The arrests during the week, shocking as they were at the time, on reflection, are not particularly surprising and some would say, inevitable.
Several individuals representing Fifa have already been shown to be corrupt — Chuck Blazer, nicknamed Mr 10%, who is a former Fifa executive and one of the main whistleblowers behind this week’s developments, has admitted to taking bribes of at least $750,000.
Other former Fifa officials, including Mohammed bin Hammam and Jack Warner, have left the organisation in disgrace. The latter is accused of taking bribes of as much as $10million to help bring the 2010 World Cup to South Africa.
Blatter has presided over this mess and gave an inevitable speech on Thursday condemning corruption. As usual, he presented himself as being a solution to, rather than a part of, the problem. Moreover, he made similar noises ahead of the voting in Friday’s election.
Indeed, Blatter has been making what seems like a variation of the same speech for years now, and yet considerable problems persist, so it was no surprise that the president’s comments on Thursday and Friday were greeted with a great deal of skepticism in the media.
While he has yet to be directly involved in any of the recent scandals, as head of such a disreputable organisation who lack credibility in the eyes of most football watchers, Blatter’s position surely became untenable long ago. Hence, rarely has there been such a greater discrepancy between those who run football — the individuals who unanimously backed Blatter at Congress today — and more or less everyone else involved with it, many of whom have been calling for his exit for years now.
Yet there has been far too much emphasis on Blatter during this long-running saga. Fifa’s issues surely lie far deeper than one man.
The 79-year-old president is undoubtedly deserving of some of the scorn that’s coming his way — a brilliant takedown by John Oliver (see below) highlights some of the problems that he has been involved with either directly or indirectly, as does this piece. Moreover, the Swiss football administrator’s image was undermined by allegations of corruption as far back as 2002, when Farah Addo, who was vice-president of the CAF at the time, claims he was offered $100,000 if he voted to re-elect Blatter.
But it would be deeply naive to think getting rid of Blatter and appointing Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein would have automatically eradicated the injustices that have seemed inextricably linked with Fifa over the years. Rather than waving a magic wand, such a transition will likely take years of hard work, irrespective of who’s in charge. In fact, given the relentless drama of recent years, it seems questionable whether Fifa will ever fully restore its credibility and repair its heavily tarnished image.
And, in truth, as desperate as the past 12 months have been in particular, it would be no surprise if significant problems existed in the organisation long before Blatter came to power.
On Wednesday, the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York said in a statement that the case against Fifa involves bribes “totaling more than $100 million” linked to commercial deals dating back to the 1990s for football tournaments in the United States and Latin America. Blatter only came to power in 1998 — so it’s unlikely that all of these alleged instances of corruption took place under his watch.
Moreover, if you think his reign has been shambolic and embarrassing, imagine what would have happened if his main rival and former Uefa president, Lennart Johansson, had been elected in 1998 instead of him.
“When I got to South Africa the whole room was full of blackies and it’s dark when they sit down all together. What’s more it’s no fun when they’re angry. I thought if this lot get in a bad mood it won’t be so funny.”
Even in the context of the era, it was a shocking statement to make, and it speaks volumes that such offensive and outdated views were spoken by someone who was president of Uefa between 1990 and 2007.
So while Blatter is far from blameless amid Fifa and football’s countless ills, he likely amounts to about 1% of the problem at best. He needs to be held accountable, of course, and he probably will be sooner rather than later. As David Mellor, writing in The Guardian, explains:
“In football, there are ways of getting him out, and quickly. Europe’s governing body, Uefa, could boycott all Fifa competitions, including the 2018 World Cup. The world’s pre-eminent league, the Premier League, could refuse to release players for Fifa games until he goes. Fifa’s long-suffering sponsors could pull out.”
However, for all his obvious flaws, Blatter didn’t force all those disgraced officials from over the years to act so disreputably, and his consistently favourable treatment of authorities representing the smaller nations — where he seemingly receives the majority of support given Uefa’s stance in recent days — worked both ways.
So put simply, this is NOT a Sepp Blatter problem, it’s a football problem — to argue differently is to ignore wider issues. Countless people in the game were undoubtedly aware of what was going on, yet little was done for years.
Fifa is in need of radical reform, and a simple change in its leadership won’t make much difference in the long term, unless Blatter’s predecessor’s desire for a new era is reflected throughout the organisation, thereby ensuring a more transparent, fairer system in the awarding of tournaments to certain countries — among many other issues — is established.
Getting rid of Blatter not enough to eradicate Fifa's problems
Updated at 10.35
EVERY NEGATIVE NEWS story needs a villain and in the case of Fifa, Sepp Blatter clearly fits the bill.
The re-election of the 79-year-old president of world football’s governing body has just been announced, and it will inevitably prompt cries of dismay among football watchers around the world, who are sick of the same injustices being perpetuated, the same promises being broken.
The arrests during the week, shocking as they were at the time, on reflection, are not particularly surprising and some would say, inevitable.
Several individuals representing Fifa have already been shown to be corrupt — Chuck Blazer, nicknamed Mr 10%, who is a former Fifa executive and one of the main whistleblowers behind this week’s developments, has admitted to taking bribes of at least $750,000.
Other former Fifa officials, including Mohammed bin Hammam and Jack Warner, have left the organisation in disgrace. The latter is accused of taking bribes of as much as $10million to help bring the 2010 World Cup to South Africa.
Scottish investigative journalist Andrew Jennings’ work for Panorama and reporting by The Sunday Times also point towards wide-scale corruption in Fifa, while the organisation have refused to reveal the full contents of an independent report by Michael Garcia, an American lawyer, who has tellingly quit his position as the organisation’s ethics investigator.
Blatter has presided over this mess and gave an inevitable speech on Thursday condemning corruption. As usual, he presented himself as being a solution to, rather than a part of, the problem. Moreover, he made similar noises ahead of the voting in Friday’s election.
Indeed, Blatter has been making what seems like a variation of the same speech for years now, and yet considerable problems persist, so it was no surprise that the president’s comments on Thursday and Friday were greeted with a great deal of skepticism in the media.
While he has yet to be directly involved in any of the recent scandals, as head of such a disreputable organisation who lack credibility in the eyes of most football watchers, Blatter’s position surely became untenable long ago. Hence, rarely has there been such a greater discrepancy between those who run football — the individuals who unanimously backed Blatter at Congress today — and more or less everyone else involved with it, many of whom have been calling for his exit for years now.
Yet there has been far too much emphasis on Blatter during this long-running saga. Fifa’s issues surely lie far deeper than one man.
The 79-year-old president is undoubtedly deserving of some of the scorn that’s coming his way — a brilliant takedown by John Oliver (see below) highlights some of the problems that he has been involved with either directly or indirectly, as does this piece. Moreover, the Swiss football administrator’s image was undermined by allegations of corruption as far back as 2002, when Farah Addo, who was vice-president of the CAF at the time, claims he was offered $100,000 if he voted to re-elect Blatter.
But it would be deeply naive to think getting rid of Blatter and appointing Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein would have automatically eradicated the injustices that have seemed inextricably linked with Fifa over the years. Rather than waving a magic wand, such a transition will likely take years of hard work, irrespective of who’s in charge. In fact, given the relentless drama of recent years, it seems questionable whether Fifa will ever fully restore its credibility and repair its heavily tarnished image.
And, in truth, as desperate as the past 12 months have been in particular, it would be no surprise if significant problems existed in the organisation long before Blatter came to power.
On Wednesday, the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York said in a statement that the case against Fifa involves bribes “totaling more than $100 million” linked to commercial deals dating back to the 1990s for football tournaments in the United States and Latin America. Blatter only came to power in 1998 — so it’s unlikely that all of these alleged instances of corruption took place under his watch.
Moreover, if you think his reign has been shambolic and embarrassing, imagine what would have happened if his main rival and former Uefa president, Lennart Johansson, had been elected in 1998 instead of him.
As Elliot Ross of Al Jazeera has pointed out, consider Johansson’s words published in a Swedish newspaper in 1996.
Even in the context of the era, it was a shocking statement to make, and it speaks volumes that such offensive and outdated views were spoken by someone who was president of Uefa between 1990 and 2007.
So while Blatter is far from blameless amid Fifa and football’s countless ills, he likely amounts to about 1% of the problem at best. He needs to be held accountable, of course, and he probably will be sooner rather than later. As David Mellor, writing in The Guardian, explains:
However, for all his obvious flaws, Blatter didn’t force all those disgraced officials from over the years to act so disreputably, and his consistently favourable treatment of authorities representing the smaller nations — where he seemingly receives the majority of support given Uefa’s stance in recent days — worked both ways.
So put simply, this is NOT a Sepp Blatter problem, it’s a football problem — to argue differently is to ignore wider issues. Countless people in the game were undoubtedly aware of what was going on, yet little was done for years.
Fifa is in need of radical reform, and a simple change in its leadership won’t make much difference in the long term, unless Blatter’s predecessor’s desire for a new era is reflected throughout the organisation, thereby ensuring a more transparent, fairer system in the awarding of tournaments to certain countries — among many other issues — is established.
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