Cogito Ergo Non Serviam

Scandal Struck FIFA Re-elects Sepp Blatter

Earlier this week, the US government arrest many senior members of the world governing body for soccer, FIFA, on charges of corruption. As FBI Director James Comey put it, their real sin was "foster[ing] a culture of corruption and greed that created an uneven playing field for the biggest sport in the world." Today, the organization voted to give its leader, Sepp Blatter, another term in office. This was definitely an own goal; Mr. Blatter needs to go.

The corruption at FIFA is old news to those who follow the business of international soccer. For instance, When FIFA choosing the host country the 2006 World Cup, former FIFA VP Jack Warner sent a relative to a Paris hotel room to collect a briefcase filled with cash in $10,000 stacks from a South African bid-committee official, according to the indictment. This was hardly a secret from most. The problem has been getting proof.

Chuck Blazer, an American bigshot at FIFA, was nailed by the Feds for tax evasion and other funny business. New York's Daily News reported "At the behest of the FBI and IRS discreetly placed his keychain -- a tiny microphone embedded in its specially altered fob -- on a nearby table as a parade of international figures visited Blazer at various venues, including the London Olympics. Blazer's cooperation provided American criminal investigators in the Eastern District of New York a rare window into the shadowy financing of international soccer, a world notorious for its corruption and lavish excess."

His wire led to this week's statement by US Attorney General Loretta Lynch "Beginning in 1991, two generations of soccer officials, including the then-presidents of two regional soccer confederations under FIFA -- the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football, known as CONCACAF, which includes the United States, and the South American Football Confederation, or CONMEBOL, which represents organized soccer in South America -- used their positions of trust within their respective organizations to solicit bribes from sports marketers in exchange for the commercial rights to their soccer tournaments. They did this over and over, year after year, tournament after tournament."

This is unacceptable, unforgivable. Yet, the man on whose watch it happened, Mr. Blatter, just got re-elected by the national soccer associations. Mr. Blatter claims not to know anything about the corruption, but two factors weigh against him. First, there are earlier accusations of financial shenanigans involved him at the top of FIFA. Wikipedia put it this way "Sepp Blatter's 1998 election to the presidency of FIFA over UEFA President Lennart Johansson occurred amidst much controversy.[20][21] Blatter's 2002 candidacy has been marked with rumours of financial irregularities and backroom dealings,[22] culminating with direct accusations of bribery, by a third party, made in the British press by Farra Ado, vice-president of the Confederation of African Football and president of the Somali Football Federation, who claimed to have been offered $100,000 to vote for Blatter in 1998."

Perhaps all of that is a big lie, a distortion of facts, or simply a misunderstanding. The second factor is his management style. He keeps a close eye on FIFA operations. As Argentine superstar Diego Maradona wrote he surrounded "himself with crooks who lined their pockets at the expense of the sport. If he were an honest man, surely he would not have spent half his time blocking outside investigations into Fifa finances? ... He is incompetent. When you are knee deep in massive financial losses and bribes and notice nothing, you are a fool or a thief."

Mr. Blatter shows no evidence of being a fool.

© Copyright 2015 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.



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