck” Blazer, who was worth $21 million and lived hi-fi life in an apartment paying $18,000 rent a month in New York’s Fifth Avenue were also sacked. He built as well as bilked American soccer in its 21 years in FIFA and was known as “half soccer dad, half globe-trotting roque.”
It was Blazer who paved the way for the downfall of FIFA after he was charged for tax evasion by a Brooklyn judge. The FBI investigated the case and Blazer turned into a whistleblower for the FBI. In its investigation of FIFA and after the case, James B. Comey, Director of the FBI, said, “The defendants fostered a culture of corruption and greed… undisclosed and illegal payments, kickbacks and bribes became a way of doing business in FIFA.”
The book hints that even Russia could have played a dicey game to secure the world cup. Russia won the bid defeating joint proposals from Belgium and Holland, and Spain and Portugal. Blatter suspects that the FBI got involved as USA lost its bid to host the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, a little-known Middle East country. It’s alleged that Qatar was involved in vote-buying and a FIFA report revealed a secret payment of $2.6 million to a ten-year-old daughter of Brazilian FIFA bigwig Ricardo Teixeira, former son-in-law of FIFA’s long-time president Joao Havelange who, Conn says, was responsible in introducing corruption into the governing football body. Both ran Brazilian football for more than half-a-century, with Texeira stepping down in 2012, and were involved with International Sport and Leisure (ISL), the former marketing agency tied to FIFA and the Olympics. ISL was the offshoot of Adidas, the sportswear giant.
Blatter and some other football bigwigs are said to have flown around by a plane belonging to the Emir of Qatar. There’s also a demand from some quarters that FIFA withdraw the World Cup from Qatar because of many social and other problems, including the treating of labourers working in building the stadiums. Most of these workers are from India. The role played by Mohamed bin Hammam, who was an executive member of FIFA and also president of the Asian Football Confederation (CAF), was crucial in getting Qatar the World Cup, with allegations of Qatar having “bought the World Cup.” He stood as a rival against his friend Blatter for FIFA presidency, but withdrew three days before the elections after the ethics committee said that he had bribed 25 Caribbean Football Union (CFU) members.
Another football great, Franz Beckenbauer, the Germany captain and later coach, who is the only second man after Brazil’s Mario Zagallo to be successful in both roles, was banned by the FIFA ethics committee for corruption in allocation of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar. The ethics committee opened formal proceedings against him for his part as chief of the organising committee in successfully bringing the 2006 World Cup to Germany.
Passionate football-loving Goans will be cheering European Champions Portugal, one of the favourites this year, on June 15 in its major clash with Spain, the 2010 WC winners. They are in a tough Group B, while Brazil should have it easy in the Group E matches. There will be magic feats of Ronaldo, Neymar and Messi to thrill us.
However, it must be said to the credit of FIFA that it did well in promoting the game in many parts of the world and give rise to some top players in African countries (Remember Roger Milla of the Cameroon?) through their developmental programmes. Hopefully, the lessons of the past will help in rebuilding the house of FIFA.
(Eugene Correia is a senior journalist who worked for the Free Press Journal, and
The Hindu)
