FIFA fires the people investigating it

In a case of sports imitating politics, FIFA decided this week to fire the leadership of its committee that investigates ethical violations in the midst of ongoing investigations.

Soccer’s international governing body, which is meeting in Bahrain, announced it was changing the ethics leadership despite ongoing activity that might number hundreds of cases. The members who oversaw the suspensions of former president Sepp Blatter, head of European soccer Michael Platini and dozens of others are now out.

The ousted men — Cornel Borbely, a Swiss prosecutor, and Hans-Joachim Ecker, a former German judge — said their dismissal was “politically motivated.”

“This is a huge setback,” Borbely said in a joint news conference. “The reform process has at least stepped backward for several years.”

Oh, FIFA. In recent months, the organization has decided to dilute its crown jewel — the World Cup — by expanding it to 48 teams. It faces a lawsuit over alleged mistreatment of workers in Qatar, the site of the 2022 World Cup. The term “modern slavery” has been used to describe the conditions. FIFA’s highly touted “gender reform” initiative is widely considered a farce. And it claimed it no longer has a need for its antiracism task force.

The last point was again an issue this week when Ghanaian Sulley Muntari, who plays in Italy, was the target of racial abuse. When he complained to a referee, he was booked for dissent. FIFA Secretary-General Fatma Samoura — the same person who claimed the racial task force’s work had been “completed” — ridiculed the idea that she should “have to call people every time they suffer racist abuse.” Not exactly compassionate.

Why do we care? Because our country — actually our continent — wants to snuggle up to corrupt FIFA. The United States, Canada and Mexico have submitted a joint bid to host the 2026 World Cup. The federations from the three countries had requested an expedited process, but that was rejected by FIFA this week, which will extend the bidding process an additional three months.

Still, the three-headed North American bid will remain a heavy favorite to land the World Cup to be held nine years from now.

Maybe by then FIFA’s ethics investigations will be “completed” and all its problems magically solved.